Roberto Linguanotto, the Italian pastry chef credited with co-creating the iconic dessert tiramisu, passed away at the age of 81. Linguanotto's culinary journey is best remembered for his time at Le Beccherie, a restaurant in Treviso, Italy, where he and Alba Campeol, the wife of the restaurant's owner Ado Campeol, invented tiramisu in the late 1960s.
It is said that, while preparing vanilla ice cream, Linguanotto accidentally mixed mascarpone cheese with egg yolks and sugar. Recognizing the potential of this creamy mixture, he and Alba Campeol experimented further by layering it with coffee-soaked ladyfingers. The final touch was a dusting of cocoa powder, and thus, tiramisu was born. This dessert, translating to "pick me up" in Italian, first appeared on Le Beccherie's menu in 1972 and quickly became a favorite.
Credits: lebeccherie.it
Tiramisu's appeal lies in its delicate balance of flavors and textures. The combination of rich mascarpone cream, the slight bitterness of coffee, and the sweetness of cocoa creates a dessert that is both comforting and sophisticated. Despite its global popularity, the original recipe was never patented, allowing chefs and home cooks alike to experiment and create their own versions of the dessert.
The original recipe includes only mascarpone cream (made with mascarpone, egg yolks, and sugar), coffee-soaked savoiardi or pavesini ladyfingers, and unsweetened cocoa. In 2017, the dessert, made with these ingredients, was entered by the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies on the list of traditional Friulian and Giulian agri-food products. By that account, additions or substitutions like strawberries, cottage cheese, heavy cream or rum are not allowed in the preparation of the tiramisu.
