"We know this in part because of Alberto Grandi, an Italian historian, author, podcaster, and professional rabble-rouser who studies how traditions are invented. When he started looking into the history of many quintessentially Italian foods, he found numerous inventions. He's done debunkings of tiramisu, panettone, cheese pizza, and olive oil; the latter, he says, wasn't popular in Italian cooking before the 1950s."
"Needless to say, Grandi's work is controversial. Marianna Giusti, who wrote a viral article about him for the Financial Times, said that when she interviewed him at a restaurant in Parma, a city in north-central Italy, "he was literally checking behind him as we spoke, being like, Man, people hate me here." People hate him specifically in Parma because the city is a bastion of Italian cuisine. Prosciutto di Parma is from there, as is Parmalat, the industrial food giant."
Alberto Grandi researches how culinary traditions are invented and traces surprisingly recent origins for many iconic Italian foods. Pasta carbonara likely emerged in 1944 when an Italian chef cooking for U.S. Army personnel used cream, milk, butter, and bacon to create a new pasta. Grandi has identified modern inventions or reinventions of tiramisu, panettone, cheese pizza, and the modern ubiquity of olive oil, which he contends was not widely used for eating before the 1950s. Those findings provoke strong local reactions in culinary strongholds such as Parma, home to Parmigiano-Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma.
Read at Slate Magazine
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