Rorò · Around the tiramisu
The name, the history, the table. The recipe is on the other side.
The name
An imperative, with a promise inside: eggs, sugar and coffee that put you back on your feet. It’s written tiramisù, with the accent on the u. The Treccani dictionary also accepts “tìrami su,” in two words.
Tirapickmimesùup
In the documents you find “tiramesù” in Treviso, “tirami su” and “tirimi-su” in Tolmezzo, “tirime su” in Pieris. Every place has its own way.
According to the De Mauro and Sabatini Coletti dictionaries, the word first appears in 1980. In Italian it’s a young word.
According to a text published by the Accademia della Crusca, the word has passed as it is into more than twenty languages, all the way to Japanese and Indonesian.
Sources: Treccani, De Mauro, Accademia della Crusca.
History
Tiramisu was born in northeastern Italy, between the 1950s and the 1970s. Treviso and Friuli have been fighting over who invented it for decades, and today both have it on their lists of traditional products.
At the restaurant of Ado and Alba Campeol, in Piazza Ancillotto, pastry chef Roberto “Loli” Linguanotto perfects the dessert between the late 1960s and the early 1970s. The dates change depending on who tells the story. According to the restaurant, it gets onto the menu in 1972.
Their recipe: yolks, sugar, mascarpone, ladyfingers, coffee and cocoa. No egg whites, no liquor.
According to the book by Clara and Gigi Padovani, this is where Norma Pielli takes a dessert by Artusi and changes two things: mascarpone instead of butter, coffee instead of alchermes liqueur. A bill dated December 13, 1959 lists “2 tirami su.” The document belongs to the family, and no one has verified it independently.
Their recipe also uses whipped egg whites.
With its whipped egg whites, Giacomo’s recipe is closer to the one from Tolmezzo. No liquor and no cream, just like both of them.
At the Albergo Roma in Tolmezzo they serve a mascarpone dessert. The 1959 bill with “2 tirami su” is the oldest document to carry the name, according to the family that keeps it.
disputedAt Le Beccherie in Treviso, tiramisu as we know it is born. The sources say 1969, 1970 or the early 1970s. It has been on the menu since 1972.
different datesAccording to the De Mauro and Sabatini Coletti dictionaries, this is the year the word first appears.
Food writer Giuseppe Maffioli describes the Beccherie dessert in the first issue of the magazine “Vin Veneto.” He writes that it was born “a little over ten years ago.”
In “Sleepless in Seattle,” Tom Hanks asks what tiramisu is. By now the word is known around the world.
In Gemona del Friuli, the biggest tiramisu in the Guinness World Records is made: 3,015 kilos.
The Ministry adds tiramisu to the traditional agri-food products of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Veneto protests and threatens an appeal. In November, in Treviso, the first Tiramisù World Cup takes place.
The “Tiramisù di Treviso” joins the traditional products of Veneto. Now there are two regions, and the contest is still on.
In London, a 440-meter tiramisu enters the Guinness World Records: the longest ever.
A traditional agri-food product is not a trademark, nor a verdict on who invented it. It’s a list of foods that have been made the same way for at least 25 years.
Sources: Le Beccherie, La Cucina Italiana, Dissapore, C. and G. Padovani, “Tiramisù”, Gazzetta Ufficiale 2017, Gazzetta Ufficiale 2024, Guinness, AGI.
At the table
One pan, for everyone.You don’t make it in portions: you make it big, the pan with a kilo of mascarpone, and you bring it to the table whole.
The spoons arrive.From every side of the table. Nobody waits too long for their turn.
Cut, pass, pass again.The first slice shows the layers. The others disappear faster.
“Everybody appreciates it when I make it.”That’s why the recipe is now here, ready to send to anyone who asks.
Mark the date
On March 21, tiramisu is celebrated all over the world. In Treviso, the Tiramisù World Cup organizes the day.
The contest that started in Treviso in 2017. In the “Original” category there are six required ingredients: eggs, sugar, mascarpone, ladyfingers, coffee and cocoa. The same ones Rorò uses.
The dishes prepared for astronaut Luca Parmitano included freeze-dried tiramisu.
Certified in London on April 26, 2026. The previous record, 273.5 meters, belonged to Milan.
Sources: Sky TG24, Tiramisù World Cup, Dissapore, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, AGI.
And now
Then send us a photo: it ends up among your tiramisus.
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