Ado Campeol, dubbed the “father of tiramisu” by Italian media, has died aged 93. He was the owner of Le Beccherie di Treviso, a restaurant in northern Italy where the famous dessert was invented by his wife and a chef.
The dish, with biscuits soaked in coffee and mascarpone, was added to the menu in 1972, but never patented by the family. Since then, it has become an icon of Italian cuisine, adapted by chefs around the world.
There are long-running disputes over the origins of tiramisù, including claims that it was served as an aphrodisiac in a brothel in the city of Treviso, in northern Italy. However, the story is widely accepted that the recipe was developed in the Campeol restaurant.
Luca ZaiaThe governor of the Veneto region is among those who paid tribute. He wrote on Twitter that the city had lost "another star in the history of food and wine."
Alle Beccherie was opened by Campeol's family in 1939, and he took over the business at the end of the Second World War.
According to chef Roberto Linguanotto, co-inventor of the dessert, the dish was the result of an accident during the preparation of vanilla ice cream.
Linguanotto put some mascarpone cheese in a bowl with eggs and sugar and, after noticing the pleasant flavor of the mixture, told Campeol's wife, Alba.
The pair then perfected the dessert, adding coffee-soaked biscuits and sprinkling it with cocoa – calling it “tiramisù”, which means something like “pull me up”.
The dish appeared in the 1981 print edition of Veneto, a local publication dedicated to food and wine, and is now one of Italy's best-known desserts.
Variants of tiramisù feature alcohol like rum or marsala, but the original recipe – certified by the Italian Academy of Cuisine in 2010 – was alcohol-free because it was intended to be suitable for children.
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