Guide Note

Tiramisu is an Italian dessert made from ladyfinger cookies, mascarpone cheese, eggs, sugar, and espresso. Its combination of sugar and caffeine is known for imparting energy to the diner. Once found only in Italian restaurants, tiramisu is now a mainstay on most dessert menus.

Fast Facts

1. Italian for "Pick-me-up"
2. Similar dessert: Zuppa Inglese
3. Invented: In Treviso, around 1971

The history of tiramisu is a point of some controversy. While legends state it was invented in the 1600s in Tuscany, mascarpone had not yet made its way to Tuscany at the time. Other legends say it was invented during the 1800s in Turin, but no contemporary documentation supports this. The first written record of tiramisu is in the early 1980s. Food writer Giuseppe Maffioli said in 1981 that the dessert was invented by the Treviso restaurant La Beccherie in about 1971. In 2007, however, Italian chef Carminantonio Iannaccone claimed that he invented the dessert in 1969 at the restaurant Piedigrotta in Treviso. Still other food writers claim that it was invented at the restaurant El Toula. Whichever restaurant it was, it seems certain that it was invented in Treviso around 1971.