I Just Found Out How Old Tiramisu Is, And It's Definitely Not What I Thought

I can still remember the day I found out ciabatta was made in the ’80s.

I thought something that seemed so classic would have to date back hundreds of years, but nope ― they were made by Arnaldo Cavallari in 1982 to compete with increasingly popular French baguettes.

So perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a shock to me that another Italian mainstay, tiramisu, may not be as old as some people think ― though its origins are heavily debated.

In fact, some origin stories would make it younger than my parents.

When was it made?

We don’t have an exact date, but a lot of Italians seem to agree it was invented in the town of Treviso in the 1970s or late ’60s.

However, some food writers claim to have found recipes from neighbouring Friuli-Venezia Giulia dating back to the ’50s.

Roberto “Loli” Linguanotto, the man who’s said to have at least co-created the modern iteration of the food, is often called the “father of tiramisu” (“tiramisu” translates to “pick me up”).

Others claim the dessert was around as far back as the 1800s and was commonly served in brothels, having been invented by a house madam.

Still, there’s no mention of the food in cookbooks prior to the ’60s, though food historian Luca Cesari has found a similar recipe dating back to 1827.

That version was baked, though; the tiramisu we all eat today is similar to the one listed by Linguanotto back in the ’60s or ’70s.