Tiramisu

Beneath the brown of the cocoa lie coffee-soaked biscuits and a white dairy cream. Tiramisu is an Italian sweet made by layering savoiardi with mascarpone cream and chilling it. Its name means “cheer me up,” and it brings together the bitterness of coffee, the sweetness of egg yolk and sugar, and the gentle flavor of dairy. Because similar names survive in the sweets of several towns, its history follows two threads: the history of the name, and the history of the formula and method.

The Theory of Development from a Home Restorative Food, and the Naming Legend Tied to a Brothel

In Treviso, it is said that today’s tiramisu grew out of sbatudin, a home preparation of egg yolk whipped with sugar. According to this account, family members added coffee, liqueur, biscuits, ricotta and other ingredients to make a sweet that restored one’s energy.

In another oral tradition, the madam of a brothel served a sweet to fortify her customers and called out to them, “I’ll cheer you up,” and this is linked to the name. The story is passed on by the Accademia del Tiramisù, a promotional organization that champions Treviso as the birthplace, and it is an oral tradition associated with the town in the 19th century. Alongside the household custom of making eggs and sugar into a restorative food, the story of the brothel madam is also told as an origin of the name.

The History and Formula Handed Down at a Treviso Restaurant

Le Beccherie, a restaurant in Treviso, relates that it put the dessert on its menu in 1972 after trials by its former owner Alba Campeol and the pastry cook Roberto Linguanotto. In 1981, the food writer Giuseppe Maffioli introduced it in the magazine Vin Veneto, and on October 15, 2010, the restaurant deposited its own recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method).

Earlier desserts are also known in the same town: the “Vogel Imperial Cup” of 1956 and the “Mascarpone Cup” of 1963. Different sweets have been handed down by different establishments in the town, such as sweets layering coffee and mascarpone in a cup and today’s tiramisu made with six ingredients.

The Coppa Vetturino Handed Down in Pieris

In neighboring Friuli-Venezia Giulia, separate lineages are handed down for Mario Cosolo, a cook from Pieris, and for the Hotel Roma in Tolmezzo. According to the history preserved by a cultural association and an ecomuseum in Monfalcone, Cosolo made a dessert in a cup in the kitchen of a royal yacht in 1935, and in 1939 he served it as the “Coppa Vetturino” at his family’s establishment, Al Vetturino. It is a cup layering chocolate mousse, liqueur-soaked sponge and zabaione mousse, so its contents differ from layers of coffee and mascarpone.

There is also a story that in 1947 it was renamed “Tirime su” following a joke by a regular customer, Bruno Cimadori, and a 1950 photograph of the interior of the establishment is said to show that advertising slogan. The episode in royal service and the exchange over the name are part of the history handed down in this region.

The Dessert of the Hotel Roma in Tolmezzo

Meanwhile, the tiramisu said to have been made by Norma Pielli and others at the Hotel Roma uses mascarpone, coffee-soaked savoiardi, eggs, sugar and whipped egg whites, and is cut into squares to serve. Regional sources trace it back to 1952. The researchers Clara and Gigi Padovani, a married couple, stated in a 2020 interview that they had discovered a 1959 receipt from the hotel. Tiramisu subsequently came to be featured in print as well, including in a 1981 magazine and a 1983 cookbook.

From Liqueur-Soaked Layers to Layers of Coffee and Dairy

Sweets in which savoiardi are softened with liquid and layered with cream existed before tiramisu. Artusi’s Dolce Torino soaks savoiardi in rosolio and red alchermes and layers them in three tiers with a chocolate cream made from butter, egg yolks, sugar, and chocolate melted with milk. It is shaped into a square and left overnight, and the next day its surface is smoothed with a warmed blade. During the night, the liquid-soaked biscuits and the cream meld together.

According to the Tolmezzo family’s account, Norma Pielli based her dessert on this one, replacing the butter with mascarpone and the liqueur with coffee. The cream with chocolate worked into it is said to have become a white dairy cream and a dusting of cocoa on the surface. Even with similar layering, the fat ingredient and the point at which flavor is added differ.

Zuppa inglese also has layers of liqueur-soaked savoiardi and cream. Artusi’s method uses a cream cooked from milk, egg yolks, sugar, starch and other ingredients, and fruit jam is also layered into the mold. Charlotte russe, by contrast, lines the bottom and sides with savoiardi arranged without gaps, and that vessel is filled with bavarois. The charlotte builds a wall of upright biscuits, zuppa layers liqueur and cooked cream, and tiramisu layers coffee and mascarpone. Depending on the liquid soaked into the light baked base and how it is combined with the cream, both shape and aroma differ.

Le Beccherie’s Formula: Six Ingredients, Made in a Round Shape

Le Beccherie’s recipe uses six ingredients: egg yolks, sugar, mascarpone, savoiardi, coffee and cocoa. Without adding egg whites, fresh cream or liqueur, the egg yolks and sugar are whipped and combined with mascarpone to make a soft cream.

The coffee is cooled in advance, and the biscuits are dipped in it and arranged. Savoiardi that have absorbed the liquid become soft, but if they are soaked too long, the biscuits tend to fall apart when layered. The cream is spread on top, the same layering is repeated once more, and cocoa is sifted over before the dessert is refrigerated. It is said that the restaurant made it in a round shape, cut it into wedges, and served it marked with the restaurant’s emblem in cocoa. Compared with the square slice of the Hotel Roma, differences remain not only in the ingredients but also in how it is cut.

Artisans’ Variations on the Foam and the Biscuits

Today there are also methods that add whipped egg whites to make the cream lighter. In a recipe published by a dairy company in Brescia, 2 egg whites are combined with 5 egg yolks. Hot sugar syrup is poured into the egg whites as they are whipped, and the same operation is carried out separately on the yolks. The mascarpone is mixed into the yolk mixture with an electric mixer, and the egg-white foam is folded in last with a spatula. Two ways of mixing are used: vigorous movement when making the foam, and, at the end, combining so as to keep the air that has been incorporated.

The chef Antonino Cannavacciuolo starts by baking the savoiardi with rice flour. The egg whites and yolks are each whipped with sugar and then combined, the rice flour is added, and the batter is piped and baked; the biscuits are then soaked with coffee and rum or Marsala. The dessert can be assembled on a large platter or in individual containers, and the flour and liqueur used for the biscuits also vary from maker to maker.

Among Japanese methods, there are also constructions other than the six-ingredient formula that uses raw eggs. Snow Brand Megmilk’s home method adds no eggs: mascarpone is mixed into cream whipped with sugar, and this is layered alternately with biscuits dipped in coffee. Yukihiro Nabeta’s formula whips egg yolks with sugar and water over a hot-water bath, and combines mascarpone with gelatin, brandy and fresh cream. This version is layered in a cup with thinly baked sponge cut into rounds. In a cream without eggs and in a cream using heated egg yolks and a setting agent, the combinations that support the cold layers also differ.

A Tradition Registered in Two Regions

In 2017, tiramisu was added to the list of Traditional Agri-Food Products (PAT) of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in two forms: the mascarpone slice of Tolmezzo and the Coppa Vetturino of Pieris. In 2024, “Tiramisù di Treviso” was also added to the Veneto list.

Registration of such traditional products is a system for recording production methods and food culture passed down in a region. The histories surrounding the home egg-yolk sweet, the restaurant tiramisu and the liqueur-scented cup dessert are also presented in regional tourism and in confectionery making.

Spread Through Japanese Restaurants and the Development of Plant-Based Alternative Ingredients

In Japan, the spread through restaurants and the development of confectionery ingredients advanced side by side. Denny’s offered its first “tiramisu-style” dessert in 1986, and in 1990 revised it to a flavor using mascarpone.

“Mascapone,” launched by Fuji Oil in 1988, is a plant-based, lactic-acid-fermented ingredient that substitutes for mascarpone. The company states that it was developed with storage, ease of handling, quality and price in mind, and that coverage in magazines also helped it spread. As the Italian sweet spread in Japan, the adoption of recipes was accompanied by adaptations to the dairy ingredients available and to the systems of the restaurant and confectionery industries.

C-Cube’s tiramisu combines mascarpone made from raw milk from the Nemuro and Kushiro districts of Hokkaido with a blend of three kinds of coffee beans that the company grinds and brews in-house every morning. The brewed coffee is chilled quickly, and the soft dessert is supported in a square tray. The tray is used not only for packaging but also to serve the dessert while preserving a softness that would easily collapse if it were cut out.

Glossary