Roberto Linguanotto, the Italian pastry chef attributed with the creation of the tiramisu, passed away on Sunday, June 28th at the age of 81. “Loli,” also known as “the Father of Tiramisu,” succumb to a long-term unknown illness in his home country. Though Linguanotto has passed, his legacy lives on through his iconic creation.
There is no greater coffee foodstuffs than the tiramisu. It is the gold standard against which all other creations are compared, and ultimately fall short. It’s the sort of thing that feels like it doesn’t have a creator, like it has always existed, a timeless confection whose origins should belong more to lore than fact. And yet it was created 50 years ago by Loli.
According to Daily Mail, Linguanotto is believed to have created the dessert while working as a pastry chef in the early ‘70s at Alle Beccherie in Treviso. The story goes that the tiramisu first started coming to life when Loli accidentally dropped some marscapone into a bowl of eggs and sugar. It would later become the codified dessert we all know now later with an assist from Alba di Pillo-Campeol, known as the “Mamma of Tiramisu,” who locals say added the espresso-soaked ladyfingers. The first recipe for tiramisu would be published in 1983 in a Treviso food magazine.
The rest, as they say, is history. The dessert was instantly popular and even served as the inspiration for the Tiramisu World Cup, a yearly competition dating back to 2017, seeking out the best version of the classic. It has gone on spawn countless versions, including Sprudge’s own take on the tiramisu, which can be found in our latest book But First, Coffee. It is, if I may be a touch biased, the best tiramisu recipe out there, especially if you use iced coffee to make it.
And it’s all thanks to Roberto “Loli” Linguanotto, the Father of Tiramisu.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
