L'Italo-Americano

had the pleasure to present and discuss in more than one article dedicated to Italian and Italian-American chefs, all drawing inspiration from r e g i o n a l t r a d i t i o n s w h i l e working with local ingredi- ents and the realities of the places where they live. In LA, f o r i n s t a n c e , c h e f L u i g i Fineo openly spoke about presenting Italian cuisine through its regional diversi- ty, as shown by his menu, based not only on traditions from different parts of Italy, b u t a l s o o n C a l i f o r n i a ' s i n g r e d i e n t s , a g r i c u l t u r a l products, and dining culture. By doing so, Chef Fineo con- tinues a process of interpre- tation that has always been part of culinary history. Sim- ilar approaches can be found elsewhere across the West Coast: chefs work with local f a r m s , P a c i f i c s e a f o o d , regional wines, and seasonal produce while maintaining strong connections to tradi- tions from Italian regional roots. These examples challenge a debate that often becomes trapped between two oppos- isn't wrong to say that, in many cases, Italians encoun- tered the food traditions of other Italian regions more f r e q u e n t l y i n N e w Y o r k , Philadelphia, San Francisco, or Chicago than they ever had in Italy itself. I t i s w i t h i n t h i s v e r y encounter that Italian-Amer- ican cuisine was born. S e e n i n t h i s l i g h t , i t becomes difficult to describe Italian-American food sim- ply as a copy of Italian cook- i n g ; r a t h e r , i t s h o u l d b e understood as a cuisine cre- a t e d t h r o u g h m i g r a t i o n , adaptation, and exchange, in a process that never really stopped. This is where the American experience differs f r o m t h a t o f m a n y o t h e r countries, where Italian food often remained associated with a small collection of iconic dishes: in the United States, particularly in areas with long-established Italian communities, the cuisine continued evolving gen- eration after generation. The West Coast offers some of the clearest exam- ples, as L'Italo Americano ing positions, one demand- i n g a u t h e n t i c i t y , a n d t h e other assuming that Italian- American cuisine represents a departure from authentic I t a l i a n f o o d . T h e r e a l i t y , however, is far more com- plex than that, because many contemporary chefs operate in the space between those labels, and do what genera- tions of Italian cooks have a l w a y s d o n e : a d a p t i n g recipes to local conditions while remaining connected to inherited knowledge. And there is also a certain i r o n y i n t h e w a y I t a l i a n - American food is discussed, because Italian cuisine is o f t e n r e d u c e d a b r o a d t o pizza and pasta, while Ital- ian-American cuisine is often r e d u c e d t o s p a g h e t t i a n d meatballs: the stereotype, in other words, works in both directions. So, if it is true that Italy's culinary identity e x t e n d s f a r b e y o n d a f e w famous dishes, it is equally important to realize that Ital- i a n - A m e r i c a n c u i s i n e includes far more than red- sauce classics. Perhaps this is why the debate about Italian food a b r o a d f e e l s i n c o m p l e t e when viewed only through t h e l e n s o f s t e r e o t y p e s , b e c a u s e t h e f l a v o r s a n d twists our national cuisine acquired through migration are much more important (and delicious!) than what c o u l d h a v e b e e n l o s t . Nowhere is this more evi- dent than on the Italian- American table where, over more than a century, people managed to preserve region- al memories, absorb local influences, adapt to changing circumstances, and continue evolving without severing their food's connection to its origins. Far from being a simpli- fied version of Italian cook- ing, Italian-American food may be one of the clearest examples of how a food cul- ture remains alive, that is, through change, experimen- t a t i o n , a n d c u l t u r a l exchange. In a world increas- ingly concerned with authen- ticity, that may be a more useful measure of success than strict fidelity to any sin- gle tradition. narrow, familiar narrative w e a l l k n o w w e l l : i m m i - grants arrived in the United States, could not find the ingredients they used at home, adapted their recipes, and created dishes such as s p a g h e t t i a n d m e a t b a l l s , chicken parmesan, baked ziti, and other classics of the Italian-American table. The story is true as far as it goes, but it is also grossly incom- plete because the millions of Italians who arrived in the United States between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did not come from a country with a unified food identity. Italy i t s e l f h a d o n l y r e c e n t l y become a nation, and each region possessed a distinc- tive culinary culture, so what a family may have cooked in Veneto was vastly different from what a family would cook in Sicily. B u t w h e n m i g r a n t s arrived in American cities, traditions that had devel- oped separately for centuries suddenly found themselves sharing the same neighbor- hoods and markets, and it A c c o r d i n g t o a report on inter- national percep- tions of Italian cuisine, recently published in the Italian food m a g a z i n e D i s s a p o r e , t h e dishes most strongly associ- a t e d w i t h I t a l y a b r o a d r e m a i n a r e m a r k a b l y s m a l l g r o u p . P i z z a Margherita, tiramisù, and the Spritz continue to domi- nate the public imagination, creating the impression that one of the world's richest culinary traditions can be r e d u c e d t o a h a n d f u l o f familiar names. The truth is that anyone who lived outside Italy prob- ably experienced some ver- sion of this stereotype: ask people what Italians eat, and the answers often include the usual culprits: pizza, pasta, tiramisù, with many Italian r e s t a u r a n t s o f f e r i n g t h e same – limited – selection in their menus. It's incredible to think that a cuisine built over centuries by almost two dozen regions, thousands of local products, and countless family traditions can some- times become so surprisingly narrow once it crosses a bor- der. Yet there is another side to the story, as discussed by food journalist Gabriele Zanatta in Identità Golose: according to his article, a study that examined more than 115,000 dishes served in Italian restaurants around the world identified more than 49,000 distinct seman- tic clusters of dishes, while n e a r l y 8 6 p e r c e n t o f t h e menu items appeared in only one restaurant. This seems to demonstrate how, beneath the surface of a few interna- tionally famous dishes, there i s a c t u a l l y a n e n o r m o u s a m o u n t o f d i v e r s i t y . T h e problem then may not be that Italian food abroad lacks variety, but that most peo- ple never see it. This observation becomes particularly interesting when viewed through the lens of I t a l i a n - A m e r i c a n c u i - sine, which for decades, has been discussed through a Traditional delicatessens remain among the best places to discover the extraordinary diversity of Italian regional food, where cured meats, cheeses and local specialties reflect centuries of culinary traditions that extend far beyond the country's best-known dishes (Image generated using Adobe Illustrator AI) THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano Beyond the stereotypes: what Italian-American cuisine can teach us about Italian food abroad LUCA SIGNORINI LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE TRADITIONS

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