The “Misura Aurea” of Italian Cooking: Defining Authentic Foods for Locals and Tourists in Postwar Italy, 1953 to 1974

ABSTRACT

The growth of postwar mass tourism in Italy drove the assertion of Italian identity through so- called authentic foods. I follow the actions of culinary societies alongside private and government tourism promoters, arguing that the history of “true” Italian food reveals the contradictory results of globalization as it related to reactions to Americanization. Discourses of genuine Italian cuisine managed by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina in particular relied on the market as a site of cultural production and borrowed its logic of standardization to guarantee quality. Postwar efforts codifying Bologna’s traditional cuisine and promoting it as a culinary destination demonstrates the challenge of democratizing discourses of food and identity and affirm the role negotiations of power have played in defining Italian food.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer culture
• Americanization
• tourism
• food
• authenticity

Notes

1. ARR, Epistolario, Giorgio Vacchi to Renzo Renzi, 1971.

2. Montanari, “Come nasce un mito gastronomico,” 10–11, 19.

3. Dotta Confraternità del Tortellino, “Statuto” (1964), enclosure in Il Comitato [Giovanni Poggi, Amedeo Faggioli, Alessandro Cervelli and Giorgio Vacchi] to Renzo Renzi, 1965, Epistolario, ARR.

4. Capatti and Montanari, Italian Cuisine; and Dickie, Delizia!.

5. See Scarpellini, A tavola!, chapters 6 and 7; and Parasecoli, Al Dente, chapters 6, 7, and 8.

6. Scarpellini briefly mentions the work of the Accademia as an early example of a body concerned with protecting “traditional” Italian cooking, according to the goals of its founder, Vergani. See Scarpellini, A tavola!, 303.

7. Ceccarelli, Grandi, and Magagnoli, “Typicality in History,” 17.

8. Parasecoli, Knowing Where it Comes From, 13–19, 22.

9. De Grazia, Irresistible Empire; Nolan, Transatlantic Century; Sassatelli and Scarpellini, “Impero o mercato?” 315, 316; and Scarpellini, “Shopping American-Style.”

10. See Lundin and Kaiserfeld, Making of European Consumption; Logemann and Nolan, “More Atlantic Crossings?”; and Blaszczyk and Spiekermann, Bright Modernity.

11. OEEC, Tourism and European Recovery; De Grazia, Irresistible Empire, 343–350; Endy, Cold War Holidays; and Battilani, Vacanze di pochi, 179–80, 226–29.

12. See De Grazia, Consent, 180–82; Hom, Beautiful Country, 129–30; Endy, Cold War Holidays, 45–54; and OEEC, Tourism and European Recovery.

13. Endy, Cold War Holidays, 8.

14. Ibid., 161.

15. Ibid., 99; and Löfgren, On Holiday, 191–93.

16. Löfgren, On Holiday, 194; Di Mauro, “L’Italia e le guide turistiche,” 421.

17. Baranowski, Being Elsewhere, 17; and Endy, Cold War Holidays, 47.

18. Tremezzina Gastronomica [l’Azienda Autonoma Soggiorno e Turismo Tremezzo], 8.

19. Orio Vergani, L’Accademia italiana della cucina (Fall 1955): 1 (hereafter cited as AIC). The frequency of the AIC publication vary. Issue and volume numbers are not always indicated or follow a meaningful sequence. In the interest of consistency, I use a season-date format and note when the winter season carried over into the following year. In 1963, the organization bound the first ten years of newsletters and journals with an introduction.

20. “Un’accademia per difendere la cucina italiana,” introduction to AIC, vol. 1 ([1963]): i-iii.

21. Ibid., iii.

22. De Grazia, Consent, 214; Cavazza, xvi, 172; and Berrino, Storia del turismo in Italia, 229.

23. Arturo Marescalchi, original preface to Guida Gastronomica d’Italia, 8.

24. Krassich, Almanacco, 5, 8.

25. The trickle of food travel guides after World War II became a flood by the late 1950s and 1960s. See Di Mauro, “L’Italia e le guide turistiche,” 422.

26. Petrini, preface to Monelli, Ghiottone, 12; Orio Vergani, “Parlano i Protagonisti,” in Accademia Italiana della Cucina, Cinquant’anni di Cultura, 24–29.

27. Ernesto Donà dalle Rose, “Parlano i Protagonisti,” in Accademia Italiana della Cucina, Cinquant’anni di Cultura, 30.

28. “Regolamento,” approved May 26, 1962, introduction to AIC, vol. 1 ([1963?]): v-vi.

29. See Accademia website; and “Parlano i Protagonisti,” in Cinquant’anni di Cultura.

30. “Regolamento.”

31. Vergani, AIC (Summer/Fall 1954): 1.

32. Mariotti, Manuale del Turismo, 30–39; and Berrino, Storia del turismo, 239–75.

33. “Il Ministero per il Turismo riceve il nostro Presidente e un gruppo di Consiglieri,” AIC (Fall/Winter 1970/71): 1–2; “Lettera del Ministro del Turismo al Nostro Presidente,” AIC (Winter/Spring 1971): 1–2.

34. “Il Touring Club Italiano e l’Accademia,” AIC (Fall/Winter 1955/56): 3.

35. Bosworth, Touring Club Italiano, 382–3.

36. Ibid., 372, 383.

37. “Il Touring Club Italiano e l’Accademia,” 3.

38. “Un’accademia per difendere la cucina italiana,” introduction to AIC, vol. 1 ([1963?]): [ii].

39. [Vergani], “Non basta il lusso,” AIC (Spring/Summer 1955): 1; Vergani, AIC (Fall/Winter 1955/56): 1.

40. Alberini, Liguria a Tavola, 12, 20.

41. See Ente Provinciale per il Turismo Vicenza, Vicenza: Carnet del Turista; Ente Provinciale per il Turismo Treviso, Festival della cucina trevigliana; Ente Provinciale per il Turismo Treviso, Secondo festival della cucina trevigiana; l’Azienda Autonomia Turismo Belluno, Ottobre gastronomico bellunese; and Di Rovereto, Ricettario della cucina tipica trentina.

42. Raffaello Levi to “Illustre Direttore,” September 30, 1961, reprinted in “La nostra ‘guida’ fa parlare di sé,” AIC (Fall/Winter 1961/62): 6; “Verbale,” AIC (Winter/Spring 1955/56): 2.

43. Ente Nazionale per il Turismo, Programma di attività, 33; and Premoli, Il turismo nello sviluppo, 17.

44. “Lettera del Ministro del Turismo al Nostro Presidente,” AIC (Winter/Spring 1971): 1.

45. Ibid., 2.

46. Ibid.

47. Montanari, “Come nasce un mito,” 9–24.

48. Touring Club Italiano, Guida d’Italia, 61.

49. Ibid., 131, 177, 204–6.

50. Touring Club Italiano, Guida d’Italia, 72.

51. Ibid.

52. Ibid., 79–80, 179, 250, 286, 361, 608, 664.

53. Touring Club Italiano, Guida d’Italia.

54. Ente Nazionale per iI Turismo, Programma di attività, 8, 33; and Ortolani, “Troppo Blasonata la Nostra Cucina.”

55. Ortolani, “Troppo Blasonata la Nostra Cucina.”

56. Ibid.

57. Ibid; Sanzò, “Prezzo della pasta.”

58. Ente Provinciale per il Turismo [Bologna]; and AIC, Bologna: rassegna gastronomica, ii.

59. Ibid.

60. Deserti, “La cucina bolognese,” in AIC, Bologna: Rassegna Gastronomica, xi.

61. M.A., “La delegazione di Bologna stabilisce la ‘misura aurea’ della tagliatella,” AIC (Spring/ Summer 1972): 12.

62. Touring Club Italiano, Guida gastronomica d’Italia, 10.

63. Ibid.

64. Ibid., 205.

65. M.A., “La delegazione di Bologna stabilisce la ‘misura aurea,’” 12.

66. The notarized minutes of Accademia meeting including the dimensions for tagliatelle are kept in the Bolognia Chamber of Commerce. URAP, Atto Pubblico n. April 19, 5838, 1972.

67. “Delegazione di Bologna,” AIC (Spring/Summer 1972): 26.

68. “Il tortellino.”

69. Camera di Commercio, La mercanzia, 8.

70. ARR, Epistolario, Dotta Confraternità del Tortellino, “Statuto.”

71. ARR, Epistolario, Il Comitato to Renzo Renzi, October 20, 1965.

72. See note 70 above.

73. ARR, Epistolario, Renzo Renzi to Giorgio Vacchi, undated.

74. ARR, Epistolario, Giorgio Vacchi to Renzi, January 18, 1971.

75. Camporesi, “Mito gastronomico,” 306.

76. Ibid., 307.

77. “Slow Food Manifesto” is available on the Slow Food’s website, www.slowfood.com; and Parasecoli, “Postrevolutionary Chowhounds,” 33.

78. Petrini, Slow Food, 9.

79. See Donati, “Pleasure of Diversity”; Labelle, “A Recipe for Connectedness”; and MacDonald, “Morality of Cheese.”

80. Cucci, “Cambiera’ la ricetta?”.

81. The Accademia has over two thousand approved recipes available on its website, www.accademiaitalianacucina.it.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melissa Gray

Melissa Gray teaches American history at Santa Rosa Junior College. She received a bachelor’s degree in history at Mount Holyoke College and a PhD in history at the College of William and Mary in 2017. Her research traces the history of American consumer culture in the U.S., particularly as it relates to the development and marketing of “Italian” foods, such as pasta, and how the reception of American business models in postwar Italy shaped the definition of Italian cuisine. She is interested in consumer culture as a site for negotiating transnational and multicultural, national identities through food.