“How Italian Food Conquered the World” by John F. Mariani

John F. Mariani’s fascinating review of the rise of Italian cuisine as both a competitor among the culinary elite and a crowd-pleasing standard has quickly become one of my favorite summer reads.

Mariani traces the development of Italian food outside of Italy from its beginnings in communities of mostly Southern Italian immigrants in New York and San Francisco, through the mid-century steak houses and red checkered tablecloth joints, to today’s more rustic Northern Italian cuisine and gourmet wood-fired pizzas so loved by foodies.  The book is filled with hundreds of interesting facts (an Italian-American farmer in California was the first to fly over his cherry crops in a helicopter after heavy rains in order to dry them and prevent splitting - a normal procedure for my family’s orchards in Eastern Washington), as well as references to early writings on Italian cuisine before and after the unification of Italy, such as Pellegrino Artusi’s 1891 cookbook La Scienza in Cucina e L’Arte di Mangiar Bene.

Although the book doesn’t quite cover the world dominance of Italian food (I would have loved to read more about the Italian immigrant experience in Argentina), it’s a pretty comprehensive history of the development of Italian-American food.  Fifty years ago, Italian restaurants would never have been taken as seriously as the stuffy “continental” and French restaurants.  With the help of campaigners for Italian culture such as Tony May and the availability of better ingredients, Italian cuisine has become easily the most popular food in the country.

Coincidentally, I stumbled across a souvenir dining guide from Seattle’s 1961 World’s Fair at my parents’ house.  Inside, I found a menu for a classic Italian-American steakhouse called Gasparetti’s Roma at 4th & Main, which would be close to what can be considered Seattle’s “Little Italy.”  Describing the city’s diversity of restaurants to a global audience, the introduction to the dining guide says Gasparetti’s “shows a delightful contrast in nationality, where varieties of macaroni and ravioli alone are proof of true Italian cookery.”

The menu for Gasparetti’s is a perfect example of what would have typically been found at an Italian restaurant in the United States during this time period.  The pasta choices for the “Italian Dinner” options are limited to just ravioli and spaghetti, undoubtedly swimming in red sauce.  The meat selections include Italian-American classics like veal parmigiana and meat balls.  It appears that the only Italian wine on the wine list is Chianti.  Compared to a menu at a modern Italian restaurant in Seattle such as Cantinetta, Italian food in our country has come a long way, baby.