The fourth edition of the Tiramisu World Cup 2020 is ready to start. The annual competition, conceived by Francesco Redi CEO and founder of the project, will take place in Treviso from 30 October to 1 November 2020 in the suggestive Piazza dei Signori, all in full compliance with the anti-Covid regulations. Competing will be 200 Italian and foreign non-professional pastry chefs, who will challenge each other in the preparation of one of the most loved sweets ever.
An unmissable opportunity for coffee and mascarpone-based dessert lovers, but not for the weak of stomach since the lucky 100 selected will have to taste 200 tiramisu, of all kinds, and evaluate each preparation: from the technical execution to the aesthetic presentation , up to the gustatory intensity and the balance of flavours. But it will be a team of experts who will decide the winner in the end. The delivery of the recipes, in a sealed envelope, will take place at the end of the competition, scheduled for Sunday 1st November at 19.00 in the office in Piazza Sant'Andrea.
How to apply? First you need to follow the account Instagram of the event and comment on the post relating to the recruitment of judges, motivating why you want to win this position. After that, you will receive in Direct a link to fill out a questionnaire of 15 questions. Only the candidates who get the highest score will be able to win one of the most coveted spoons. Anyone can join, as long as they are of age.
This year, however, the difficulty increases: the results will be judged by the Tiramisù Academy, an association created precisely with the aim of "disseminating tiramisu and Italian cultural values throughout the world".
Furthermore, the 15 questions will be based on knowledge of the recipe but also on the rules of the competition, as well as on possible variations that could be proposed during the competition. So much so that there are two categories: one reserved to the traditional dessert (ladyfingers, mascarpone, eggs, sugar, coffee and cocoa) and one to those more creative (up to 3 products can be added and the biscuit replaced). The winning recipes will be kept in the Consultinvest vault in Piazza Sant'Andrea.
There are many new features this year: the winners will participate in one tour in a European capital, along with a series of online experiences as a web star. In addition, the TWC Experience: online lessons with the champions of the competition to learn the secrets of the best tiramisu in the world. It is currently available in Italy, the USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Great Britain, Europe and later also in Asia.
The undisputed protagonist of the quarantine, tiramisu was the most prepared dessert in recent months, so much so that mascarpone and ladyfingers had become unobtainable. But how was it born? Although its origins are unclear, because it is disputed between different regions (the most fierce are Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia), since 2017 tiramisu has been included in the list of Traditional Agri-Food Products (PAT) of Friuli Venezia Giulia.
In the latest book by Clara and Gigi Padovani, "Tiramisu. History, curiosities, interpretations of the most loved Italian dessert”, 4 original recipes are recognised: Mario Cosolo, Friulian deputy chef of the Regia Marina, who in distant May 1938 in Pieris (Gorizia), prepared for the King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele a dessert known as the "Vetturino Cup", later called “Tirime Su”; the pastry chef Roberto Linguanotto who in the restaurant "Alle Beccherie" in Treviso, prepared the "Sweet Tiramesù Gioioso et Amoroso" in 1970; Norma Pielli, who in the 50s at the Albergo Roma in Tolmezzo (Udine) prepared her "Dolce Tirami Su". Finally, Speranza Bon who, in the "Al Caminasse" restaurant in Treviso, created an intensely yellow cream (no less than 9 egg yolks) for her "Coppa Imperiale".
Finally there is a licentious historical version, according to which tiramisu was born in 1947, in a brothel according to what we read in a book written by pastry chef Loris Casellato, who died in 2005, and his wife Marisa. Andrea Passerini reports it in La Tribuna: «we are in 47, in Treviso [...] In the evening we frequent, also for company, a famous very chic pleasure house, where in the evening one of our pastry chefs cooks for the kind guests, part-time, Danilo el rosso (because he has red hair). July is exam period, and we were all school kids we had to take the end-of-course exams: the maitresse comes into the room, looks at us and says "go to bed guys, you're very down in the dumps"».
«At that point – continues the story – Danilo comes out of the kitchen, and says “speté un atimo, fasso mi un dolse speciae”. And he goes to the kitchen, works with eggs, sugar, mascarpone, ladyfingers and a bottle of egg marsala from Ricci di Padova. Danilo takes an oval plate, spreads a layer of ladyfingers on it, wets them with the marsala to which he has added fragrant and strong coffee, and spreads a nice layer of beaten egg on top with lots of mascarpone added. He goes on like this for three layers and is about to give it to us… but at that point, there is a young US Air Force captain in the company, Weinstock, a Jew from Manhattan. He takes out of the military sack bag, the one that would become famous at the time of the parkas, takes out a jar with “New York cocoa” written on it, takes a fork, pierces it and says “let's put this on it too”. And there, leaning against the door of the reception room, with his inseparable Gauloise lit, he seriously announces: "or we'll call tiramesù" ».
Regardless of its origin, tiramisu remains one of the cornerstones of Italian pastry, prepared without distinction from North to South and known all over the world: from Beijing to New York, up to Sydney. Even if it doesn't boast an ancient past like many other Italian products, it remains a flag of our country. Enough to dedicate a celebratory day to him: the March 21 is celebrated the "Tiramisu Day", event created by Clara and Gigi Padovani, with the support of Eataly.
Among the many curiosities concerning Tiramisu, it should be mentioned that the Accademia Italiana della Crusca has certified that it is now present as "gastronomic Italianism" in as many as 23 different languages. And in China it is the most clicked Italian word on the web. It is not only famous in five continents but also in space. The Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano who in 2013 participated in the mission in the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA-09M of ESA, the European Space Agency was able to taste in orbit an excellent dehydrated tiramisu prepared for him by Davide Scabin, of the Combal.Zero restaurant.
Clara and Gigi Padovani have collected many testimonies of the notoriety of Tiramisu in the world.
In the cinema for example: it was a 1993 American film that made tiramisu known in the USA "Sleepless in Seattle" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. A friend of Hanks, in the film an inconsolable widower, tells him a magic word in Italian: "tiramisu", to advise him to start a new life. There are many films that have used tiramisu as a reference, both in just one scene and even in the title. The last film is Italian, it's called “Tiramisù”, directed by Fabio De Luigi: a light comedy, a metaphor for a country that indulges in small family corruption. Then there is a Chinese version, by the director Dante Lam, from 2002, which probably contributed to the notoriety of the sweet among young people (it's a love story) and finally there is the work of the Dutch director Paula van de Oest: also in this case it is a romantic story.
But also in literature. Journalists, columnists, writers have used tiramisu as a metaphor or a love reminder. Chiara Gamberale, in her "Per ten minutes", Enrica Tesio in "The truth, I explain, of love", and Marco Malvaldi in "Smell of closed" (with poetic license on the date of the dessert). But there are also two English authors who are crazy about our pudding: Carole Matthews and Helen Fielding.
Finally, Chiara and Gigi Padovani discovered that there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of clubs or restaurants in the world that carry the magic word in their sign. As in the United States: in San Francisco, in Miami Beach (it's called "Tiramesu", it was created by people from Treviso), in Washington DC, in New York City. But also in the East, in Dubai, in Pakistan, in Vietnam. And of course in Europe, from France to Germany to Italy.
Miami Restaurant Tiramesu
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