Italian Politician Asks EU To Grant Tiramisu Protected Status

The governor of Italy’s Veneto region has called on the European Union to grant protected status to the Treviso recipe for tiramisù in a bid to prevent it being made with strawberries or cream. Veneto governor Luca Zaia said he is seeking EU certification for the dessert based on the ingredients used when it was invented in 1970 in the Alle Beccherie restaurant in Treviso, near Venice. Traditional tiramisù is made from egg yolks and sugar whipped with mascarpone cheese layered over coffee-soaked Savoiardi, or ladyfinger, biscuits topped with a dusting of cocoa powder. Zaia told Italian newspaper ‘La Repubblica’ that tiramisù for Veneto “is like pizza for Naples” and he has compiled a dossier to gain its protection “against the many imitations in circulation.” He said: “It is right and proper to ask for the territorial recognition of this specialty, both as a seal on an historical event and as further reason to recognise Treviso and Veneto in the food sector.” Zaia said that the way tiramisù is produced today, it is at risk of having “too many fathers and too many versions that do not do justice to the efforts and inventiveness of the place that gave birth to it.”