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Food and Foodways in Italy from 1861 to the Present Worlds of Consumption Published in association with the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC Series Editors: HARTMUT BERGHOFF and UWE SPIEKERMANN Worlds of Consumption is a peer-reviewed venue for the history of consumption and consumerism in the modern era, especially the twentieth century, with a particular focus on comparative and transnational studies. It aims to make research available in English from an increasingly internationalized and inter-disciplinary field. The history of consumption offers a vital link among diverse fields of history and other social sci- ences because modern societies are consumer societies whose political, cultural, social, and economic structures and practices are bound up with the history of consumption. Worlds of Consumption highlights and explores these linkages, which deserve wide attention, since they shape who we are as individuals and societies. Published by Palgrave Macmillan: Decoding Modern Consumer Societies Edited by Hartmut Berghoff and Uwe Spiekerman The Development of Consumer Credit in Global Perspective: Business, Regulation, and Culture Edited by Jan Logemann The Rise of Marketing and Market Research Edited by Hartmut Berghoff, Philip Scranton, and Uwe Spiekermann Globalizing Beauty: Consumerism and Body Aesthetics in the Twentieth Century Edited by Hartmut Berghoff and Thomas Kühne The Science of Beauty: Culture and Cosmetics in Modern Germany, 1750–1930 By Annelie Ramsbrock Berlin’s Black Market, 1939–1950 By Malte Zierenberg Food and Foodways in Italy from 1861 to the Present By Emanuela Scarpellini Food and Foodways in Italy from 1861 to the Present Emanuela Scarpellini Translated by Noor Giovanni Mazhar FOOD AND FOODWAYS IN ITALY FROM 1861 TO THE PRESENT Copyright © Emanuela Scarpellini 2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-56960-8 Originally published in 2012 by Editori Laterza, Italy, as A tavola! Gli italiani in 7 pranzi All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc., One New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, NY 10004-1562. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. ISBN: 978-1-349-56098-1 E-PDF ISBN: 978–1–137–56962–2 DOI: 10.1057/9781137569622 Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave Macmillan®, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Scarpellini, Emanuela. [A tavola! English] Food and foodways in Italy from 1861 to the present / Emanuela Scarpellini; translated by Noor Giovanni Mazhar. pages cm. — (Worlds of consumption) “Published in association with the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC.” Originally published as: A tavola! : gli italiani in 7 pranzi (Roma : Editori Laterza, 2011). Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Food habits—Italy—History. 2. Cooking—Social aspects—Italy. 3. Cooking, Italian—History. 4. Italy–Social life and customs. I. Mazhar, Noor Giovanni, translator. II. German Historical Institute (Washington, D.C.) III. Title. GT2853.I8S3313 2015 394.120945—dc23 2015019060 A catalogue record for the book is available from the British Library. For Paolo, with love Contents Preface ix 1 The Luxury of the Aristocracy (Or the Building of the Unitary State, 1861–1880) 1 2 Nature and Culture in the Peasant World (Or the Zenith and Crisis of Liberalism, 1881–1900) 27 3 Eating in the City (Or Industrial Development, 1901–1914) 53 4 Homemade Meals (Or Fascism and the Two World Wars, 1915–1949) 81 5 The Great Transformation (Or Economic Growth in the Postwar Period, 1950–1973) 109 6 Cuisine in the Age of Globalization (Or the Affluent Society, 1974–1993) 141 7 Eating in the Twenty-First Century (Or the Time of Complexity, since 1994) 171 Epilogue 205 Tables 209 Notes 221 Index 249 Preface There is a myth about the origin of fire among the indigenous Kayapó, who live in Brazil south of the Amazon River and refuse to accept the way of life of the “whites.” A young boy named Botoque, trapped on top of a cliff while unsuccessfully attempting to seize Ara’s eggs, was saved—to his great surprise—by a jaguar, who was passing that way and took him on his back to his lair. There, for the first time, Botoque saw a fire burning and ate roast meat (his companions did not know about fire and only ate raw meat). The jaguar decided to adopt the young man, despite the opposition of his wife, who was Kayapó, and he taught Botoque how to defend himself using a bow and arrow. One day when the jaguar was out hunting, Botoque killed his stepmother with an arrow and ran away frightened. He returned to his village, showed his companions his new weapon and had them taste the roast meat he had brought with him. Everyone began to want the fire. So they went to the jaguar’s lair while he was away, stole the fire and the meat for roasting, and returned to their village. Now they could warm themselves, have light during the night, and eat cooked meat. When the jaguar returned and found out what had happened, he got terribly angry, but he was too late. Since that time, he has harbored an infinite hatred toward everyone, above all human beings, and he only eats raw meat. But in his eyes there still shines the fire’s reflection.1 In connection with this myth, Claude Lévi-Strauss has concluded that cooking indicates a passage from nature to culture. Cooking meat is accom- panied by a different way of life and the discovery of arms; it marks a people’s entry into “civilization.” The Kayapó became “men” (just as the jaguar went back to being an “animal”). Human culture originated from an act of courage, cunning, and betrayal. The role of cooking and the significance of eating do not just concern the culture of an ethnic group of a few thousand people struggling to survive. Food matters to all of us. But if consuming food is a universal experi- ence, we do not eat the same things, or in the same ways, or in the same places. It could be said that, to a certain extent, everything converges in the act of eating—the agricultural, industrial, and commercial conditions of a given place; traditional customs and religious beliefs; differences in social and economic background, gender, and age; taste preferences and culinary art; geographical characteristics, cultural identity, public policies, and more. x Preface By carefully observing a meal, we could explain everything, or almost, about a certain population. That is how this book came into being. It recounts the history and the geography of the Italians from 1861, when Italy first became a nation-state, to the present, and always from the perspective of what and how they have eaten. Food and Foodways in Italy is based on some meals that really took place, reconstructed on the basis of a variety of sources, making use not only of history but also of literature, art, print and broadcast media, and oral accounts to explain what lay behind (and in) those meals. It also considers changes in the domestic sites of food, that is, in kitchens and dining rooms, whose forms and usages changed in relation to the many broader cultural and technological transformations that occurred over the past century and a half. This book is not a history of nutrition but rather a history of the Italians through their food, a central feature of material culture. A rich picture emerges, in which we can see how the act of eating synthe- sizes all manner of factors borne of complicated historical developments. Such historical processes gave rise to forms we continually repeat, often no longer understanding their remote meanings, as when we clink our glasses in mak- ing a toast (recalling a time when people drank fraternally from a single cup). Or we set the table in accordance with social rules developed in aristocratic settings, or eat foods that originated in distant lands (we eat and we travel). Even the simple act of kissing can embody such a history. (It probably derives from a mother passing chewed food to her child, “kiss-feeding,” still prac- ticed in some ethnic groups.) In the same way, food embodies discoveries from chemistry, innovations from the food industry, evolving nutritional pre- cepts, and our culturally contingent ideas about health, beauty, and hygiene. A complete microcosm. In this microcosm, there are universal elements, typically Western ones, and absolutely local characteristics. Italy thus appears in a particular light in this book. It is extraordinary how a simple act that we (hopefully) perform every day is able to encapsulate a sense of identity much more complex than what appears on the surface.

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