Accademia Italiana dela Cucina recognizes the importance of Italian-Paulista cuisine

​Don’t try to order a steak parmigiana in Parma, or a plate of capelet à romanesque in Rome. These recipes were born right here, in the capital of São Paulo, and recently changed their status in the eyes of the rigorous Accademia Italiana della Cucina, an international entity whose mission is to safeguard the country’s gastronomic traditions.

“Last year, at a meeting of representatives of the 30 delegations from the Americas, I proposed the recognition of the Italian-Paulista cuisine as its own identity, which was finally accepted”, celebrates the Italian Gerardo Landulfo, the entity’s delegate in São Paulo.

This is a symbolic gesture, for now, but it gives due importance to a cuisine that blends in with the city’s own history.

Cantinas, for example, are restaurants only here —in Italy, this is the name given to spaces where wine is produced or sold.

According to researcher Silvana Azevedo, from the University of São Paulo (USP), specializing in Italian cuisine, the confusion began a long time ago.

“Immigrants in São Paulo kept canteens in the basements of their houses, where they sold wine in bulk. a minestra. From there for them to put tables and start charging for food, it was a leap.”

This is how the Capuano canteen was born, a grocery store that became a restaurant and operated from 1907 to 2018, giving rise to a whole generation of restaurants that combined a family atmosphere and almost Italian cuisine — thanks to the lack of authentic ingredients.

Opened in 1938, Gigetto started another unique feature of Italian restoration. Hired as a general assistant in 1950, at the age of 13, Giovanni Bruno became a waiter and, to please a customer, he invented the recipe for capelete à romanesque.

In 1967, Bruno opened his own restaurant, Cantina do Júlio, where he served the same famous dishes as Gigetto, in a room decorated with football shirts. There were four more establishments and, from their teams, left Pier Luigi Grandi, founder of Cantina do Piero, João Lellis, creator of Lellis Trattoria, and Severino Barbosa da Silva, who opened Taberna do Sargento. With them, the canteen style took over the city.

According to Azevedo, the first Italian restaurants that tried to attract high society appealed to French as a way of differentiating themselves from the canteens. “It wasn’t fancy to be Italian. Fasano, opened in 1902, was called Brasserie Paulista and only took on the family name in 1948. Giancarlo Bolla, another Italian, opened La Tambouille, also with a French name, in 1971.”

Today, few restaurants in São Paulo are considered genuinely Italian by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina: Fasano, Gero, Picchi, Terraço Itália, Ristorantino, Tre Bicchieri, Santo Colomba, Vinarium, Lido Amici di Amici, Piselli, Sughetto and Supra.

“Only those with at least 70% of the menu made up of authentic recipes, with first and second courses served separately. In Italy, there is no such thing as a two-in-one style, with pasta and meat together on the plate”, explains the delegate. of the entity.