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Life

20th Oct 2013

Food for Thought: The Story Behind the Carpaccio

Una Kavanagh

We need food to survive, to nourish us and to keep us fit as a fiddle. But where exactly do foods and drinks get their names?

There are countless dishes out there that have a title attached to them, but did you know that many of them were named after people?

This week we’re bringing you the story behind the “Carpaccio.”

The origin of the name lies in the 1950s. Countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo was visiting Harry’s Bar in Venice for a bite to eat.

She had been advised by her doctor to avoid cooked meat and so asked the chef at Harry’s to come up with something special for her to consume.

The chef came up with a dish of finely sliced, thin, raw beef with a cream-coloured sauce. The dish was based on the Piedmont speciality “Carne cruda all’Albese”

It was named “Carpaccio” by the owner of the bar, Giuseppe Cipriani because the colours in the dish reminded him of the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio who was one of the most celebrated artists of the 15th century.

However, this wasn’t the first dish that Cipriani named after an artist – the bar owner was very interested in century art, and the Bellini drink, which bar is also renowned for, was named after 15th century artist, Giovanni Bellini.

It was Cipriani who popularized the Carpaccio dish that so many people around the world now love.

 

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Food & Drink