By: Francesca Guerrini, Italian American Museum of Los Angeles
What is Italian American cuisine? How do we define traditional dishes transformed by Italian immigrants? Is the food we eat today the same as our mothers and grandmothers prepared?
Italian American food traditions are often misunderstood and defined only in comparison to the “true” Italian canon.
In reality, Italian American food is its own unique cuisine, dishes, preparations, and ingredients that represent the immigrants’ experiences and settlement patterns.
Watch the presentation, here:
Rich in history and traditions, creative and comforting, Italian American dishes are packed with pride and originality.
They often represent the newfound abbondanza — or the ability to feed family and friends on foods they couldn’t afford in their native land as a result of their greater purchasing power.
Amy Riolo, award-winning author, chef and TV host, will explore these themes and more in a new virtual event hosted by the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles and the Italian Sons and Daughters of America (ISDA).
The way our families cooked Italian food in the United States was filtered through memory and was made by necessity with what was available at that time.
Amy Riolo, as a food historian, culinary anthropologist, and Mediterranean Diet specialist, illustrates the genuine culinary traditions of Italians in America and defines five distinct categories of Italian American cuisine and how they came to be.
Whether the food we eat is an exact replica of what our mothers and grandmothers created, whether it’s fusion food representing elements of both cuisines, or “American” dishes inspired by Italians, Italian American cuisine, when labeled as such, is a fascinating mosaic that deserves its own place in gastronom
A graduate of Cornell University, Amy is considered a culinary expert and enjoys changing the way we think about food and the people who create it.
By highlighting how our mothers and grandmothers built culinary bridges that connected our two cultures, the presentation promises to forever change the way we think about Italian-American cuisine.
Join Amy Riolo and Italian American Museum of Los Angeles Executive Director, Marianna Gatto, for a special livestream discussion on the food that helped shape our families’ lives.
Make a Pledge and join Italian Sons and Daughters of America today.
Dining and Cooking