The story
Tiramisu, from the Venetian for 'pick me up', is a young dessert. The best-known account credits Le Beccherie, a restaurant in Treviso run by Ado Campeol, where his wife Alba Di Pillo and pastry chef Roberto Linguanotto worked out the layers of coffee-soaked savoiardi and mascarpone whipped with egg yolks and sugar at the end of the 1960s. It reached the menu in the early 1970s and soon spread across Italy and abroad. Friuli tells a rival story, pointing to a similar dessert served in the mountain town of Tolmezzo in the 1950s.
Rival claims
Friuli-Venezia Giulia claims earlier versions, notably from Tolmezzo (Norma Pielli, 1950s) and Pieris, and in 2017 Italy's agriculture ministry listed tiramisu as a traditional product of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which Treviso and the Veneto reject. The clue already flags this.
Also known as tiramisù, tirami su, tiramisu cake.
On the Meridish menu
Tiramisu was the dessert course on menu No. 7 on October 7, 2026. Its clue in the game, which hints at the place without naming it:
Coffee-soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone. A restaurant in this town made it famous around 1970, though a neighbouring region disputes it.
In Meridish, every dish is pinned to the town or city most widely credited with creating it. A guess within 25 km scores all 100 points. How scoring works.
Sources
- wantedinrome.com/news/italy-bids-farewell-to-father-of-tiramisu.html
- britannica.com/topic/tiramisu
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiramisu
Food history is often disputed. Think we've pinned it in the wrong place? Tell us at hello@meridish.com, ideally with a source.
