Pages of the Past

Italian Family Cooking: Edible Heritage

Between 1820-2004, more than 5.5 million Italians emigrated to the US. The cookbook Italian Family Cooking, written in 1971 by 2^nd generation, Italian-American Edward Giobbi, reminds the reader of the not only the economic hardship of many Italian immigrants but also the potential homesickness and desire to maintain their cultural and ethnic identity. Not only are recipes important to maintain their connections to the homeland but so to are the use of imported foods from Italy. The cookbook, then, links immigration, heritage, and foodways using autobiographic prose and specific imported ingredients to allow the reader to link to past immigrant stories and taste home in a new land.

Early Immigration and the Challenges of Food Insecurity

Giobbi recounts that, when he was in college, he could live on a dollar-a-day food budget. Such resourcefulness becomes an illustration of the ingenuity and knowledge of Italians when it comes to food. In the early years, Italians immigrants were impoverished (and in the 1970s the US had an economic recession) but food became a way in which one could, again, show how the cultural food practices of Italian-Americans might prosper in the US, as had their ancestors. 

Keeping Italian Identity Through Food

In Europe, Italy is known as one of the “garlic-eating” countries. In the 19^th century and in the first decades of the 20^th century, Italian food continued to have robust flavors that often contrasted with the hegemonic American diet that favored blandness. Because Italian immigrants tended to congregate in enclaves, grocery stores in their neighborhoods stocked the imported goods to cater to their clientele. This imported food, along with local festivals and ritual Sunday family meals, all were ways in which to maintain a strong Italian identity.

From Italian to Italian-American Foodways

During the 1880s, at the height of Italian immigration, most came from southern Italy to escape poverty. The “American Dream” meant economic prosperity and food was also a way in which this difference between the two countries was understood. For Italian immigrants, once of the most notable was the affordability of meat which had been unattainable. As such, Italian immigrants created a hybrid cuisine, that emphasized meat, cheese, and fats but retained the rusticity of traditional Italian dishes. The most famous dish that illustrates this idea is spaghetti with meatballs.