Ado Campeol, the famous Italian restaurateur named “Father of Tiramisu” by the country’s media, died at the age of 93.
Campeol was the owner of Le Beccherie, a restaurant in Treviso, northern Italy, where his wife and a chef devised the famed dessert, BBC reports.
Though the family never patented it, the coffee-soaked biscuits and mascarpone dish was included in their menu in 1972.
It has now become a mainstay of Italian cuisine, with chefs all over the world adapting it.
Long-running debates regarding the origins of tiramisu have raged, with suggestions claiming it was first served as an aphrodisiac in a brothel.
However, it is popularly assumed that the recipe was created in the city’s Campeol’s restaurant.
The governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, was one of those who paid tribute, writing that the city had “[lost] another star in its culinary and wine history.”
Campeol’s family opened Le Beccherie in 1939, and he took over the firm after the end of World War 2.
Chef Roberto Linguanotto, the dessert’s co-inventor, claims the dish was created by accident while creating vanilla ice cream.
