The History of Alfredo — Zeppoli's Restaurant & Wine Shop (2024)

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The History of Alfredo — Zeppoli's Restaurant & Wine Shop? ›

Alfredo di Lelio, an Italian restaurateur, created Fettuccine Alfredo in 1908. After his wife had given birth to their first son that year, she did not have an appetite. To help encourage her to eat, he created a dish of noodles, cheese and butter.

Alfredo di Lelio, an Italian restaurateur, created Fettuccine Alfredo in 1908. After his wife had given birth to their first son that year, she did not have an appetite. To help encourage her to eat, he created a dish of noodles, cheese and butter.

Origin:Italian. Meaning:Elf counselor. Alfredo is a masculine name of Italian and Spanish origins. Coming from the Old English name Alfred, it translates to “elf counselor” and is a wonderful choice to connect baby with their mythical spirit.

Alfredo alla Scrofa is an Italian restaurant in Rome, Italy, which opened in 1914 and is known as the birthplace of fettuccine Alfredo.

Alfredo di Lelio, a Roman restaurateur who was popular among American tourists, named his butter and cheese linguine after himself. These tourists came back to the US and introduced the dish as Lelio named it, Alfredo.

Fettuccine Alfredo, it turns out, is 100% Italian. To be fair, the original recipe is quite different from whatever you may find in the States. Italians have been eating Fettuccine Alfredo for over a century… They just didn't know that's what it was called!

Most of the dishes you'll find in American Italian restaurants evolved in the U.S. So – when in Italy – you won't find pasta with meatballs or chicken parm. or alfredo sauce – unless they're trying to serve you Americanized junk.

The gold tableware

These are a fork and a spoon of solid gold engraved with the written words: “To Alfredo the King of the noodles”, read by every famous person who had the honour to taste the Maestosissime Fettuccine.

It started somewhere else in Quezon City, on Timog Avenue in 1968. Its name then was Alfredo's Country-Style Steaks located at a small apartment row opened by husband and wife, Alfredo and Mitos Araneta. Steaks were imported from New Zealand and Argentina and grilled by Alfredo or Freddie.

In the United States, there are many variations of fettuccine Alfredo, but the one that makes Italians raise their eyebrows the most is undoubtedly the addition of chicken to this creamy sauce. In Italy, traditionally speaking, you would never ever mix chicken with pasta!

Why do Americans love Alfredo? ›

Alfredo's fettuccine became world-renowned after American actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford tried it during their honeymoon in Rome. They brought the recipe back to the United States, paving the way for Alfredo's entry into American cuisine.

A typical portion of this decadent dish has 1200 calories, 75 grams of fat, 47 grams of saturated fat and gives you more than half a day's worth of sodium. Yikes! Looking at a recipe, it's not hard to figure out why. The star ingredients are buckets of heavy cream, butter, cheese and mountains of pasta.

In his book The Discovery of Pasta: A History in Ten Dishes, writer Luca Cesari traces the dish back to 1908, when Alfredo di Lelio—a restaurateur in Rome—made a simple fresh pasta with butter and parmesan cheese for his wife, Ines, who was struggling to recover after childbirth.

Real alfredo sauce is made with 3 simple ingredients: butter, Parmesan cheese and fresh fettuccine pasta. There is absolutely no cream in this dish (cream is common in most American-style alfredo sauce recipes). Make this dish with my fresh homemade pasta, fresh sourdough pasta or store-bought fresh pasta.

Chef Alfredo Di Lelio with his signature pasta

It was at Pickfair that fettucine alfredo made its American debut. On their European honeymoon, Pickford and Fairbanks had dined at a trattoria in Rome owned by the charismatic chef Alfredo Di Lelio, and he served them his signature pasta, fettucine al triplo burro.

noun. Al·​fre·​do sauce (ˌ)al-ˈfrā-(ˌ)dō- (ˌ)äl- variants or less commonly alfredo sauce. : a rich pasta sauce made with butter, Parmesan cheese, and often cream compare fettuccine alfredo.