Italian Immigration and Ethnic Food in America

How Pastra and Pizza Altered Eating Habits for Millions of Americans

Dec 25, 2009 Michael Streich

Italian immigrants left a newly unified country where food was both scarce and sacred, finding abundance in America and turning that bounty into American Italian Food.

On any night in Boston’s North End or New York City’s Little Italy, tourists stroll past quaint “mom-and-pop” restaurants and unless the savvy visitors have secured reservations on the busy nights, they can only hope for an open table somewhere in the back of the establishment’s dinning area. Italians have been cooking for tourists even while still in Italy. Immigration patterns that brought 4.1 million Italians to America between 1880 and 1920 resulted in the creation of a dynamic ethnic cuisine, fused from the various and disparate sections of a newly unified Italy in the late 19th Century, which ultimately became “Italian food.”

Immigrant Italians Forge an Ethnic Food Culture in America

When the New York City tourist landmark Mamma Leone’s closed in early 1994, hungry visitors had to look elsewhere for an Italian food icon, spaghetti and meatballs, although the popular dish was actually an American invention. Mamma Louisa Leone founded the restaurant in 1906 at a time few such establishments existed, and those that did catered more specifically to the burgeoning Italian communities in America’s urban centers.

Food was one of the most important elements in Italian immigrant families, primarily because most immigrants came from parts of Italy where meat was only consumed three times a year and the daily diet was meager. This produced, according to New York University professor Hasia Diner, a “widespread reverence for food” that has strong ties to patron-client relationships. Diner states that, “food, rather than the money to purchase it, was the currency in the class-based world of employers and employees.”

Italian immigrants, settling in close-knit urban communities in America, not only brought this respect and knowledge of local food traditions with them, but helped to integrate local Italian dietary choices into the larger community. This was accomplished through the many social venues associated with church and benevolent societies as well as the local food market. The food market, like bakeries, butchers, and green grocers, amalgamated the different ethnic specialties and tastes under one roof.

Family, Hospitality, and World War II

The importance of family within Italian communities was highly important and demonstrated most vividly at the dinner table. Families ate together. Wives prepared the meals and even the most unskilled of workers took what was served seriously. In many ways, the central position of food in the kitchen was a reaction to the “old country” where variety and choice simply did not exist in the many poor communities. In fact, it was stories of American abundance, notably food, which filled letters sent back to Italy and attracted further immigration.

Hospitality was also an important aspect tied directly to food and its preparation. German immigrant Ingrid Piehl recalls living off Bergenline Avenue in West New York, renting a small apartment from an Italian landlord. It was not uncommon for her own small family to be invited for a Sunday dinner that lasted several hours. Italians, even second and third generation, maintained a tradition of hospitality that was evidenced by large meals offering a variety of courses.

The ending of World War II brought home many GI’s that had experienced Italian cuisine while liberating Italy and they searched for it in Italian communities. This was the birth of the universalization of pizza. Pizza, long associated with Naples, was not new to America but it took the GI’s to popularize it and turn it into one of America’s most sought after ethnic food.

The Quest for Authenticity

Italian food today, as part of mass production, scarcely resembles the tastes and simplicity of the Immigrant experience. The Olive Garden chain attributes its newest creations to the company owned Culinary Institute in Tuscany where company chefs learn “authentic cooking secrets.” Perhaps the best authentic Italian food, however, can still be found in Italian-American kitchens where recipes, passed down since the days of immigration, continue traditions impossible to duplicate outside of the family enclave.

Sources:

• “America Eats: History on a Bun,” History Channel (A&E Network, 1999) DVD
• Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life (Perennial, 1991)
• Hasia R. Diner, Hungering for America (Harvard University Press, 1991)
• Unpublished memoir of Ingrid Piehl