Tetrazzini is an Italian-American dish made with diced poultry or seafood and in a butter, cream or milk and cheese sauce flavored with sherry or white wine. Some recipes use a bechamel sauce, mornay sauce or condensed cream soup. It is combined with or served over linguine, spaghetti, egg noodles, or other types of pasta, sometimes topped with breadcrumbs or cheese, and garnished with parsley or basil. [1] [2]
The dish is named after the Italian opera star Luisa Tetrazzini. [3] The origins of tetrazzini are widely disputed. Some accounts ascribe tetrazzini as a creation of Auguste Escoffier. [2] Other sources claim tetrazzini to be invented in the early 1900s by Ernest Arbogast, the chef at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California, where Luisa Tetrazzini made her American debut at the Tivoli as Gilda in Rigoletto on January 11, 1905. [4] However, other sources attribute the origin to the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City. [5] [6]
In 1950s through the 1980s, upscale New York City restaurants including Mamma Leone's and Sardi's featured tetrazzini on the menu. [7] [8] [9] The Sardi's tetrazzini recipe was featured in Vincent Price's cookbook A Treasury of Great Recipes, and mentioned in the Sue Kaufman novel Diary of a Mad Housewife. [10] [11] Tetrazzini frozen dinners were popular in the 1960s, as noted by Joan Didion in The Saturday Evening Post article "The Big Rock Candy Figgy Pudding Pitfall". [12] Recipes for tetrazzini, both from-scratch and using convenience ingredients, were popular in the 1950s and 1960s, and the dish was featured in an episode of the period TV drama Mad Men that is mostly set in the 1960s. [13] The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook, a collection of vintage recipes, featured dishes cited in the TV series. It included recipes drawn from various popular mid-century restaurants and cookbooks, including a tetrazzini recipe originally published in Betty Crocker's Hostess Cookbook. [14] [15]
In the 1960s, southern restaurants and Junior League cookbooks began featuring versions of tetrazzini (referred to as chicken spaghetti in parts of the American South). [16] [17] [18] In the 1960s, the famed Piccadilly Cafeteria in Baton Rouge introduced chicken tetrazzini to the menu, and it remains a customer favorite decades later. [19] Foster's Market in Durham, North Carolina, introduced chicken spaghetti to their in-house dining and catering menus in the 1980s, with their version based upon the chicken spaghetti recipe featured in the Baton Rouge Junior League cookbook River Road Recipes. In the 1990s, tetrazzini and chicken spaghetti emerged as soul food classics. [20] [21]
Tetrazzini, specifically chicken tetrazzini, became an Internet meme after a woman on Maury accuses her friend of seducing her boyfriend by preparing his favorite meal, chicken tetrazzini. [22] [23] Clips from the episode were featured on the E! channel show The Soup in 2007. In 2020, Vice magazine food editor Farideh Sadeghin prepared chicken tetrazzini for their Munchies series, referencing the Maury episode as her inspiration for the dish. [24]
Gravy is a sauce made from the juices of meats and vegetables that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with thickeners for added texture. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt or gravy browning or bouillon cubes. Powders can be used as a substitute for natural meat or vegetable extracts. Canned and instant gravies are also available. Gravy is commonly served with roasts, meatloaf, rice, noodles, fries (chips), mashed potatoes, or biscuits.
Lasagna, also known as lasagne, is a type of pasta, possibly one of the oldest types, made in very wide, flat sheets. In Italian cuisine it is made of stacked layers of pasta alternating with fillings such as ragù, béchamel sauce, vegetables, cheeses, and seasonings and spices. The dish may be topped with grated cheese, which melts during baking. Typically cooked pasta is assembled with the other ingredients and then baked in an oven. The resulting baked pasta is cut into single-serving square or rectangular portions.
Carbonara is a pasta dish made with fatty cured pork, hard cheese, eggs, salt, and black pepper. It is typical of the Lazio region of Italy. The dish took its modern form and name in the middle of the 20th century.
Macaroni and cheese is a dish of macaroni pasta and a cheese sauce, most commonly cheddar sauce.
A casserole is a kind of large, deep pan or bowl used for cooking a variety of dishes in the oven; it is also a category of foods cooked in such a vessel. To distinguish the two uses, the pan can be called a "casserole dish" or "casserole pan", whereas the food is simply "a casserole". The same pan is often used both for cooking and for serving.
Comfort food is food that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to someone and may be characterized by its high caloric nature associated with childhood or home cooking. The nostalgia may be specific to an individual or it may apply to a specific culture.
A hotdish is a casserole that typically contains a starch, a meat, and a canned or frozen vegetable mixed with canned soup. The dish originates in the Upper Midwest region of the United States, where it remains popular, particularly in Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Montana. Hotdish is cooked in a single baking dish, and served hot. It commonly appears at communal gatherings such as family reunions, potlucks, and church suppers.
Cashew chicken is a Chinese-American dish that combines chicken with cashew nuts and either a light brown garlic sauce or a thick sauce made from chicken stock, soy sauce and oyster sauce.
Spaghetti alla puttanesca is a pasta dish invented in the Italian city of Naples in the mid-20th century and made typically with tomatoes, olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, peperoncino, extra virgin olive oil, and salt.
Parmigiana, also called parmigiana di melanzane, melanzane alla parmigiana or, in the United States, eggplant parmesan, is an Italian dish made with fried, sliced eggplant layered with Parmesan cheese and tomato sauce, then baked. The origin of the dish is claimed by the regions of Campania, Sicily, and Emilia-Romagna.
Green bean casserole is an American baked dish consisting primarily of green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and french fried onions. It was popularized in the USA from a recipe printed on a soup can starting in the 1950s.
Chicken Divan is a chicken casserole usually served with broccoli and Mornay sauce. It was named after the place of its invention, the Divan Parisien Restaurant at Chatham Hotel in New York City where it was served as the signature dish in the early twentieth century. Its creator was a chef named Lagasi. In French, the word divan refers to a meeting place or great hall.
Confit byaldi is a variation on the traditional French dish ratatouille by the French chef Michel Guérard.
Funeral potatoes is a potato-based hotdish or casserole, similar to au gratin potatoes, popular in the American Intermountain West and Midwest. It is called "funeral" potatoes because it is commonly served as a side dish during traditional after-funeral dinners, but it is also served at potlucks and other social gatherings, sometimes under different names.
King Ranch chicken is a Tex-Mex casserole. Its name comes from King Ranch, one of the largest ranches in the United States, although the actual history of the dish is unknown and there is no direct connection between the dish and the ranch. Recipes vary, but generally it has a sauce made of canned diced tomatoes with green chiles, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, diced bell pepper, onion, and chunks or shreds of chicken. The bottom of the casserole is lined with corn tortillas or tortilla chips, then layered with sauce and topped with cheese. This flavorful Tex-Mex dish has long been a favorite dish in Texas club cookbooks and lunchrooms.
Macaroni casserole is a dish of baked pasta. It is especially known as a staple in northern European home cooking. It is a dish of cooked macaroni and a mixture of egg and milk with additional ingredients like meats, vegetables or fish. It is commonly made with cheese or breadcrumbs sprinkled on top.
Chili mac is a dish prepared using chili con carne and macaroni as primary ingredients, which is often topped or intermingled with cheese. Some versions are made using prepared or homemade macaroni and cheese. It is a common dish in the cuisine of the Midwestern United States, and is also popular in other areas of the United States.
Florentine or à la Florentine is a term from classic French cuisine that refers to dishes that typically include a base of cooked spinach, a protein component and Mornay sauce. Chicken Florentine is the most popular version. Because Mornay sauce is a derivation of béchamel sauce which includes roux and requires time and skill to prepare correctly, many contemporary recipes use simpler cream-based sauces.
The 'restaurant on forty-second' may refer to the Knickerbocker Hotel, then located on 42nd Street and Broadway.