If you go to a red sauce restaurant in the US, you’ll probably see fettuccine alfredo on the menu. This very white sauce is often served with chicken and is called chicken alfredo. The dish arrives, piled high with tangles of fettuccine noodles coated in a cream-based sauce. It’s rich and tastes a lot like mac ‘n’ cheese, which may be why picky kids all over the country like it. But despite Italians who might turn up their nose at the dish, calling it simply un-Italian, fettuccine alfredo has a centuries-long history that began in Rome.
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. The key was to use more butter than normal in a fettuccine al burro (fettuccine with butter). Alfredo began serving it at his restaurant, where he served it table-side, tossing the ribbonlike noodles with a hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano carved from the center of the cheese wheel and a generous amount of butter.
According to Cesari, luck shone on Alfredo’s pasta, which he called fettuccine all’Alfredo. The dish was praised in Sinclair Lewis’s novel Babbitt (1922), and famous food critic and radio host George Rector wrote a great review of it in 1927 and published the recipe. That same year, Hollywood stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks gave Alfredo a golden fork and spoon with the words “To Alfredo the King of Pasta” engraved on them. ” Apparently, they’d eaten at Alfredo’s on their honeymoon in 1922 and fallen in love with the eponymous sauce. The extravagant gift garnered international press coverage, bringing Alfredo’s restaurant on Via della Scrofa and his pasta fame. During World War II, Alfredo sold his restaurant, eventually opening a new spot called Il Vero Alfredo—”the real Alfredo”—after the war ended. The name helped differentiate it from the original restaurant, where the owners fought to be known for the pasta.
Despite the international fame and its eventual copycats, fettuccine all’Alfredo never took off beyond Rome, perhaps contributing to its sense as an inauthentic dish in the eyes of many Italians. Cesari posits that this is perhaps because the method was so closely with its inventor (unlike the more anonymous styles of pasta like cacio e pepe, amatriciana, or carbonara). So, too, could the fact that the pasta featured parmesan (uncommon in Roman sauces) rather than pecorino, or that butter on noodles was seen as “hospital fare.”
Whatever the case, the world-renowned butter and parmesan dish never caught on in Italy, but did morph into a cream-based sauce that dominated in the United States. While the authentic rendition of Alfredo’s recipe was popular at first, eventually a sauce enriched with cream became standard. Eventually, the sauce was sold in jars and popularized by Olive Garden, where the now ubiquitous add-ins of shrimp and chicken were added. So, though they share a namesake, there is a long distance between the butter and parmesan sauce that slicked fresh, homemade noodles and a pile of mass-produced pasta tossed with a jar of creamy sauce and some chicken. That doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy Chicken Alfredo, though. Done right, with high-quality ingredients, the dish is a sumptuous treat, perfect for winter nights.
People all over the world love chicken alfredo, a creamy and tasty pasta dish. Who came up with this famous recipe? The history of chicken alfredo isn’t clear, but most accounts point to Rome in the early 1900s and a restaurant owner named Alfredo di Lelio.
The Birth of Fettuccine Alfredo
The story begins with fettuccine alfredo – the precursor to chicken alfredo. In 1908, Alfredo di Lelio was working in his family’s restaurant in Rome. When his wife Ines gave birth and had trouble eating afterwards, Alfredo wanted to tempt her appetite with a special dish.
He came up with a way to make fettuccine with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and butter. The sauce that was made was thick, smooth, and covered the pasta. It was great, and Alfredo made his own “fettuccine al burro” to go with it. It soon became the restaurant’s signature dish.
Alfredo opened his own restaurant, Alfredo’s, on Via della Scrofa in Rome in 1914. Here, he started calling the dish “fettuccine all’Alfredo” and brought it to the table with a lot of pomp and circumstance. The restaurant owner wanted to show off his cooking skills by tossing the pasta with a fork and spoon in front of happy customers.
Fettuccine Alfredo started gaining international fame in the 1920s, especially with visiting American tourists. Alfredo played up the performance aspect and dubbed himself “The King of Fettuccine.” His talents charmed early Hollywood stars like Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks who dined at Alfredo’s in 1927 and gifted Alfredo golden utensils as thanks.
Adding Cream and Chicken Stateside
As fettuccine Alfredo grew popular in the U.S., home cooks and restaurants started tweaking the recipe. The traditional Italian version used just butter and Parmigiano. But American versions introduced cream to make an even richer, creamier sauce.
People often added broccoli and chicken to fettuccine Alfredo to make it a main dish. It might seem like chicken goes well with Alfredo’s famous pasta, but it’s not likely that he ever did. As the dish spread around the world, chicken alfredo as we know it today grew.
The dish grows popular
From Italian restaurant menus to boxes of dried pasta, chicken alfredo became a staple across the United States by the 1970s and 80s It was quick, filling comfort food for families Frozen and shelf-stable versions let busy home cooks serve up this “gourmet” dish with ease.
Meanwhile, travelers continued seeking out the original taste in Rome. But even in Italy, Roman-style “burro e parmigiano” pasta was often listed as fettuccine alfredo on menus catering to tourists The international name had eclipsed the local one
Who invented chicken alfredo?
While we don’t know exactly who first added chicken and cream to the mix, Alfredo di Lelio is considered the creator of the original fettuccine alfredo. The addition of chicken and cream came later as the dish was popularized and adapted.
These tweaks resulted in the hearty, satisfying chicken alfredo we know and love today. But the creamy pasta’s roots lie with Alfredo di Lelio’s early 20th century Roman recipe aiming to tempt his wife’s appetite after childbirth. That serendipitous moment of culinary invention gave us a now-classic pasta pleaser.
The Alfredo Dynasty Today
Rome’s Via della Scrofa today hosts two restaurants claiming heritage from Alfredo di Lelio’s original.
Alfredo alla Scrofa has been run by the Di Lelio family since 1914. Il Vero Alfredo is operated by Alfredo’s grandchildren and great grandchildren, who split from the original restaurant.
Both serve classic fettuccine alfredo tableside, with suited waiters tossing golden pasta in gleaming bowls. A taste of history for travelers seeking the origins of an Italian food icon.
While chicken alfredo has evolved from its early roots, a century later we can thank Alfredo di Lelio’s creativity in difficult circumstances for one of the most popular creamy pasta dishes today. The King of Fettuccine’s legacy lives on.
Try your hand at the authentic Fettuccine all’Alfredo
In the recipe published for fettuccine all’Alfredo by George Rector in 1927, he described the recipe for the pasta as “a kilo of flour, five egg yolks, a glass of water and a pinch of salt,” going on to say that it’s about how Alfredo makes the pasta that sets it apart, giving the sense that it’s not possible to replicate the dish. That’s not to say that countless recipe writers haven’t tried. Todd Coleman published his own attempt at an authentic fettuccine all’Alfredo in Saveur, if you want to give it a try. Golden spoon and fork, optional.
The Original Fettuccine Alfredo with No Cream
FAQ
Who made the first chicken alfredo?
The dish is named for Alfredo Di Lelio, a Roman restaurant owner who is said to have created and made it popular.
Is chicken alfredo a real Italian dish?
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!.
How did chicken alfredo get to America?
It was at Pickfair that fettucine alfredo made its American debut. Pickford and Fairbanks ate at a trattoria in Rome owned by the charming chef Alfredo Di Lelio while they were on their honeymoon in Europe. He served them his signature dish, fettucine al triplo burro.
Why is Alfredo not popular in Italy?
Supposedly it’s not traditional Italian food because it doesn’t have a recipe (despite having a fixed number of ingredients that everyone uses) and is only fed to sick children but also it’s a “general comfort food” that many people eat. Italian food culture never fails to amuse.