Believe it or not—no matter what you remember about menus, particularly in New York City and San Francisco, particularly in the nineteen-eighties and nineties—there was indeed a time in this great green world in which tiramisu didn’t exist. In that unimaginable before-time, people surely ate ladyfingers—those long, spongey, slightly unsatisfying cookies—and, surely, they lapped up mascarpone.

But no one had thought to dip ladyfingers in espresso; layer them in a baking dish; douse them with a mixture of mascarpone, egg yolks, cream, and sugar; dust the dish with cocoa powder; chill and serve. Credit for shepherding this recipe into the world often goes to Ado Campeol (1927-2021), a restaurateur in Treviso, Italy, whose establishment, Le Beccherie, débuted the dish in the early seventies, and changed the course of dessert history.