I was writing the piece below for a restaurant review and I got stuck at the point where I wanted to explain from whence came the idea of contorni, or more specifically why is the idea of pricing side dishes separately and allowing/obliging restaurant diners to order them inidividually.

As I explain, this is not the case in French cuisine, and I was wondering why Italian cuisine would have developed so differently.

The section where I got stumped is included below.

Anyone have a clue about this?

Peter

The second menu planning issue is maybe just a personal cross that I bear.

I expect that the idea of listing and pricing side-dishes, usually vegetables, separately from the mains comes from Italy, where they are called “contorni”. Though it took me years to remember to order them (I was coming from France where every main comes all-dressed with veg and starch), there it works. It’s a long tradition in Italy (is this so) and is so because XXXXXXX (why is there contorni??)

Mixing-and-matching is a relatively new game here in NA and the cynic in me suspects that the goal has less to do with flexibility than it does marketing and finance. Just as $9.99 is way cheaper than $10, $15 + $5 for a main plus a side (all the sides here at Weezie are $5) seems less than $20 for a really complete and thoughtful assembled plate.

Hi there,

While thinking on your question I came up with a theory, but I'd have to dig deeper to give you a definitive answer.

I feel that contorni are the way they are because of the way an Italian dinner is set up compared to say, a French dinner.

Like you stated earlier the French dinner usually comes with a vegetable and some sort of starch. In the Italian style, your vegetable is usually taken up by the antipasti course, and your starch is in the form of the first course, which is usually pasta or polenta. By the time your secondi arrives (meat, poultry, fish etc) additional veggies and starch may seem redundant, so they are offered separetly.

Personally I very rarely ever get to the secondi piatti in Italy, I usually share several antipasti with my other dinner guests and then order a pasta dish and occasionially a contorno if I'm extra hungry.

Hope that helps,
Justin