DID YOU KNOW

Literary love for Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is thought to have started being manufactured in its present form as early as the 13th century, and was mentioned in 1348 by Italian poet and author Giovanni Boccaccio in his bawdy book of love and life, The Decameron. In it, he describes “a mountain, all of grated Parmesan cheese”, on which “dwell folk that do nought else but make macaroni and ravioli, and boil them in capon’s broth”.

But perhaps, for British fans of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, the most surprising historical reference to the cheese is in Samuel Pepys’ diary, when, during the Great Fire of London in 1666, the writer buried his “Parmazan cheese, as well as [his] wine and some other things” to preserve them.