Tiramisu - a dessert with a "past"

The word Tiramisù literally means “pick me up”. It comes from the Treviso dialect, “Tireme su”, Italianised into Tiramisù in the latter half of the 20th century. Historical records state that Tiramisù originated in Treviso in 1800. It is said that this dessert was invented by a clever “maitresse” of a house of pleasure in the centre of Treviso.

The “Siora” who ran the premises developed this aphrodisiac dessert to offer to customers at the end of the evening in order to reinvigorate them and solve the problems they may have had with their conjugal duties on their return to their wives.

This would seem to be the origin of the Tiremesù, a natural Viagra from the 19th century, served to customers in a brothel.