Officine Meccaniche Zamboni

By the end of the century Bologna was a city of about 150,000 inhabitants and was undergoing an important industrial metamorphosis, influenced by the other European countries. It was at this time that experimentation with modernization began. The city could also count on its own reach and lively popular culture, which was boasting – among other things – many successful endeavours in the cooking and gastronomy fields. To notice it, it was enough to tour the shops around town, to sit in a cafe’, or to walk into a restaurant or a local trattoria. Here the sfoglia (literally, "the dough-sheet") was a cult. Everybody knew that women at home would get up early in the morning to start mixing tender wheat flour and eggs, then "draw the dough" with the rolling-pin to make tagliatelle and other fresh pasta. For centuries during holidays, tortellini were the true king of the table, known all over the world for their small and curious shape, one that would even be compared to Venus' navel. In a poster of the time, Bologna appeared as a well-off lady – "the fat one" - showing off her historic gastronomic qualities: two luxuriant mortadella breasts and a strange tortellino hat. Trying to re-create this "myth" through a machine seemed impossible.