Hand me any Italian menu: its words are all I need to make an x-ray of what I’m going to eat, how it will be plated, what the chef’s culinary references are, or what the owner’s vague wishes are–whether trendy, 10 years too late, a tourist trap, or a restaurant patronized solely by locals. It’s no divinatory art, just decades of empirical knowledge.

Cooking has its own trends. Exactly like fashion, music, and the like, what we eat also changes according to the (metaphorical) season. As such, the recipes, ingredients, and way we talk about and describe food evolves too. Although Italy may seem (and is) anchored to its gastronomic past, there has been plenty of evolution.