How Buon Ricordo dishes got cool

The so-called plates of Buon Ricordo, typical ceramic dishes decorated with illustrations of the dishes and the name of the restaurant that served them, were introduced over fifty years ago in some Italian restaurants as a marketing initiative. The idea was simple: every restaurant participating in the project chose and offered a typical dish from its region, and customers who ordered it received a complimentary dish decorated with the illustration of what they had just eaten. The success of this initiative over the years has been enormous: region by region, it ensured that many restaurateurs rediscovered and offered traditional dishes from the local cuisine, while for individual customers, excited by the idea of collecting these ceramics, it was an incentive to eat at the establishments participating in the project. The plates of Buon Ricordo thus became first a testimony to the richness of Italian culinary traditions, then a rather coveted design object, especially abroad. Since 1977, there has even been an association of collectors of these ceramics with about 400 members in Europe and South America. The restaurants that still offer the plates of Buon Ricordo today are over 100, 11 of which are scattered throughout the capitals of the world, including Paris, Tokyo, and New York. Here, the manager of the establishment Terre – which offers pasta dishes along with a selection of natural wines – said they chose to join the initiative because it represents well the Italian culinary tradition; a tradition, they added, that is now considered trendy. Their plate of Buon Ricordo depicts one of their specialties, "Pappardelle with wild boar ragù" – and shows precisely a wild boar atop rolled pasta nests; both the Italian and American flags are also present.

The history of the plates of Buon Ricordo

The idea of the plates of Buon Ricordo was from Dino Villani, a publicist also known for the beauty contest that later became known as Miss Italy. The association still carrying out the initiative is called the Union of the Restaurants of Buon Ricordo. Founded in 1964, in addition to promoting individual establishments, its goal was to preserve the country's gastronomic culture. "At the time the plates were introduced, traditional Italian cuisine was mostly homemade and largely considered unworthy of being served in restaurants, many of which instead presented menus influenced by French cuisine," explains an article from the New York Times. The individual plates continue to be produced and hand-painted in Vietri sul Mare, Salerno.

The "Menu of Buon Ricordo"

In the past, the plates of Buon Ricordo were linked to a single dish, while today they are given as a gift to those who choose the "Menu of Buon Ricordo," a kind of tasting journey developed by each affiliated restaurant. In the restaurant Terre in New York, for example, in addition to the traditional Tuscan and Umbrian wild boar pappardelle, they offer the rabbit tuna (a typical Piedmontese appetizer) and balsamic vinegar panna cotta, straight from Reggio Emilia. "The idea is to create a sort of Tour of Italy [...], dedicated to discovering the extraordinary variety of territories and gastronomy of the Italian peninsula," reads the website of the Union of the Restaurants of Buon Ricordo, where all the establishments participating in the initiative can be found. But where does the renewed interest in the plates of Buon Ricordo come from? According to the New York Times, it is partly due to their particular history, and partly to their playful identity. Today, these ceramics find space in the most sought-after design stores, such as Maison et Objet in Paris and ABC Carpet & Home in New York. More generally, their pop aesthetic has been rediscovered in some ways: the Italian designer Daniel Sensavini, for example, recently created for the Romagnolo restaurant and beach club Bagno Harmony a set of dishes that resemble the plates of Buon Ricordo.