It’s true, seafood and cheese rarely pair together with their respective light and subtle and heavy and palate-dominating natures are best left to other devices.
Much as Olive Garden would deny it, Italians don’t put Parmigiano, mozzarella, or any other cheese on a dish containing fish. It is an absolute sacrilege. It was blasphemous back in the day to ask anyone to top a seafood dish with grated Parmesan asks any Italian!
The act of mixing seafood and cheese was unheard of. They didn’t get the memo that cheese is meant for everything! The prohibition on combining seafood and cheese is ancient and strong, but localized.
The Top Chef judges state this prohibition as if it is a universal rule, but there are dozens of centuries-old dishes combining seafood and cheese beloved outside the United States in Greece, Mexico, France, and even in specific pockets of the U.S. itself.
To assume that the combination of seafood and cheese is inherently wrong is bizarre, and yet common. So where did it come from? Internationally, there are many, many examples of dish
es combining seafood and cheese, some of which are significantly older than the nation of Italy.
There’s garides saganaki, a Grecian dish of broiled shrimp, tomatoes, and feta. There’s moules au Roquefort, mussels in white wine with strong blue cheese from France.
They often serve fish tacos and quesadillas throughout the beach towns of Mexico with melted chihuahua cheese. There’s the classic bagel with cream cheese and lox from New York, or the legendary white clam pizza with pecorino romano from New Haven, Connecticut.
Exactly why the prohibition exists in Italy, what the reasoning is, that’s less clear. A common explanation is that seafood is very delicate and cheese very strong, and that cheese can overpower the flavor of seafood.
This is ridiculous: plenty of seafood items, like clams, mackerel, oysters, and
sardines, are very strong in flavor, and plenty of cheeses, like ricotta, mozzarella, queso fresco, and paneer, are very mild. Food is Italy’s greatest cultural export.
Easily. Everyone freaking’ loves Italian food. But with increased globalization comes a struggle. Italian food, like widely dispersed cuisines from China and Mexico, would be changed upon landing on other shores.
And the change was something that scared the hell out of Italy because it seemed inevitable and oppressive and overwhelming.
