Epilogue

Abstract

This epilogue examines how the distinctiveness of Italian food has been shaped by continuous transformations and adaptations to a changing Italian America and American culture since World War II. From domestic kitchens to luxurious restaurants, Italian immigrants framed a food culture that created a nation and shaped their self-representation as a group. However, Italian American food culture underwent various changes. The meanings of Italian American food were reworked in the neoliberal landscape of deindustrialization, globalization, and a postmodern culture in which “the self” was created through consumption and where cultural difference became just another commodity. A new group of middle-class Italian immigrants to New York City started to reshape Italian food in America by detaching it from its immigrant origins and relocating it within the “authentic” traditions of Italian regional cuisine. Despite all these changes, and even as the ground for Italian American identity has shifted, Italian American food continues to convey a lifestyle, a taste, and a history.