These meals were first proposed in Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Luigi Colombo (Fillìa)'s Manifesto of Futurist Cooking, published in Turin's Gazzetta del Popolo on December 28, 1930.
[3] The historian Carol Helstosky explains that "the Futurist proposal to abolish pasta was intended to transform Italians from pasta-eating brigands and mandolin players to modern, active citizens.
The tilted seats and tables would "shake out" the diners' pre-conceived notions, while their taste buds would be overwhelmed by highly original dishes listed on aluminium cards.
Suggested equipment included: By the time Marinetti published La Cucina Futurista in 1932, a rift had developed between the Futurist movement and fascism, as evidenced by their contrasting orientation towards cuisine; the Futurists advocated for new methods of cooking, broadening the sensory experience, while Fascism worked to consolidate and spread classic "Italian" cuisine to the masses as a means of producing a modern and unified nation-state.
[10] According to Helstosky, "Italy’s mounting debt and growing dependence on external powers for subsistence" had become untenable by the end of World War I, and thus "food performed a great deal of cultural and political 'work' under fascism.
According to Daniele Conversi, a researcher in nationalism studies, "Aluminum was the futurist material par excellence: it was shiny, modern and entirely produced in Italy.
"[11] For the latter reason, Fascism too had embraced the material as Italy's national metal, which continues to be central to Italian identity due to its relationship with the preparation of coffee.
Doctors were measured in their response, agreeing that habitual consumption of pasta was fattening and recommending a varied diet; but Giovanni De Riseis, the Duke of Bovino and mayor of Naples, was firmer in his views: "The angels in Paradise," he told a reporter, "eat nothing but vermicelli al pomodoro [fine spaghetti with tomato sauce]."
The Futurists amused themselves and outraged the public by inventing preposterous new dishes, most of which were shocking due to their unusual combinations and exotic ingredients.
Elizabeth David, the cookery writer, comments that Marinetti's ideas about food contained a germ of common sense, but behind his jesting lay the Fascist obsession with nationalism.
[10] It has also been suggested that some of the autarkic ideals of Futurist cooking influenced Slow Food, an organization founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986.