Scampi invented in NOLA??? WTF?

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Shrimp scampi

Scampi has two meanings: the name of a shrimp (Italian word) and the name of the dish. Shrimp scampi, as we Americans know it today, became popular after World War II. This was when many Italian dishes went "mainstream." According to our sources, "scampi" is not one set recipe, but a generic name applied to several dishes variously composed of shrimp. Notes here:

"What is scampi?"...is asked frequently of this department, and a quick check disclosed that it is also asked of fishmongers and Italian restauranteurs. Although the answers received will probably vary with every source consulted, they do fall into two basic categories: a type of shrimp or a preparation of shrimp. Howevever, the ramifications within these two categories are bewildering. In an effort to get an unromantic, unbiased definition of the word; Italian dictionaries of all sizes were consulted. Unfortunately they were peculiarly silent on the subject...Italian cookbooks yielded more relevant, but scarcely more helpful information. Most offered recipes for "scampi" or "shrimp scampi style" and such recipes generally (but not always) called for jumbo shrimp, olive oil, garilc and parsley. "Preparation varies. The methods of cooking, however, varied from boiling to broiling and from frying to baking. Some called for shelling the shrimp in advance; others recommended serving the dish only to "people who are willing to remove the shells at table." Some called for marinating the shellfish in advance; others did not. One even introduced a bread crumb topping. All this would seem to point to the fact that scampi is not, after all, a particular method of preparing shrimp. Some cookbooks and most persons consulted agreed with this and generally (but, again, not always) deveined scampi as shellfish native to the Adriatic (notably the Bay of Venice) that are not available in this country. But the specifications of the shellfish varied from that of a small shrimp to that of a lobster tail and a flavor from similar to Mexican shrimp to unlike anything else. The most authoritative answer came from Mrs. Hedy Giusti-Lanham, who styled herself "practically a scampo--alothough not quite as pink as I should be--because the best ones come from Venice, where I am from." "Plump little beasts. "What are scampi?" she asked rhetorically..."The are like shrimps in this country, only smaller. The larger ones, like the jumbo here, are called scampi imperali; but the normal scampi are quite small. The are plump little beasts and are quite round when they sit on the plate, because the tails curl in close." "No one where I come from would put a heavy sauce on top, like in shrimp cocktail." she commented. "They are usually thrown into heavy boiling water, then deveined and shelled and served lukewarm. Or they may be broiled by basting the shells with oil and putting them under the broiled or over charcoal and basting them while they cook. The shells get very dark and crack when the inside is done. They are served with their shells on. You put a little olive oil and a little lemon on them as you take them out of the shells, and a little pepper--but no salt. Garlic? Oh, no, no, no. They have such flavor that anything else would be an insult." Asked whether there was a great difference between scampi and American-style shrimp, Mrs. Guisti-Lanhan replied: "They are a similar type of person but the accent is very different."
---"Food News: Italian Ways With Scampi," Nan Ickeringill, New York Times, November 17, 1964 (p. 44)
"Scampi. A Venetian term, dating in English print to 1920, that isn America refers to shrimp cooked in garlic, butter, lemon juice, and white wine, commonly listed on menus as "shrimp scampi." The true scampo (scampi is the plural) of Italy is a small lobster or prawn, of the family Nephropidae, which in America is called a "lobsterette.""
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 286)

"Scampi. We seem not to have discovered this simple Italian way of cooking shrimp until after World War II. Certainly scampi weren't familiar beyond big metropolitan areas."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 139)
[NOTE: The earliest reference to shrimp scampi in the New York Times is a restaurant advertisement published May 9, 1956 for The Tenakill Restaurant in Englewood NJ]

"In the latter part of the 20th century the Norway lobster became a standard item on British menus, usually under the Italian name scampi. This reflects the fact that Italians in the Adriatic had for long appreciated it, and had many recipes for scampi cooked in this or that way, which became famouns to tourists."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 541)

"Scampi is the plural of the word scampo, 'shrimp', a word of unkown origin. It started to filter into English in the 1920s, but it was not really until the 1950s and 1960s that it began to make headway. This coincided with a boom in popularity of a dish consisting of large prawn tails coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried: scampi and chips became a staple on cafe and restaurant menus. Soon scampi had well and truly ousted the native English Dublin Bay prawns."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2003 (p. 303-4)

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