The Carbonara from Oishinbo (using butter, heavy cream, and bacon) often becomes a topic of conversation. For a long time, I looked down on it with a smirk, thinking, "It's so typical of that era to proudly show off such a localized Japanese recipe."
Before I go any further, let me say: I am truly, deeply sorry.
Furthermore, this type of Carbonara is still the mainstream in Japan today. I had always treated it as "Japanese-style Carbonara"—a bastardized recipe created by Japanese people. I was wrong. I am truly, deeply sorry.
So, within the scope of my research, I would like to take this opportunity to record the truth about this matter as both an atonement and a correction.
For those who don't want to read a long text, here is a brief summary: The Carbonara in *Oishinbo* was not a mistake at all at that time; rather, it was a full-fledged orthodox version. If you enjoy tedious details, please read on.
Carbonara is a relatively young dish born after the war, and the US occupation forces were deeply involved in its birth. While there are dissenting opinions and theories that a prototype existed before the war, I will proceed with the former as the mainstream theory among researchers.
Now, Carbonara started with "salted meat + Parmigiano + dried egg powder," but since it wasn't a traditional dish, it diversified rapidly after that. Garlic was added, onions were added, various salted meats were used, wine was added, parsley was added... and so on. It was perhaps natural that many chefs saw potential in this new dish and put in various efforts.
In that context, heavy cream was naturally used as well. Recipes including heavy cream began to appear from the 1960s onwards. By the way, regarding salted meat, people nowadays say things like, "Bacon is unthinkable; it should be guanciale, though pancetta might be acceptable," but it was during this era that guanciale first appeared in recipes. It also seems that Parmigiano began to be replaced by Pecorino around this time.
Then, in the 1980s, the use of heavy cream spread rapidly. With about 60 to 100g of heavy cream for 100g of pasta, this is the same as, or perhaps even more than, "Japanese-style Carbonara." I don't know if it could be called the mainstream at the time, but I feel certain it was one of the peaks of Carbonara's diversification. This was brought to Japan, gained explosive popularity, and continues to this day. What Oishinbo introduced was exactly this.
From around that era, Italian cuisine underwent thorough branding. The strong image we have today—that "Italian cuisine is a collection of regional and traditional dishes"—was constructed from this point. This is partly speculation, but I suspect there was also a strong sense of rivalry against French cuisine. It was a stage where Italian cuisine moved from trying to catch up with and overtake French (and formerly British/American) cuisine to establishing its own identity.
Following that trend, Carbonara recipes converged into a single point. They shifted from "various Carbonaras as sophisticated restaurant dishes crafted by chefs" to "the correct Carbonara traditionally made as a regional dish." A recipe that was "seemingly simple and powerful" was adopted. In other words, the world of "Guanciale, Pecorino, Egg, and that's it!" While pancetta or Parmigiano might be tolerated, things like bacon or heavy cream were absolutely forbidden.
In a way, it is a falsification of history or a fabricated tradition. However, it's not merely a product of marketing; it might be the "In the end, this is what tastes best" conclusion that Italians reached at the end of Carbonara's not-so-long history. It feels close to what Goro Inogashira (from Kodoku no Gurume) says: "This is exactly how it should be."
In other words, Japanese people had the "ladder pulled out from under them" in the 1990s. It's like, "We learned the god-tier recipe you reached in the 80s and made it go viral in Japan, and now you're treating it as heterodox!?" For Italian restaurants founded in the 1980s or for Tetsu Kariya (the author of Oishinbo), it must have been unbearable.
However, as a practical matter, at least in terms of popularity, this 80s-style Carbonara still boasts immense popularity in Japan. It feels somewhat similar to how demi-glace sauce, which French cuisine buried as a thing of the past long ago, continues to be loved in Japan.
As a final side note, I personally prefer the Carbonara that is clumpy with hard cheese and contains no cream or bacon. I'm a "Heisei Pasta Man" who has been completely taken in by Italian branding. But this is just a matter of like/dislike, not a matter of right/wrong. Yet, I once spoke about it in the context of right/wrong.
I am truly, deeply sorry.
