Carpaccio is an Italian dish, mainly an appetizer, made of very thin slices of raw beef. It is usually flavoured with olive oil, parmesan cheese and capers or pine seeds. Nowadays also other types of meat and fish (particularly salmon) are being used.
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The name carpaccio is, according to legend, derived from the Italian Renaissance painter, Vittore Carpaccio (c.1455/65-1525/26). In 1950 chef Giuseppe Cipriani from Venice served thinly sliced beef to a customer who could not eat cooked beef. He named the dish in honour of the painter, whose works were exhibited in Venice in that year. Although a lot of Carpaccio's paintings survive, none has a food-related theme¡