The origins of tiramisù are traced back to Treviso restaurant.

Ado Campeol, hailed by the Italian media as "il papà di Tiramisù", has died aged 93.

Campeol was the owner of the historic Alle Beccherie restaurant in Treviso, northern Italy, where tiramisù is said to have been invented in 1969.

The creation of the dessert, which would go on to achieve global stardom, happened by chance during the making of vanilla ice cream when a little mascarpone cheese ended up in the egg and sugar mixture.

After tasting the concoction on coffee-soaked savoiardi biscuits (also known as lady fingers), the recipe was perfected by Campeol's wife Alba Di Pillo with chef Roberto Linguanotto.

The culinary creation was christened "Tirame Sù'' (which became Tiramisù), a name that translates as "pick me up".

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The dish was added to the restaurant's menu formally in 1972 however it did not appear in print until it featured in a 1981 issue of Veneto, a quarterly magazine dedicated to food and wine.

In his Veneto column, gourmet Giuseppe Maffioli wrote about tiramisu, identifying Campeol and Le Beccherie as the source of what at the time was a little-known dessert.

The invention, which would be claimed by others over the years, was never patented by the Campeol family, and this favoured the flourishing of various recipes and other versions of its origins.

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The enormous international success of the dessert gave rise to a commercial battle over its paternity, in particular between the Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto regions of northern Italy.

But according to the Tiramisù Academy, its "almost certain" origins can be traced back to Alle Beccherie in Treviso.

The governor of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia, expressed his condolences to the Campeol family on Saturday, saying: "Treviso loses another star in its food and wine history."