cioppino

Cioppino is a tomato-based seafood stew born on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco in the late 19th century. The name likely comes from the Genoese dialect word ciuppin, meaning 'to chop' or 'to chop up'—referring to the rough cutting of fish scraps. Some etymologists connect it to ciuppin, a fish stew from Liguria. Others suggest it came from the English phrase 'chip in,' as fishermen contributed whatever they caught to the communal pot.

The Italian immigrants who dominated San Francisco's fishing fleet in the 1800s were mostly from Genoa and Sicily. They fished for Dungeness crab, shrimp, clams, mussels, and whatever white fish the Pacific offered. At the end of the day, the unsold catch went into a big pot with tomatoes, wine, garlic, and olive oil. The Portuguese fishermen of the same wharf had a nearly identical tradition—caldeirada—and the two merged.

Tommaso's Restaurant on Kearny Street and the Tadich Grill, both in San Francisco, claim versions of cioppino dating to the early 1900s. The dish became the city's culinary emblem, served in sourdough bread bowls on the wharf. By the mid-20th century, cioppino was on menus from Seattle to San Diego, though San Francisco insists it is theirs.

Cioppino has no fixed recipe beyond the principle: seafood, tomato broth, bread for soaking. Like its Ligurian ancestor ciuppin, it was always a dish of necessity, not design. The fisherman's stew that started as a way to use leftovers now costs forty dollars a bowl on Fisherman's Wharf. The irony is structural.