You may think that milanesa napolitana or milanesa alla Napoli is from Italy. But the dish actually was invented in Argentina. Legend has is that the chef José Napoli, the owner of the restaurant Napoli in Buenos Aires fried his last cutlet a bit too dark in the 1940s. So when one of his regulars asked for a “milanesa” or cutlet and that was the only one left, he improvised and place ham, cheese, and tomatoe sauce on top camouflaging the burnt parts. His guest got excited, thus making this “milanes napolitana” as José decided to call his invention a regular and popular dish on the menu in his restaurant. It didn’t take long for it to become famous in all of Argentina and is served nowadays worldwide with a lot of Argentine pride.
