If It’s Not Soup, It’s Soggy Bread: ZACMI Always Helps You (Right at Your Doorstep)

Alright, we know that the saying “If it’s not soup, it’s soggy bread” only makes sense in Italian. In English, for example, you might say “six of one, half a dozen of the other,” but the concept is the same: no matter how you look at it, nothing changes. ZACMI has structured a customer care system that supports the client at every moment, before, during, and after the purchase process.

It may sound like the usual cliché, but in this episode (No. 8) of the ZACMI Worldwide Tour, we will focus on Global Service and the importance this service holds, allowing us to provide maximum on-site support to our clients.

As always in this section, we will use a technical intervention we performed in England as a narrative device, at a large multinational company that produces, guess what… soups!

Now everything makes sense, right? So get ready for an exciting journey full of curiosities and anecdotes about soup. But first of all, we want to tell you everything about our Global Service. Happy reading!

ZACMI Global Service: Tech Wizards at Your Turf!

We are pleased to reprise the slogan of our section (Tech Wizards at Your Turf) to introduce the intervention we are discussing today. This time, we headed to England with our team of specialised technicians to carry out a series of adjustments to filling and seaming machines that, after a certain (very high, to be honest) number of working hours, required intervention to keep them highly efficient.

This is where Global Service comes into play: it is a service we provide thanks to the presence of national offices in our customers’ countries, through the mediation of one of our agents who is, indeed, on-site.
Thanks to this support, we can offer assistance in just a few minutes, even through phone, video, or interactive 3D augmented reality assistance.

Specifically, our agent carried out an audit to check the company’s machinery and was able to optimise the O.E.E. (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) to the maximum because he acted as a liaison, ensuring the correct choice of parts to be replaced and the immediate transmission of information to our headquarters, where the spare parts were quickly retrieved and the team dispatched to carry out the installation and restart production.

Thanks to this network of trusted local agents and technicians, the ZACMI team greatly enhances its breadth and presence in different national territories, significantly facilitating customer relations, minimising response times, and ensuring customers have contact persons they can rely on in their own country.
Not only pre-sales support, therefore, but also post-sales support, for the entire long life of ZACMI machines.

A real, concrete, tangible added value that we like to emphasise; not the usual soup of vague promises from certain types of advertising…

But speaking of soup, what is the difference between soup and broth? And why is soup called soup?

What Does Soup Mean? From Soggy Bread…

The term “soup” comes from the Gothic “suppa”, meaning “slice of soaked bread.” This (and here we are with the explanation of the title) illustrates the origin of the saying “If it’s not soup, it’s soggy bread,” which emphasises that soup and soggy bread are essentially the same thing.

The term “soup” is more recent than “broth,” as it first appeared between the 15th and 16th centuries, while “broth” has been attested since the 1200s.

Soup is thicker and more substantial than broth, being cooked, in fact, with much less liquid. Broth, on the other hand, contains pasta, rice, or barley in addition to vegetables and has a more liquid consistency.

But how was soup born?

In the Middle Ages, wealthy lords would eat meats and other foods using large slices of bread as plates, which were then given to the servants.

The servants would cook these pieces of bread—soaked with juices and condiments—along with vegetables in pots full of water, thus giving rise to “suppa.”

We are therefore talking about a popular and peasant dish, born out of the need to use up leftovers and other available ingredients, which then took on its own identity to become a standalone dish, with myriad local variants (we will talk about these shortly) and gourmet versions that are mouth-watering!

…to Gourmet Dish: the Velouté

Soup, therefore, is a humble dish that has spread around the world, with variations reflecting culinary traditions, local crops, and personal tastes. Similar terms exist in various languages such as “suppe” in German, “sopa” in Spanish, “soupe” in French, and “soup” in English.

Despite being a popular and traditional dish, soup can be transformed into gourmet food with the addition of high-quality ingredients and sophisticated preparation techniques. In this case, it is often called a velouté.
Think, for example, of zucchini, potato, and leek velouté, a perfect vegetarian recipe for any season, with an intense and delicate flavour.
French onion soup gratinée, on the other hand, is a traditional French recipe with an intense and delicate flavour.
And again, legume and cereal soup, an ideal recipe for vegetarians and vegans, and now very fashionable in many restaurants (even Michelin-starred ones).

We could talk for hours about soup: mussel soup, miso soup, fish soup, Imperial soup (a first course made from semolina, eggs, grated Parmesan, and a little butter, cut into cubes and cooked in the oven and meat broth typical of our culinary tradition here in Emilia-Romagna), and many other variants; so many that we lose count.

However, here we also like to dig a little deeper and, for this reason, we offer you a brief overview of the strangest and most peculiar soups in the world.

The Strangest Soups in the World. And the Most Popular Ones in Europe

Here are some of the most curious and interesting variations of soups around the world, divided by major geographical areas:

Oriental Variants

• Tom Yum (Thailand) – Spicy soup made with coconut milk, fish, tofu, and vegetables such as white cabbage, bean sprouts, cucumber, and lettuce.
• Phô (Vietnam) – Soup made with meat broth flavoured with local herbs and spices.
• Lamak (Malaysia) – Spicy vermicelli soup with coconut milk, fish, tofu, and vegetables.

Latin American Variants

• Locro de papas (Ecuador) – Typical potato soup cooked in broth, with added cheese, cumin, and avocado.
• Posole (Mexico) – Pork and corn soup flavoured with cumin, oregano, chilli, and coriander.
• Callaloo (Virgin Islands) – Typical Caribbean dish made with leafy greens (most commonly amaranth, taro, xanthosoma, and water spinach, the latter especially outside the Caribbean), often served during popular festivities.

European Variants

• Cullen skink (Scotland) – Soup made with smoked fish and potatoes, flavoured with horseradish and nutmeg.
• Ärtsoppa (Sweden) – Swedish national soup made with split peas and pork, spiced with cloves, black mustard, and sometimes ginger.
• Bogrács gulyás (Hungary) – Goulash soup cooked in a cauldron, a typical dish of the Puszta herdsmen.

The most popular traditional soups in Europe, on the other hand, are:

• Russian Borscht: A beet soup that can be served hot or cold, with variants spread throughout Eastern Europe.
• French Onion Soup: A classic French soup made with caramelised onions in a beef broth, topped with toasted bread and melted Gruyère cheese.
• Italian Minestrone: A thick vegetable soup, often with added pasta or rice, and sometimes both.
• Spanish and Portuguese Gazpacho: A cold vegetable-based soup, particularly refreshing during the summer months.
• Norwegian Fiskesuppe: A smoked fish and potato soup, typical of Northern Europe.
• Finnish Mykyrokka: A potato and vegetable soup, popular in Finland.
• French Bouillabaisse: A fish soup with at least four species of fish such as scorpionfish, red mullet, conger eel, and gurnard, served with rouille, a breadcrumb, olive oil, saffron, and chilli sauce.
• Castilian Sopa de Ajo: A soup of Serrano ham, lots of garlic, and smoked paprika in a meat broth, with poached eggs.

I know your mouth is already watering, but wait until you hear about the most famous traditional Italian soups…

Italy, a Country of… Soups

Let’s start with fish soups:

• Brodetto di Pesce – A fish soup typical of the Marche region, with a recipe that varies from city to city (for example, Brodetto Fanese). It contains a variety of fish in a flavoured broth.
• Cacciucco alla Livornese – A fish soup typical of Livorno, made with various types of fish, tomato, garlic, and chilli.
• Buridda Genovese – A fish soup typical of Liguria, with cod, potatoes, onions, and olives.

As for meat soups, we have several delicacies:

• Minestra Maritata – A meat soup typical of Campania, with pork, vegetables, and aromatic herbs.
• Minestra d’Orzo – A meat and barley soup, common in various Italian regions.

And finally, vegetable and legume soups:

• Crapiata Materana – A cereal and legume soup typical of Matera, in Basilicata.
• Licurdia Calabrese – A soup made with Tropea red onions, potatoes, caciocavallo cheese, and chilli, typical of Calabria.
• Mesciua di La Spezia – A legume and cereal soup, such as chickpeas, beans, and spelt, typical of Liguria.

There are many more to mention, but among them, the famous… Zuppa inglese (literally:. English soup) stands out. Why this name?

Zuppa Inglese is Not a Soup. And It’s Not English.

We know, the topic was a bit predictable at this point, but we are talking about soup, and we sent our technicians to England: how could we not mention this dish?

Let’s start with a couple of things: Zuppa Inglese is not a soup. And it’s not English. But this, we imagine, you already know.

In fact, it is a spoon dessert, typically Italian, originating from Emilia-Romagna (according to us, who are extremely biased!) or perhaps Tuscany, made at the beginning of the 19th century.
Its creator, according to the most popular narrative, would have been the Roman cook Vincenzo Agnoletti, who was inspired by a Lombard dessert.
The recipe would then have evolved under the influence of Italo-French pastry and ancient Tuscan recipes.

In short, it is a soup in the sense of a heterogeneous mix of ingredients, origins, and culinary influences, it seems.

One thing is certain: the name “Zuppa Inglese” is, we understand, misleading, as this dessert has nothing English about it. Its name probably derives from the inspiration of the English “trifle cake,” but this hypothesis has no supporting evidence. It also seems that Agnoletti proposed it to English sailors who were enthusiastic about it.

But what are the ingredients of this dish? Here they are:

1. Custard (sometimes also chocolate)
2. Sponge cake or ladyfingers soaked in liqueurs such as Alchermes, Rosolio, or rum
3. Italian meringue

It is a layered dessert, with alternating layers of custard and soaked biscuits.

Variations may include different liqueurs, creams, or types of biscuits.

As we said, the origins of Zuppa Inglese are controversial, with several locations claiming its paternity, such as Ferrara, Florence, our beautiful Parma, and Mantua.
The dessert has spread mainly in Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany and has become one of the typical desserts of the Italian culinary tradition.
The first codification of the recipe, for the curious, can be found in Pellegrino Artusi’s work “La Scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene.“

A Soup for Every Nation

As we have seen, from a humble and peasant food, soup has become a widespread dish around the world and in all cultures, with an infinity of variations and modifications that leave ample room for imagination.

We deliberately tried to highlight national and local variations because, as always, this device was useful for reiterating the main focus of this article: the local assistance that ZACMI’s Global Service provides to its customers, with specialised offices located in different countries and trusted men in every corner of the globe.

Okay, we concede, the comparison this time is a bit forced, but what matters, in the end, is that the concept is clear: ZACMI is always 5 minutes from your home, wherever you are!