Oh, boy, here’s what I think happened, but this is probably going to change in the future:
Renata is Italian, and moved to France, where she met Gusteau and they got “very close”. After they separated, Alfredo was born, and the Linguinis moved to America, where Linguini got his American accent. Later, after Renata died, Linguini moved to France to get the job that his mother told him to get, a job at Gusteau’s Restaraunt. Voila!
Linguini’s got to be American. No French or Italian accent.
Can’t really say Amen to that - Remy is French as French can be, but ditto, no accent. They just made the two main male characters keep their American accents. And Emile, and Django. In fact, all the non-Parisian characters - incidentally, the ones who don’t belong to the world of haute cuisine - have American accents. All the Parisians and the real’ chefs have French (or German, cf. Horst) accents, even Mustafa, the headwaiter. Ego, with his English accent, is the one exception.
You’re probably right - Linguini is Italian - it makes sense geographically and from his and his mom’s names. No America for me, though - to me, it’s just too far outside the realm of the movie.
I did some more thinking last night, and here’s what came out of the migraine:
Auguste has to be French. Alfredo has to be American. However, Alfredo’s last name is Linguini, which is Italian. Alfredo got his last name from his mother, Renata Linguini. Renata could be Italian, and that’s where Alfredo got his last name, and maybe because of Renata’s Italian heritage (or something like that), she named him Alfredo. Now, how did Linguini get his American accent? Lou Romano, of course! xD Just kidding. One idea is that he and his mother could be immigrants to France, from America. Maybe Linguini was born in France, when Renata and Auguste were “very close”, and when they split up, Renata and Alfredo moved to America (this reason I know not at the moment), and before Renata died, she gave Alfredo the inheritance and told him to move back to France to get the job at Gusteau’s Restaraunt, and then Alfredo meets a little rat chef, and you get Ratatouille!
Hopefully, someone will come up with another theory soon. xD
I don’t know about Linguini being a nerd, but he certainly is a dork. In a good way. 
Remy is a rat, so I doubt he would eat meat but as far as I know, he has no problem with preparing meals with meat because he knows that’s what humans eat.
Linguini’s not a dork; he’s just clumsy whenever he tries to do something he doesn’t know how to do (that’s hw most people are, anyway).
I’ll have to agree with you there, A113 concerning Linguini’s nationality. I just don’t get why they didn’t just give them all French accents- it would’ve saved a lot of confusion. 
A friend of mine, going by the username red, has some things to say (For those who don’t know, I have a friend who, for certain reasons, cannot get an account on Pixar Planet. I’m relaying messages to you guys from her. 
)!
A113:
You were initially the one who wanted to read my fanfic, correct? Well, here is my theory to all of this based on the fanfic:
(I have given this a lot of thought, btw!)
Okay, so this is it -
Renata Linguini was born in Italy, but due to an accident, her parents were killed. Her father somehow had connections with (don’t ask - I made this up just to make it interesting. 
) Anton Ego, and he and his older sister Maura took her in as an infant.
When Renata was older (7th grade), Maura decided to turn their mansion into a finishing school for girls (she is a grammar master, and her influences on Anton over the years has caused him to develop an acute knowledge for writing). This draws in several American girls from high-end families and greatly influences her speaking style, as well as dissolved her Italian accent (she may even have started to pick up an English/British accent). So this might explain the accent.
Now, later in the story (1988 according to moi), her junior year, her best friend Larousse (I mentioned this in “WHO IS THIS?”) hooks her up w/ Auguste Gusteau and they - well, you know…
So Alfredo comes along (June 29, 1989 in the story… hehe). Since Renata has no family, she still lives w/ the Egos and the girls until she turns 18. But Skinner and Auguste were close, and yet Auguste kept his mouth shut about “Renata things… and Alfredo things!” (in Skinner’s own words); but, of course, Skinner eventually found out.
He’s so mad @ Auguste that he threatens to kill Renata and her son. Auguste warns her of this, and helps them both flee to Sicily. When they get there, though, Renata’s brother Romero gets mad and plots to kill them, too. So then they move back to Paris. Renata is later killed by a “certain someone” just before Alfredo turns 7.
And no - she was not killed in front of Alfredo. Rather, he was locked in a closet while it all happened.
So, basically what I’m saying is - Renata may have been more Italian in blood rather than in mannerisms. Sorry my story plot is so complex. If you’re having any confusion or questions, please notify JesusFreak. =P Hope this gives you something to chew on!
thanx 4 reading!
- red -
PS - If you’re wondering where Alfredo went after Renata’s murder (because it apparently wasn’t w/ Auguste), check out the topic “WHO IS THIS?” by JesusFreak.
-Just a side note before I leave - I believe that since Alfredo mainly lived with his mother most of his life, he may have picked up his insecure demeanor and shy personality from Renata; who (as I portrayed her in the story) was a very self-conscious, troubled girl (So you can imagine that having Alfredo while still in school caused her to isolate herself and only caused those wounds of rejection to gouge deeper into her soul. Okay, let’s not get emotional now… -
red: That’s an extremely interesting theory! I still can’t wait to read your fanfic!
I think it would make things a little bit easier if we all named our theories, instead of calling it “RMSH’s theory 2” or “A113’s theory 5”. I’m going to name my next theory now:
The Cactus Theory
Looking closely at the stuff in Linguini’s apartment (both of them), you can see a potted cactus plant. There are no desert in Europe, so he could not have gotten it from Italy or France, so it has to be from either North America or South America, assuming that the cactus is real. This gives more reason to believe that Alfredo is American; it is a reminder of his American heritage.
What do you think?
I dont know. Maybe it was a souvineir. 
Red- A very interesting theory! It’s certainly got some very interesting details!
A113- Anyone can have a cactus. I’ve got one in my bedroom; you don’t need to live anywhere near a desert to be in possession of one.
I understand that, but the cactus obviously did not grow in France iykwim. Oh, well, that theory wasn’t the best I’ve come up with. xD
You’ve got a cactus? Cool!
This is really confusing. 
I think I want to add in my Linguini “theory” that I came up with on the fly. I might call it nature/nurture, I dunno.
Anyway, as far as his personality, I really wanna say “idiot savant” maybe not a complete idiot, but he appears to do scads better when he’s in his skates. Kinda like Dumbo can only fly when he has the feather (up until the end anyway).
Well, at least his coordination seems to get better when he’s skating.
As far as accent, that might be where the nature/nurture comes in. I haven’t kept this up in a while, so things might have changed but I remember something like if you grow up with certain people, you develop the same traits. ie: If your parents had accents, you’ll most likely have one too.
We don’t know if Renata had an Italian accent or not, but maybe she didn’t so Linguini didn’t develop one either. Now I don’t know where she wouldn’t get an accent being Italian. I’m not sure how many people don’t have accents if they’re from a different county because of all the different languages being spoken. So I guess that could kinda tie in to Red’s theory too.
And as far as rats eating meat, I just keep thinking about all the CSI and Bones episodes where some poor guy drops dead, and the rats are all “FREE BUFFET!” and start eating him, but that probably doesn’t apply to the movie, LOL.
red - That is one ingenious theory right there. It ties in with the story and makes for a dramatic result, with Skinner being a certified murderer and all. If only it were true (or…is it…?)…
– Mitch
I found a strange picture in mabel’s house. here are the directions to find it.
go to the spot where mabel is using her gun.
Pause it at the place just before remy flies through the air to the other side of the chandelier.
Look in the bottom left corner. You should see a picture of a thing with huge eyes using a gun or baseball bat looking thing.
I was wondering if Linguini said “I don’t really drink you know” then why would he have wine in his apartment? Got any ideas?
K9Girl- Maybe Linguini bought it just for the occasion.
Or he might also use it in cooking, if he’s trying to be an aspiring chef.
K9Girl: Thanks a lot. I’ve got a headache now. LOL Maybe he was trying to make a good impression?
Martin:
lizardgirl: Well, you could clearly see that he was drinking it from a glass in the apartment, but I’ve seen many chefs use wine in nearly everything, even soup! 
Nerds have to be good at something. Linguini is just a typical insecure teenager.
Remy is definitely a vegetarian. That’s one of the reasons he’s so cool. I don’t recall seeing any meat in that movie, except for fish. Actually, I don’t think I’ve seen meat being eaten in any Pixar movie. Real ants and other bugs eat meat, but the ones in A Bug’s Life only gathered seeds.
An animal cooking other animals is weird. It’s like cannibalism, because in cartoons it’s assumed that all animals can talk to each other.
In France everyone drinks wine, from a very young age. It’s considered part of dinner. When he said he doesn’t really drink he probably meant he doesn’t know much about wine or he doesn’t like to get drunk.