Pizza Hawaii “a real sacrilege”: Italy wants its kitchen protected by UNESCO

Italy doesn’t take jokes when it comes to traditional food – especially since the appointment of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet. Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policy, in particular, has set herself the goal of protecting the purity of Italian cuisine.

The responsible ministry is now taking concrete measures for this: a dossier has been drawn up to convince UNESCO to include Italian cuisine in the list of intangible cultural heritage. According to the official application file, it involves “a series of social practices, rituals and gestures based on a variety of local knowledge”. This mosaic of traditions reflects the country’s biocultural diversity. Or to put it in the words of Lollobrigida: “Italian cuisine is a treasure and must be defended.”

The desire to have Italian cuisine declared a UNESCO cultural heritage is no coincidence. The experimental handling of Italian recipes is a thorn in the side of some dining traditionalists. For example, agricultural association Coldiretti recently complained that Italian dishes abroad were so distorted that the original dish was no longer recognizable.

The Hawaiian pizza is especially annoying for Coldiretti – pizza topped with tomatoes, mozzarella, cooked ham and, particularly problematic, pineapple. “A real sacrilege,” Coldiretti scolded. Pineapple is fine for dessert, but not as a topping.

As another example, Coldiretti mentioned the popular American dish “mac and cheese”, ie pasta with cheese, which, however, has nothing in common with the Italian pasta tradition. “That’s why it’s important to protect Italian cuisine by recognizing it as a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” said Coldiretti president Ettore Prandini.

If Italian cuisine were actually designated a UNESCO cultural heritage, this would not be a first. Traditional Japanese cuisine Washoku has been a cultural heritage since 2013, Mexican cuisine since 2010. (dab)