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Italian The food is known and loved around the world for its fresh ingredients and delicious taste, but on Wednesday, the United Nations cultural agency gave foodies yet another reason to celebrate their pizza, pasta and tiramisu by listing Italian cooking as part of the world’s “intangible” cultural heritage.
UNESCO Customs related to the preparation and consumption of Italian food were added to the list of the world’s traditional practices and expressions. It is a designation celebrated alongside the more famous UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, on which Italy Well represented with places like RomeThe Colosseum and the ancient city of Pompeii.
The quote does not mention specific dishes, recipes or regional specialties, but highlights the cultural importance Italians place on cooking and eating rituals: the Sunday family lunch, the tradition of grandmothers teaching grandchildren how to knead tortellini dough, even the act of coming together to share a meal.
“Cooking is a sign of love, a way we tell others something about ourselves and how we care for others,” said Pier Luigi Petrillo, a member of the Italian UNESCO campaign and professor of comparative law at La Sapienza University of Rome.
“The tradition of being present at the table, staying a little longer at lunch, staying a little longer at dinner and staying even longer on big occasions, is not very common around the world,” he said.
Prime georgia melloni He celebrated the designation, which he said respected Italians and their national identity.
“Because for us Italians, cuisine is not just food or a collection of dishes. It is much more than that: it is culture, tradition, work, wealth,” he said in a statement.
This is by no means the first time that a country’s cuisine has been recognized as a cultural expression: in 2010, UNESCO listed the “Gastronomic Cuisine of France” as part of the world’s intangible heritage, highlighting the French tradition of celebrating important moments with food.
In recent years other national dishes and the cultural practices surrounding them have also been added: the “cider culture” of the Asturian region of Spain, the Siebu Zen culinary tradition of Senegal, the traditional way of cheese making in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
UNESCO meets every year to consider adding new cultural practices or expressions to the list of so-called “intangible heritage”. There are three types: one is a representative list, the second is a list of practices that are in “urgent” need to be protected and the third is a list of good security practices.
This year, the committee meeting in New Delhi considered 53 nominations for the representative list, which already had 788 items. Other nominees include Swiss yodeling, Bangladesh’s handloom weaving technique used to make Tangail sarees and Chile’s family circus.
In its presentation, Italy emphasized the “sustainability and bio-cultural diversity” of its cuisine. Its campaign notes how Italy’s simple cuisine values seasonality, fresh produce and limiting waste, while its diversity highlights its regional culinary differences and the influences of immigrants and others.
“For me, Italian cuisine is the best, the top of the range. Number one. Nothing comes close to it,” said Francesco Lenzi, who makes pasta at Rome’s Osteria da Fortunata restaurant, near Piazza Navona. “There are people who say ‘No, spaghetti comes from China.’ Okay, fine, but here we are, turning noodles into a global phenomenon. Wherever you go in the world today, everyone knows the word Spaghetti. Everyone knows pizza.”
Lenzi attributed his passion to his grandmother, who was “queen of this big house by the sea” in Camoglie, a small village on the Ligurian coast, where he grew up. “I remember on Sundays she would make ravioli with a rolling pin.”
“It stayed with me for many years,” he said in the restaurant’s kitchen.
Mirella Pozzoli, a tourist visiting Rome’s Pantheon from the Lombardy region of northern Italy, said that eating together was what was special to Italians:
“Sitting down at the table with family or friends is something that we Italians cherish and care about deeply. It’s a tradition of sociability that you won’t find anywhere else in the world.”
Italy already has 13 other cultural objects on UNESCO’s intangible list, including Sicilian puppet theatre, Cremona’s violin craftsmanship and the practice of moving livestock along seasonal migratory routes, known as transhumance.
Italy had appeared on two previous food-related lists: a 2013 citation for the “Mediterranean diet” that included Italy and a half-dozen other countries, and a 2017 recognition of Naples’ pizza makers.
Italian campaign member Petrillo said that since 2017, the number of schools accredited to train Neapolitan pizza makers has increased by more than 400%.
“Following UNESCO recognition, there were significant economic impacts on both tourism and product sales, as well as education and training,” he said.
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