The carbonara? She's American. Parmesan cheese? The original one is made in Wisconsin. Panettone and tiramisu? No tradition, they are recent inventions.
The Financial Times attacks Italian cuisine and makes Coldiretti go on a rampage.
The British newspaper gives space to Alberto Grandi, food historian and professor at the University of Parma: «The famous and notoriously inflexible Italian food culture, promoted by the country's purists and 'gastronationalists', is partly based on lies, invented recipes from conglomerates or food imported from America. From carbonara to panettone to tiramisu, many Italian culinary classics are modern inventions, argues food historian and professor Alberto Grandi in his podcast and books.
«Surreal attack on the symbolic dishes of our cuisine precisely on the occasion of the announcement of its candidacy for intangible heritage of humanity at Unesco», replies Coldiretti, who labels the reconstructions reported on FT as «imaginative»
«Basically, the Americans would have invented carbonara and panettone and tiramisu are recent commercial products, but above all we even go so far as to hypothesize that the original Parmigiano Reggiano is the one produced in Wisconsin in the USA, the homeland of fake cheeses Made in Italy".
Something that "would make you smile if it weren't for its worrying economic and employment implications", underlines Coldiretti, according to which "the lack of clarity on Made in Italy recipes offers fertile ground for the proliferation of fake Italian food products abroad".
What Coldiretti calls "global agro-piracy against Italy" has reached a turnover of 120 billion and the most fake products are precisely the cheeses. Cured meats are also very cloned.
(Unioneonline/L)