Italian cooking earns UNESCO 'intangible' heritage status

Italian food is known and loved around the world for its fresh ingredients and palatepleasing tastes but on Wednesday the UNs cultural agency gave foodies another reason to celebrate their pizza pasta and tiramisu by listing Italian cooking as part of the worlds intangible cultural heritageUNESCO added the rituals surrounding Italian food preparation and consumption to its list of the worlds traditional practices and expressions Its a designation celebrated alongside the more wellknown UNESCO list of world heritage sites on which Italy is well represented with locations like Romes Colosseum and the ancient city of PompeiiThe citation didnt mention specific dishes recipes or regional specialities but highlighted the cultural importance Italians place on the rituals of cooking and eating the Sunday family lunch the tradition of grandmothers teaching grandchildren how to fold tortellini dough just so even the act of coming together to share a mealCooking is a gesture of love a way in which we tell something about ourselves to others and how we take care of others said Pier Luigi Petrillo a member of the Italian UNESCO campaign and professor of comparative law at Romes La Sapienza UniversityThis tradition of being at the table of stopping for a while at lunch a bit longer at dinner and even longer for big occasions its not very common around the world he saidPM Giorgia Meloni celebrated the designation which she said honoured Italians and their national identityBecause for us Italians cuisine is not just food or a collection of recipes It is much more it is culture tradition work wealth she said in a statementIts by no means the first time a countrys cuisine has been recognised as a cultural expression In 2010 UNESCO listed the gastronomic meal of the French as part of the worlds intangible heritage highlighting the French custom of celebrating important moments with foodOther national cuisines and cultural practices surrounding them have also been added in recent years the cider culture of Spains Asturian region the Ceebu Jen culinary tradition of Senegal and the traditional way of making cheese in Minas Gerais BrazilUNESCO meets every year to consider adding new cultural practices or expressions to its lists of socalled intangible heritage There are three types One is a representative list another is a list of practices that are in urgent need of safeguarding and the third is a list of good safeguarding practicesThis year the committee meeting in New Delhi considered 53 nominations for the representative list which already had 788 items Other nominees included the Swiss yodelling the handloom weaving technique used to make Bangladeshs Tangail sarees and Chiles family circusesIn its submission Italy emphasised the sustainability and biocultural diversity of its food Its campaign noted how Italys simple cuisine valued seasonality fresh produce and limiting waste while its variety highlighted its regional culinary differences and influences from migrants and othersFor me Italian cuisine is the best top of the range Number one Nothing comes close said Francesco Lenzi a pasta maker at Romes Osteria da Fortunata restaurant near the Piazza Navona There are people who say No spaghetti comes from China Okay fine but here we have turned noodles into a global phenomenon Today wherever you go in the world everyone knows the word spaghetti Everyone knows pizzaLenzi credited his passion to his grandmother the queen of this big house by the sea in Camogli a small village on the Ligurian coast where he grew up I remember that on Sundays she would make ravioli with a rolling pinThis stayed with me for many years he said in the restaurants kitchenMirella Pozzoli a tourist visiting Romes Pantheon from the Lombardy region in northern Italy said the mere act of dining together was special to ItaliansSitting at the table with family or friends is something that we Italians cherish and care about deeply Its a tradition of conviviality that you wont find anywhere else in the worldItaly already has 13 other cultural items on the UNESCO intangible list including Sicilian puppet theatre Cremonas violin craftsmanship and the practice of moving livestock along seasonal migratory routes known as transhumanceItaly appeared in two previous foodrelated listings a 2013 citation for the Mediterranean diet that included Italy and half a dozen other countries and the 2017 recognition of Naples pizza makersPetrillo the Italian campaign member said that after 2017 the number of accredited schools to train Neapolitan pizza makers increased by more than 400 per centAfter the UNESCO recognition there were significant economic effects both on tourism and the sales of products and on education and training he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole 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