Tag: #ilfuturocheciawaitci

«Italian cuisine between sustainability and biocultural diversity Unesco Heritage: the collection of signatures begins – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Between them now Jimmy Ghionehistoric correspondent of Strip the News, loved by the general public also for the commitment shown over the years to the protection and valorization of Italian cuisine and its products. He spoke about the importance of collecting signatures to support the candidacy of Italian cuisine during the episode of Antonio Ricci’s beloved program which aired on January 27th. He did it in a symbolic way, accompanied by president Pecoraro Scanio and Enrico Derflingher, president of the Euro-Toques Italia ed International association, and for years personal chef to Queen Elizabeth II. Together they prepared a risotto with black truffle: a dish that tells the story of the great chef’s cuisine and an example of the harmony of Italian products, PDO and PGI, which characterize each territory of our country with their aromas and flavors.

The uniqueness of the candidacy of Italian cuisine

«The candidacy of Italian Italian cuisine as a UNESCO heritage site is also this: a campaign to valorise the products and traditions of the individual territories. Because its uniqueness also lies in this: in the fact that it is different from country to country, from province to province”, says Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, announcing that there will still be other examples that will tell of this diversity and biodiversity. «Pasta will be the next common thread: it is the most identifying feature of our cuisine in the common imagination and among the ingredients that are best suited to act as a trait d’union to our products, to represent them and therefore to share them.

An inclusive candidacy

Sharing, after all, is the key word behind every application, made to promote an art, a tradition, a culture, so that it is known, appreciated, and once again shared. «The UNESCO nominations are exactly the opposite of a protectionist claim. If we nominated pizza or opera singing it was not to hold on to them, to claim their Italianness, but because they are beautiful things with a global value, explains Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio. «The same is true for the candidacy of Italian cuisine, which we would also like to see valorized by UNESCO for its sustainability and biodiversity, to be the basis of a diet – the Mediterranean one – which has become a food model throughout the world, says the Univerde president. And he continues: «This is why it is important to sign: this candidacy concerns everyone, it is an inclusive path, and I hope it involves people just like it did for pizza.

What would happen if Italian cuisine became a World Heritage Site

Moreover, if UNESCO were to actually accept our proposal, we would all gain, just as has already happened with pizza. «Following the entry of the art of Neapolitan pizza chefs into the world’s heritage, requests for Neapolitan school pizza chefs have multiplied: not Neapolitans of origin, but people around the world who have learned to make pizza following the rules and traditions of Neapolitan art. This would also apply to Italian cuisine: it would be about spreading knowledge, not putting up a fence. Sharing a heritage.” A heritage of history, stories, knowledge, traditions, which involves each of us.
To sign, click on www.change.org.

Iginio Massari for the bill “Master of the art of Italian cuisine” – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Iginio Massari, the great Master Pastry Chef and President of APEI, could also become relevant at a legislative level in Italy. In fact, it comes from SIGEP 2024 the news that is making the rounds in the national media according to which we are at the final stage of the process for the final approval of the bill “Master of the art of Italian cuisine“, which from today is renamed by the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Francesco Lollobrigida, as “Massari Law”.

From Rimini, Minister Lollobrigida illustrated the provision which will recognize the professions of pastry chefs, chefs and food artisans on a par with what already happens in other countries, such as France, Belgium and Spain.

Next to him, the legendary Iginio Massari, who explained: «In Italy the definition of a profession has never been officially coined. There is a substantial difference between the professional and the craftsman who, with the intelligence of his hands, is able to create beautiful and good products. This law equates us to other nations, starting today from food, but with the hope that it can gradually expand to many other excellent professions.”

Cooking and music: what do they have in common? The winning combinations – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

What are the agreements and disagreements between cooking and music? There pasta calls parmesan (or pecorino) and rejects the polenta; L’roast call the garlic (and rosemary) and repels basil; The cotechino calls the puree (or lentils) and rejects the salad. These are the “food associations” that Fernand Braudel spoke about, underlining the need for those who study the history of nutrition not to focus on the single ingredient or single product, but on their combinations; the “associations”, precisely.

Designing a few years ago for the M9 museum of Venice Mestre the exhibition Taste! Italians at the table 1970-2050together with Laura Lazzaroni and Marco Bolasco we thought of dedicating a special one section on the theme of “agreements”, that is, the ingredients that in the gastronomic field – just like notes in music – are recalled almost automatically, as if they were “natural” associations. Which, however, are not “natural”, because there is always a cultural choice in preferring and choosing a certain agreement rather than another. This applies in cook like in music: parallelism that we have already discussed, which I am happy to return to. In music, a chord is the combination of some notes that are played together and appear “right”, well harmonized with a dominant note: in tonal music, if I start from C, the simultaneous sounds will be E and G. Other cultures, ancient and modern, they love different combinations. Something similar happens in the kitchen, where a certain cultural tradition – for example the Italian one – will get me used to associating it butter and sage with low-fat tortelli, tomato and basil with spaghetti. German culture will not fail to associate frankfurters with mustard, speck with gherkins (in turn combined with vinegar), boiled pork with potatoes and sauerkraut…

The parallel between notes and flavors is recurring in literature. It was suggested, among others, by the Englishman John Evelyn, who at the beginning of the eighteenth century published a treatise on salads largely derived from Italian works. «In the composition of a salad he wrote, «each plant must play its part (…) in the same way as musical notes. In this search for harmony, even dissonances are welcomed, because they “strike and enliven, so as to distinguish and make the rest emerge better”. It was the ancient principle of the contrast of flavors, not only a gustatory theme (a pinch of bitter makes you appreciate the sweet better), but also nutritional: Galenic medicine taught that each flavor expresses a different quality, and putting them together (the qualities) is good for your health. For this reason, Salvatore Massonio from L’Aquila – one of Evelyn’s sources – recommended mixing herbs “adjusting the hot with the cold, the humid with the dry, the sour with the sweet, the bitter with the sweet”. Here then are the dissonances, the “agreements-disagreements”, not only between one herb and another, but between all sorts of products: melon and ham, cheese and pears… tasteful solutions that have remained over the centuries.

Gordon Ramsay Recipes