Italian cuisine is recognized as World Heritage and rightly so!

Unesco has said yes: Italian cuisine is on the World Heritage List.

From New Delhi, the announcement comes as a reward for "the cultural and social mix of culinary traditions": the first time a culinary recognition of such novelty has been delivered.

Italian cuisine is "a cultural and social mix of culinary traditions," "a way of caring for yourself and others, expressing love and rediscovering one's cultural roots, giving communities an outlet to share their history and describe the world around them." With this motivation, UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee, meeting in New Delhi, declared Italian cuisine an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

And it is the first cuisine in the world to be recognized in its entirety. Maddalena Fossati, chairman of the Promotion Committee and editor of the magazine La Cucina Italiana, welcomed the ruling along with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. An undeniable success, even if there is no lack of critical views on the significance of this recognition. It is certainly a success for our agricultural heritage, which is both ecological and cultural.

The promotion of Italian products abroad

"This recognition is a source of pride, but also of awareness of the further valorization that our products, our territories, our supply chains will enjoy. It will also be an additional means to counter those who try to take advantage of the value that the whole world recognizes for Made in Italy, and it will offer new opportunities to create jobs, prosperity in the territories, and to continue in the wake of this tradition that UNESCO has recognized as a World Heritage Site," was the warm comment of Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida.

The value of social inclusion and sharing

The news was greeted with long applause from the audience in New Delhi. The Italian was one of 60 dossiers evaluated from 56 countries. Unesco emphasizes that Italian cuisine "promotes social integration, fosters well-being and provides a channel for lifelong intergenerational learning, strengthening bonds, encouraging sharing and fostering a sense of belonging." Cooking, Unesco says, is for Italians "a community activity that emphasizes intimacy with food, respect for ingredients and shared moments around the table. The practice is rooted in anti-spill recipes and the transmission of flavors, skills and memories from generation to generation. Because cooking is a multi-generational activity, with perfectly interchangeable roles, it has an inclusive function, allowing everyone to enjoy an individual, collective and continuous experience of exchange, overcoming all cross-cultural and inter-generational barriers."
"It is the celebration of families who pass on ancient flavors, of farmers who care for the land, of producers who work with passion, of restaurateurs who bring the authentic value of Italy to the world. My deepest thanks go to them and to those who have worked diligently for this candidacy. This recognition is a source of pride, but also of awareness of the further improvement that our products, our territories, our supply chains will enjoy. It will also be an additional tool in the fight against those who try to take advantage of the value that the whole world recognizes for Made in Italy, and it will offer new opportunities to create jobs, prosperity in the territories, and to continue in the wake of this tradition that UNESCO has recognized as a World Heritage Site.

Giorgia Meloni: an important tool

We are the first in the world to receive this recognition, which is a tribute to who we are and to our identity. Because for us Italians, cuisine is not just food or a series of recipes. It is much more: it is culture, tradition, work, wealth". This is how Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni conveyed her enthusiasm about the Unesco recognition in a video message. "It is a record that makes us proud," Meloni stressed, "and gives us a formidable tool to further increase the value of our products and better protect them from imitations and unfair competition. We already export €70 billion worth of agri-food products and we are the first economy in Europe in terms of added value from agriculture. This recognition will give the Italian system a decisive boost to achieve new goals."

Priority also in agribusiness

The Unesco decision also underscores how the candidacy dossier, edited by jurist Pier Luigi Petrillo, demonstrates "the important efforts madeby the communities over the past sixty years, particularly through important representative bodies such as the magazine La Cucina Italiana, the Accademia Italiana della Cucina and the Fondazione Casa Artusi. The inscription of Italian cuisine as Unesco heritage also makes Italy the world record holder in terms of the number of recognitions in the agri-food sector relative to the total number of recognitions obtained. Of the 21 traditions listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage, nine are due to the agri-food sector: Italian cuisine, the art of Neapolitan pizza bakers, transhumance, agricultural drywall construction, Zibibbo di Pantelleria viticulture, the Mediterranean diet, truffle hunting and extraction, the traditional irrigation system and Lipizzan horse breeding.