Chuckanut
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I ran across an article in Italy Magazine about a survey of Italians who travel outside of Italy. They were asked if they had encountered any counterfeit or otherwise messed up Italian products and cooking. Sadly, three out of four Italians had encountered these messed up products.
So forget about the stock and bond market, Twitter, EVs and all the rest and get a feel for some real problems
So forget about the stock and bond market, Twitter, EVs and all the rest and get a feel for some real problems
In survey results that are likely to surprise, well, no one, 73% or approximately three out of four Italians indicated that they have come across faux Made in Italy specialty products or traditional recipes botched beyond repair when traveling abroad.
Conducted by Coldiretti — Italy’s primary organization representing farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs — the survey was launched for the 7th annual Week of Italian Cuisine Around the World, which began on November 14 and continues through November 20. A non-specified number of Italians weighed in on “food fails” they've spotted around the world, ranging from the Belgian habit of using cream instead of pecorino cheese in carbonara, to the German propensity to cook a Milanese veal cutlet with seed oil instead of olive oil, to the particularly polemical Dutch tiramisu made without —wait for it — mascarpone. Che orrore (the horror)!
Coldiretti’s report also cited the traditional recipe for Genoese pesto as one of the most routinely obliterated around the world, pointing to pistachios and walnuts used in place of the customary pinoli (pine nuts) and to “common" cheeses standing in for parmigiano reggiano and pecorino romano.
Italy’s dedication to preserving the integrity of its food traditions is well-documented, and the line between “creative reinterpretation” and full-on “corruption” is a hotly contested one. Ettore Prandini, President of Coldiretti, is concerned about the number of misconceptions circulating. “It is significant and worrying that one of the most widespread “Italian” dishes is spaghetti alla bolognese, which is all the rage in England,” Prandini said, “but which does not exist in the national tradition, except on tourist trap menus.”
For a bit of fun after those sobering counterfeit figures, we at Italy Magazine compiled a non-comprehensive shortlist of consumables commonly misunderstood to be “Italian.”
- Spaghetti and meatballs. While, yes, it’s a beloved classic of Italian-American cuisine, no Italy-residing Italian would ever bring it a tavola (to the table).
- Caprese salads made with mealy “industrial mozzarella” instead of fresh mozzarella di bufala. Blasphemy!
- Slapping the word "Tuscan" on a frozen pizza box or in front of a generically creamy chicken dish on a restaurant menu may make it sell, but doesn't make it so.
- Pesto made with any achene besides pine nuts has dead Ligurian purists turning in their graves. (Rules aren't always meant to be followed, but you've got to learn them before you can break them, right?)
- Fettuccine alfredo. Many wide-eyed newcomers to Italy have had the experience of asking for the dish and hearing in response, "Who's Alfredo?"
- And to wash it all down, prosecco knock-offs are cropping up all over the globe — Croatian Prosek, German Consecco and Perisecco, and Austrian Whitesecco, to name a few.