Six out of ten Italians (60%) traveling abroad for work or on holiday have come across a fake Made in Italy dish or specialty at least once. This is what emerges from the Coldiretti/Notosondaggi analysis disclosed on the occasion of the Summer Fancy Food 2023 in New York City, the most important world trade fair dedicated to food specialties at the Javits Center where in the Italy Pavilion (level 3, stand n.2718) Coldiretti , Campagna Amica and Filiera Italia are comparing for the first time authentic national specialties with imitation bad copies while peasant cooks will demonstrate the difference between true dishes of the Italian gastronomic tradition and those crippled abroad with preposterous recipes.
An opportunity to support the candidacy of the practice of Italian cuisine for inscription in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by Unesco which – recall Coldiretti and Filiera Italia – takes place after the Government has approved the Bill on “Organic provisions for the enhancement, promotion and protection of Made in Italy which provides for the establishment of a quality certification body in favor of Italian catering abroad with as many as 87% of Italians deem it important to verify the real origin of the dishes served.
It is no coincidence, underline Coldiretti and the Italian supply chain, that the most popular recipe in the USA is “macaroni and cheese” and is obtained by cooking the pasta with a cheese-based sauce, very often US-produced cheddar. It is an oven-baked pasta in a bechamel and cheese sauce that seems to come from an old Italian cookbook from the 14th century. An illuminating example of the transformation that traditional tricolor dishes undergo in the new continent.
Pineapple pizza is considered a real sacrilege in Italy, which is highly appreciated in America, especially with the addition of ham like spaghetti bolognese with meatballs served as a main course Italian-American cuisine even if it doesn’t exist in Italy. Not to mention the carbonara that in the USA they prepare bacon instead of bacon and cream or yoghurt to give consistency or the lasagna that is served with the inevitable presence of ricotta.
In fact, the improper use of traditional Made in Italy ingredients such as pesto, which is used as a sauce to be used on everything from croutons to bread to chicken, is very widespread by Americans. The same goes for Parmesan, in nine cases out of ten consumed in the fake version of Parmesan from Wisconsin. There is no shortage – specify Coldiretti and Filiera Italia – the variants of recipes of the popular tradition such as bruschetta which in the USA has been transformed into garlic bread with bread stuffed with pieces of garlic or drowned in garlic-flavored butter. And if in Italy the inevitable condiment is based on extra virgin olive oil, for the stars and stripes Italian dressing there really are no limits with the most imaginative combinations starting from soybean oil. A flexibility that also concerns the simplest dishes of the Italian tradition such as caprese with the American version that uses locally produced mozzarella, very different from the Italian one and not only in shape.
“The lack of clarity on Made in Italy recipes offers fertile ground for the proliferation of fake Italian food products” which is why it is important to clarify Italian cuisine in the world with recognition as a Unesco heritage” concludes the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini in specifying that the cultural value is added to the economic and employment value for the country”.
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