March 23rd, the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Italian Ministry of Agriculture joined forces for the first time to announce that the Italian government has nominated “Italian cuisine: sustainability and biocultural diversity” as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage element.
La Cucina Italiana – established in 1929, and the most distinguished and long-standing monthly cooking publication in Italy and worldwide – has fully backed this ambitious project and is supporting the nomination.
This journey began back in July 2020, when the magazine – headed by the Editor-in-Chief, Maddalena Fossati – enlisted the help of renowned chefs and entrepreneurs as ambassadors to promote the universal value of Italy's gastronomic culture. A resounding initiative aimed at helping propel the cuisine as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage element.
Massimo Bottura, Davide Oldani, Antonia Klugmann, Carlo Cracco, Niko Romito, and Antonino Cannavacciuolo are just some of the people who, in recent years, have backed the idea proposed by La Cucina Italiana’s editorial staff and culturally supported by a scientific committee, made up of some of the most significant names in Italian culture, including president Massimo Montanari, a professor of Food History at the University of Bologna; Laila Tentoni, president of the Fondazione Casa Artusi (an Italian cuisine cultural center); and professor Paolo Petroni, president of the Italian Academy of Cuisine.
“I am deeply moved by this news as I have arduously campaigned for this outcome because I believe in our identity, and in this complicated yet wonderful country that is Italy. Now’s the time to try and determinedly reaffirm the importance of our culinary lifestyle, which is loved and imitated all over the planet,” commented Maddalena Fossati, the Editor-in-Chief of La Cucina Italiana.
This milestone sheds a light on the close ties between culture and food which are now being perceived by the global community as not only products but also a cultural phenomenon and lifestyle identity... a way of being if you will.
In fact, a set of social practices, rituals, and gestures can be found at the core of Italian cuisine. A mosaic of traditions that reflects Italy’s cultural biodiversity and has been showcased, for over 90 years by La Cucina Italiana, which in turn, has become the ever-relevant home of cooking. The Italian Foreign Ministry will now send the dossier to UNESCO, and the evaluation process will then begin, which should be completed by December 2025. Until then, La Cucina Italiana will continue to wholeheartedly back the nomination.