Italy puts up cuisine for UNESCO list

Rome: The Italian government is putting up Italian cuisine as this year’s candidate to join the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage, sources said Thursday.

The government has decided, on a proposal from the Ministers of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Francesco Lollobrigida and Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, to nominate the practice of Italian cuisine for this year’s UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The dossier will now be transmitted by the foreign Ministry to UNESCO and the evaluation process will begin, which should be completed by December 2025 at the latest, the sources said.

In its candidacy dossier, Italian cuisine is defined as a “combination of social practices, rituals and gestures based on the many local flavours that, without hierarchy, identify it and mark it out.

“This mosaic of traditions reflects the country’s biocultural diversity and is based on the common denominator of conceiving the moment of preparation and consumption of the meal as an occasion for sharing and talking.” The dossier was written by Rome LUISS private University Professor Pier Luigi Petrillo, who in the past wrote the bids for many elements of the Mediterranean Diet as well as Neapolitan pizzaiuoli pizza makers.