Year 2018 dedicated to Italian food
On June 1, 2017, Ministers Maurizio Martina and Dario Franceschini, minister of agricultural food and forestry policies and minister of cultural heritage and activities and tourism, announced that the year 2018 will be the year dedicated to Italian food.
It will be a way to enhance and systematize the many and extraordinary Italian excellences and make a great investment for the image of our country in the world.
Italy must promote itself abroad in an integrated and intelligent way: enhancing and promoting the intertwining of food art and landscape is certainly a very useful tool for this goal.
Will Italian cuisine succeed in becoming a world heritage site?
Photo by italiaatavola.net
The idea came from a group of people related to the restaurant industry who took up the proposal of the association Italian Cuisine in the World; they already have more than 2,500 members among chefs, restaurant managers, communicators and culinary professionals related to Italian food and gastronomy around the world.
A long, impervious path: to nominate Italian cuisine outside Italy as an intangible heritage of humanity for UNESCO.
The Italian restaurant industry, which is important for the spread of Italian agri-food products beyond the borders, amidst a thousand difficulties and encounters for the protection and preservation of culinary tradition, is aimed at applying for its recognition.
As reported by an article in the newspaper Repubblica according to the guidelines dictated by UNESCO:
An intangible cultural heritage is characterized by the transmission from generation to generation, enabling the community, groups or individuals to work out a sense of cultural and social belonging, promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity, and ultimately spreading respect for human rights and the sustainability of each country’s development
These values, or criteria, apply perfectly to Italian cuisine around the world with artisanal products based on knowledge transmitted in work activities and product selection that make it a heritage and identity factor. To defend consumers and enthusiasts of all latitudes, presenting on the plate what respects Italian tradition, territory and the roots of Italian food and wine culture and that Italian taste out in the world receives proper recognition and protection.
