Not just pizza: Italian cuisine makes UNESCO list

Rome: UNESCO recognized Wednesday that Italian food is more than pizza, pasta and gelato, adding the range and ritual of the famous cuisine to its lis...

Rome: UNESCO recognized Wednesday that Italian food is more than pizza, pasta and gelato, adding the range and ritual of the famous cuisine to its list of intangible cultural heritage.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose hard-right government has championed “Made in Italy” products as part of her nationalist agenda, hailed the recognition that she said “honours who we are and our identity”.

“Because for us Italians, cuisine is not just food or a collection of recipes. It is much more: it is culture, tradition, work, wealth,” she said in a statement.

Pizza-making in Naples already features on the UN cultural agency's list of intangible heritage, as does espresso coffee.

Meloni's government proposed the much wider "cucina italiana" in 2023.