L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2025 www.italoamericano.org 4 I t a l i a n c u i s i n e i s g o i n g t h r o u g h a n important moment: the 10th edition of t h e S e t t i m a n a della Cucina Italiana nel Mondo is underway across the world (we celebrated it in LA just last week), and Italy is waiting for the final step in the UNESCO process that could recognize its national culinary culture as intangi- b l e h e r i t a g e . These two events highlight how Italian food has become a global ref- erence point, but they also open the door to a broader narrative that began almost a century ago. Because the idea of "Italian cuisine" did not emerge overnight: it took s h a p e t h r o u g h m e d i a , domestic practice, entrepre- neurship, food movements, the contributions of commu- nities in Italy and abroad, and today's UNESCO candi- dature sits at the end of a l o n g t r a j e c t o r y b u i l t b y c o o k s , e d i t o r s , f a r m e r s , migrants and consumers. T h e m o d e r n n o t i o n o f Italian cuisine began to con- solidate in the late 1920s, when social and economic changes were transforming daily life. Urbanization, new household technologies, and evolving roles for women c r e a t e d r o o m f o r a n e w approach to domestic cul- t u r e . I n t h i s c o n t e x t , i n 1 9 2 9 , D e l i a P a v o n i Notari founded La Cuci- n a I t a l i a n a i n M i l a n together with her husband, Umberto Notari; she led the publication as editor and organizer and shaped it as a n i n n o v a t i v e s p a c e t h a t interpreted food as part of Italy's cultural identity. The magazine contained recipes, but its ambition was wider: it addressed the massaia m o d e r n a , t h e m o d e r n housewife navigating new expectations around effi- ciency, taste, and knowl- edge. It also brought togeth- er writers, artists and public intellectuals, turning the kitchen into a field connect- ed with literature, design, etiquette and industry. This approach helped set the idea that Italian cooking was not only a family practice but a cultural product with shared references and values. In the years after World War II, the project expand- ed. The publication of the Cucina Italiana series by A n n a a n d M a r i a L u i s a Gosetti della Salda in the 1950s and 1960s gave read- ers a structured, practical, and increasingly standard- ized set of recipes. Photog- r a p h y a n d t e s t i n g p r o c e - d u r e s b e c a m e m o r e systematic, and publishers aimed to present dishes in a consistent way that readers could trust and replicate. T h e s e d e v e l o p m e n t s h a d long-term effects, as they influenced how home cooks perceived regional dishes, how they adjusted recipes to modern kitchens, and how the idea of "traditional Ital- i a n f o o d " b e c a m e l i n k e d with formats that could be printed, reproduced, and shared. Italian cuisine bene- fited from this process but a l s o f a c e d a t e n s i o n t h a t remains relevant today: the effort to define a nation- a l c u l i n a r y i d e n t i t y while preserving region- al differences. At the same time, postwar industrial growth changed how Italians encountered food. The spread of domes- tic appliances, new packag- ing technologies, and major companies in pasta, dairy and canned goods made cer- tain dishes more uniform across the country. Industri- a l b r a n d s c o n t r i b u t e d t o building a national reper- t o i r e b y d i s t r i b u t i n g t h e same products from North t o S o u t h a n d b y t u r n i n g some ingredients into every- day items. This contributed to a more cohesive idea of "Italian cuisine," but also raised questions about how industrial production inter- acts with tradition, authen- ticity and local diversity. These themes remained in the background for decades a n d t h e n r e t u r n e d a t t h e forefront through a different pathway: food activism. A decisive step in the evo- lution of Italy's food culture c a m e i n t h e 1 9 8 0 s a n d 1990s with the growth of the Slow Food movement. Founded in Bra in 1986 and officially established inter- n a t i o n a l l y i n 1 9 8 9 , S l o w F o o d r e s p o n d e d t o r a p i d changes in global food sys- tems. It promoted the prin- ciples of "good, clean and f a i r , " a r g u i n g t h a t t a s t e must be linked with envi- ronmental sustainability, responsible production and respect for local communi- ties; the movement was a child of its own times, as it emerged in a moment when Italy was debating industri- alization, the spread of fast food, and food safety after major scandals. Crucially, Slow Food connected culi- nary pleasure with biodiver- sity, small-scale agriculture, Settimana della Cucina Italiana and the future of Italy's culinary heritage FRANCESCA BEZZONE NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS CONTINUED TO PAGE 6 Italian cuisine, as celebrated around the world with the "Settimana della Cucina Italiana nel Mondo," is as much about heritage and flavor, as it is about health (Photo: Sergey Nazarov/iStock)

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