Italy’s cuisine, long celebrated worldwide, has cleared a preliminary UNESCO assessment and is now awaiting a final decision expected Wednesday at a UNESCO meeting in India. The nomination, launched in March 2023 by the agriculture and culture ministries, frames Italian food—from pizza and pasta to risotto and cannoli—as a social ritual that ties families and communities together.
The government argues “there is no single Italian cuisine, but a mosaic of local expressive diversities,” pointing to regional specialties such as Lombardy’s ossobuco and Puglia’s orecchiette con cime di rapa as examples of Italy’s biodiversity and culinary creativity. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has backed the bid, calling Italian food a symbol of “culture, identity, tradition and strength.”
Supporters say UNESCO recognition could have measurable economic and cultural benefits. Industry groups estimate a tourism boost of up to 8% within two years, potentially adding about 18 million overnight stays. Italian cuisine also plays a unifying role for roughly 59 million residents and an estimated 85 million people of Italian descent around the world. Deloitte estimates the Italian food service market reached 251 billion euros ($293 billion) in 2024, about 19% of the global restaurant market. At the same time, Italy faces loss from imitation products produced abroad, estimated to cost the country some 120 billion euros annually.
The candidacy has its critics. Italy already has nearly 800 items on UNESCO’s lists, including opera singing and truffle hunting, and some observers view the nomination as promotional rather than protective. Food historian Alberto Grandi called the move “just a marketing operation,” arguing in his 2024 book La cucina italiana non esiste (Italian cuisine doesn’t exist) that many dishes considered traditional—such as pasta alla carbonara—are relatively recent creations influenced by foreign cultures. Farmers’ association Coldiretti denounced Grandi’s claims as “surreal attacks on national culinary tradition.”
For many in the sector, UNESCO status would be meaningful beyond marketing. Restaurateurs like Luigina Pantalone, owner of Rome’s Da Sabatino and a fourth-generation restaurateur, say recognition would be a point of pride and a safeguard for authentic gastronomy; Pantalone recalls washing dishes with her siblings as a child and passing down family practices. Three-Michelin-star chef Massimo Bottura described Italian cuisine as “an ancient, daily, sacred ritual – the art of caring and loving without saying a word.”
As delegates meet in India, the decision will weigh competing aims: protecting and celebrating a rich, regionally diverse culinary heritage while addressing questions about authenticity, appropriation and commercial incentives. Whatever the outcome, the debate underscores how food can carry cultural, economic and emotional weight far beyond the plate.
