Italian Cuisine's UNESCO Ambition

The Bmta inaugurates the first day of the 27th edition, Thursday, October 30, with a conference supporting the candidacy of Italian Cuisine to UNESCO, approximately a month before the evaluation result will be announced on December 10 in New Delhi, India. Since its early editions, the Bmta has been a venue for developing content and processes for future recognition of intangible heritage: during the fifth edition, on November 9, 2002, a working group composed of UNESCO, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, General Directorates of Cultural Heritage from Algeria, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, the Province of Salerno, Federculture, Assafrica & Mediterraneo of Confindustria met to prepare the document known as the ‘Charter of Paestum for the integrated management of tangible and intangible heritage’ in the presence of UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture, Mounir Bouchenaki, now honorary president of the Bmta; in 2003, thanks to Bouchenaki, the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was adopted at the 32nd Session of the UNESCO General Conference, ratified by Italy in 2007, which set the procedures for the identification, documentation, preservation, protection, promotion, and enhancement of intangible cultural heritage. Holding an initiative dedicated to the candidacy of Italian Cuisine at the Bmta in Paestum (Capaccio Paestum, the municipality hosting the event for 27 editions is the ‘gateway to Cilento’, an extensive natural and scenic area listed as tangible heritage in 1998 with the archaeological areas of Paestum and Velia), a few kilometers from where the Mediterranean Diet was born, is supported by the statement from the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida: ‘Our culinary tradition is not just a collection of recipes, experiences, practices, and contaminations, but it is the heart of the Mediterranean Diet, characterized by excellent food products, healthy foods, variety, and biodiversity.’ In this regard, the Cilento National Park, Vallo di Diano and Alburni, and the Sele Plain are examples of the biodiversity of the territory and the sustainability of PDO/PGI productions (buffalo mozzarella, artichokes, arugula, cauliflower, oil, wine). Furthermore, the combination of archaeology and gastronomy was reinforced by the will of the Minister of Agriculture to present, together with the Minister of Culture, the logo for the candidacy of Italian Cuisine as Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO in a major archaeological attraction, the Pompeii Park (August 4, 2023), where mosaics and the narrative of daily life in antiquity elevate cuisine as a protagonist in common life. The ancient Roman gastronomy and their dishes, representing the local identity of the territories (garum, spelt, porchetta, oil, wine) are the basis of ‘Italian Cuisine’. Additionally, the initiative supporting the candidacy on Sunday, September 21 ‘The Sunday Lunch – Italians at the Table’, promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Ministry of Culture, and Anci, featured the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Culture and Agriculture at the table with the Colosseum as a backdrop on live television, along with 10 leading cities and dozens of other municipalities with collective tables, events, and territorial promotion activities in the squares. For Campania, Naples led with four municipalities participating in the initiative: Gragnano, Monte di Procida, Portici, Pollica. On Thursday, October 30 at 6 PM, the conference will feature Pier Luigi Petrillo, who worked on the candidacy dossier titled ‘Italian Cooking between sustainability and biocultural diversity’, the Italian Ambassador to UNESCO Liborio Stellino, who officially presented it to the person responsible for the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage on March 23, 2023, the National President of the Chambers of Commerce Andrea Prete, the past president of Federalimentare and new president of the Italian Touring Club Gian Domenico Auricchio, the commander of the Carabinieri’s Forestry, Environmental and Agri-food Units Command Fabrizio Parrulli. The works will be moderated by Maddalena Fossati, director of ‘La Cucina Italiana’, the oldest gastronomic magazine in the world, founded in 1929, still in print, which is one of the three promoting communities of the candidacy.