(Updated 13/12/2025)
It took a while. Some of you probably thought it already was. But on December 10, 2025, it became official: Italian cuisine has been recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The same status as the pyramids, but for pasta. Almost.
TL;DR: Italian cuisine is now officially UNESCO World Heritage not because of the recipes, but because of the culture surrounding them. The Sunday lunch with the whole family, nonna teaching grandchildren how to fold tortellini, the ritual of eating together. Plus: it helps fight all those fake Italian products costing €120 billion a year. Win-win.
Wait, wasn’t it already?
Honestly? I thought so too. But no. Until December 2025, Italian cuisine wasn’t on the UNESCO list. The gastronomic meal of the French was (since 2010). Mexican cuisine too. Even the making of kimchi in Korea. But Italy? Nothing.
That has now changed. During the UNESCO committee meeting in New Delhi, Italian cuisine was officially recognized. And no, it’s not about pizza or carbonara. It’s about something much bigger.
It’s not about the recipes (really)
The UNESCO recognition isn’t for specific dishes. No award for the perfect cacio e pepe, no medal for ossobuco. It’s about the system around it — the way Italians relate to food.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni put it this way: “For us Italians, cuisine is not just food, not just a collection of recipes. It is much more — it is culture, tradition, work and wealth.”
Three-Michelin-star chef Massimo Bottura called it “an age-old, daily, sacred ritual — the art of caring and loving without saying a word.”
So if you’ve ever witnessed an Italian nonna spending three hours in the kitchen for a Sunday lunch where the entire family gathers, you know exactly what they’re talking about.
The three pillars (or: why UNESCO said yes)
The recognition is based on three elements that together form the core of Italian food culture:
1. Food as social ritual
The big Sunday lunch. The table where generations come together. Nonna teaching her grandchildren how to fold tortellini. “Cooking is a gesture of love; it is how we share who we are and how we care for each other,” said Pier Luigi Petrillo, professor and part of the UNESCO campaign.
2. Sustainability and biodiversity
The official title of the nomination was “Italian cooking, between sustainability and biocultural diversity”. It’s about respect for seasonal ingredients, fighting food waste through ‘anti-waste recipes’, and celebrating the enormous regional diversity. Every region has its own dishes, its own products, its own traditions. That’s not coincidence that’s biodiversity on your plate.
3. Knowledge passed from generation to generation
The skills of Italian cuisine aren’t learned in culinary schools, but in home kitchens. From grandparents to parents to children. UNESCO calls this “lifelong learning”. I call it: the reason you can never match your grandmother’s ragù, no matter how hard you try.
What makes this different from the French?
The gastronomic meal of the French has been on the UNESCO list since 2010. But that specifically concerned the ritual of a formal meal, the aperitif, the courses, the wine, the digestif. Mexican cuisine focused on specific regional traditions.
The Italian recognition is different. It’s the first time a complete national cuisine has been recognized as a holistic cultural system. Not one dish, not one ritual, but the whole package.
The real reason: €120 billion in fake food
Let’s be honest: there’s an economic interest too. The Italian agri-food sector accounts for about 15% of the national GDP. But every year, Italy loses an estimated €120 billion to “Italian-sounding” products imitations that profit from the Italian name without being made in Italy.
Think Parmesan from Wisconsin. Prosciutto from Argentina. Prosecco from Australia. (Yes, really.)
The UNESCO status functions as a powerful tool against this counterfeiting. It elevates Italian cuisine from a commercial product to a protected global cultural asset. That’s no small step.
The numbers: more tourists, more overnight stays
Expectations are high. Forecasts predict tourism could grow by as much as 8% due to the UNESCO status, amounting to some 18 million additional overnight stays. For a country already overwhelmed by tourists, that’s… interesting. But the money does flow to the right places: local producers, agriturismi, small restaurants cooking authentically.
Not everyone is thrilled
There’s criticism too. Food historian Alberto Grandi calls the nomination “merely a marketing operation”. He fears “food gentrification”: a process where traditional, affordable dishes are standardized into expensive versions for tourists. The authentic, messy, regional diversity disappears in favor of a polished ‘Italian’ ideal.
It’s a valid point. Anyone who’s ever eaten a €28 carbonara in central Rome knows what he’s talking about.
What does this mean for you?
If you’re visiting Italy, probably not much will change. The pasta still tastes the same. The nonnas still cook the way they always have. But there’s now official recognition that what they do — that daily, taken-for-granted ritual of cooking and eating together — is something the world should protect.
And next time someone offers you Parmesan from a plastic shaker, you can say: “No thanks. That’s not UNESCO World Heritage.”
Heritage that lives at the dinner table
The inclusion of Italian cuisine on the UNESCO list reminds us that cultural heritage doesn’t only consist of stones and monuments. It lives in the daily traditions that connect people, from generation to generation. In the smell of ragù simmering for hours. In the sound of a cork popping from a bottle of Chianti. In the debate over whether onion belongs in amatriciana (it doesn’t, by the way).
The most valuable heritage isn’t what’s preserved in museums, but what’s shared daily at the table. That this is now protected at a global level is a victory for everyone who believes in the connecting power of food.
Buon appetito. It’s officially cultural heritage now.
Dining and Cooking