Italy’s nationalist government has plans to rate Italian restaurants worldwide based on how ‘authentic’ their recipes are how much of their ingredients are sourced from Italy.
The country’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty (yes, that’s its new name) is proposing a rating system for restaurants based on ingredients and to help diners avoid restaurants whose menu includes food “that has nothing to do with Italy,” a category that presumably includes foreign-invented dishes such as spaghetti bolognese, fettuccine Alfredo and of course pineapple on pizza.
Minister Francesco Lollobrigida says he wants to also assess how restaurants serve meals; he told Reuters that “It is not just about the dish… there is a way to organise the table, a way to present it, our wine, what is behind it.” Another Italian news source says Lollobrigida is also calling for restaurants to have at least one Italian speaker on staff and to have a chef with at least six months working in a restaurant in Italy.
In other moves, the renamed Ministry of Business and Made in Italy (yes, in English… ministero delle Imprese e del Made in Italy) is starting a campaign against counterfeit or “Italian-sounding” products in Europe and beyond. Prohibition of counterfeits is already common, but the name ban would be new.
The Ministry’s title is bizarre!