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众所周知，意大利美食是意大利文化的最重要象征。传说意大利美食来自于中国，由马可·波罗带回意大利,后传播到整个欧洲。如果美国真的大言不惭的以为意大利美食来自美国，真是令人贻笑大方：美国的食物从根源上是为了低成本高效益，中国和意大利的食物根本上是为了好吃，是截然不同的两种体系，就是在脸上装饰、涂粉抹金又能改变什么？英语原文如下：
It’s been claimed pizza and carbonara are American. Here’s how that went down in Italy
You can criticize their fashion, make fun of their politics, and even complain about the garbage, but questioning Italian cuisine is strictly off the table.
That’s why a recent interview with controversial food history professor Alberto Grandi has caused such a stir. Grandi, who has been questioning the authenticity of Made in Italy staples like carbonara, Parmesan and even pizza for years, told the Financial Times that Italians’ obsession with their cuisine stems from an insecurity.
“When a community finds itself deprived of its sense of identity, because of whatever historical shock or fracture with its past, it invents traditions to act as founding myths,” he said, implying that the cult of food so many Italians subscribe to is built on false traditions. “Italian cuisine really is more American than it is Italian,” he added, which is hard to swallow for Italians who often mock America’s fast-food culture.
Questioning the authenticity of the richness of Italy’s cuisine has left a bad taste in the mouth of the Italian government, and with good reason.
The same day Grandi’s article rocked the kitchens of Italy’s greatest chefs, Italy’s ministers of Culture and Agriculture officially entered Italian cuisine into candidacy for UNESCO World Heritage Site status, which will be decided in December 2025.
The government has also said they will appoint a sort of czar of cuisine to help Italian restaurants and food producers stay in line with the standards and traditions of the country’s culinary history.
Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano and Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida announced the UNESCO candidacy, based on a “combination of social practices, rituals and gestures based on the many local flavors that, without hierarchy, identify it,” at a press conference on March 23.
The ministries also applied to have Italian cuisine recognized for the 2023 UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. “We have two years ahead of us in which we will have to promote our food in Italy and in the world, we hope it will see collective participation” Gianmarco Mazzi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture said.
The group presented a dossier written by Pier Luigi Petrillo, a professor at Rome Luiss University, who wrote about the “mosaic of traditions” that, he says, “reflects the country’s biocultural diversity and is based on the common denominator of conceiving the moment of preparation and consumption of the meal as an occasion for sharing and talking.”
The only problem is that Grandi’s now viral theories on Italian food—including that the classic Roman pasta dish carbonara is actually an American invention, and that real Italian Parmesan has shifted so far from tradition that you can only find anything close to what it is supposed to be in the US state of Wisconsin—undercut the nomination.
Grandi told La Repubblica news outlet that there is “a lot of bullsh*t” in the UNESCO application dossier and that he actually fears that Italy may win the coveted designation for its food.
“What happens if we get it? Those who love it will continue to love it and those who don’t like it will continue to dislike it,” he said.
‘Recipes change. Tastes change’
He also explained to CNN about just why he remains so passionate about this cause. He says that the dossier is based on recipes, not roots, and that the essence of this designation is about the importance of cuisine in the culture, not the actual cuisine or whether there are mushrooms in carbonara.
“UNESCO is not giving the designation for the recipes,” he told CNN. “The question is a philosophical one, not a gastronomical one.”
He is bothered by the adage that Italians emigrated from Italy and taught people how to cook and eat. “They emigrated because they had nothing to eat here, they were poor,” he said. “They left because they were starving. It’s offensive to our grandparents to paint it differently.”
He also said that “crystallizing” or freezing Italian cuisine in time will kill it, and that if pizza got better when Italians emigrated to the United States and made the traditional recipe with American enhancements like tomato sauce, as he insists happened, then that should be recognized for what it is—and where it came from.
注释：
off the table
表示" 不能放在桌面上（讨论）"，如：Yesterday evening, Genoa President Enrico Preziosi declared that Palladino’s signature was hours away, but now the transfer seems to be off the table. 就在昨晚;热那亚经理齐奥西宣称帕拉迪诺将在几个小时后签约完成转会;但现在看来转会的确失败了.
authenticity: n
表示" 真实性"，means "undisputed credibility"，如：The authenticity of the manuscript is beyond doubt. 手稿的真实性是毋庸置疑的。
Carbonara：n
表示" <意>烤面条加干酪沙司"，means "sauce for pasta"，如：Linguine Seafood, the carbonara with the cream cheese sauce and seafood. 海鲜宽面条，加上白酱及海鲜，味道出众。
Parmesan: n
表示" 用脱脂乳制成的坚硬的意大利干酪"，means "hard dry sharp-flavored Italian cheese; often grated"，如：Top with pepperoni and parmesan cheese. 在最上面放上意大利辣肠和意大利干酪。
cult: n
表示"个人崇拜;狂热崇拜"，means " extreme devotion to a person or idea"，如：The cult of the Virgin Mary was extremely popular. 对圣母马利亚的膜拜当时非常流行。
candidacy: n
表示"候选资格"，means "the campaign of a candidate to be elected"，如：The politician declared his candidacy for president. 那位政治家公布了他作为总统候选人的资格。
czar: n
表示"沙皇；独揽大权者"，means "a male monarch or emperor;a person having great power"，如：The czar ordered the guards to drive people away.沙皇命令卫兵把人们赶走。
culinary: adj
表示" 厨房的；烹调的"，means "of or relating to or used in cooking"，如：I was shocked by his culinary arts. 我对他的厨艺叹为观止。
undersecretary: n
表示" 次长；副部长"，means "a secretary immediately subordinate to the head of a department of government"，如：The President appointed him as Undersecretary of State.总统任命他为副国务卿。
dossier: n
表示"卷宗"，means "a collection of papers containing detailed information about a particular person or subject"，如：The dossier in this museum which concern civil war are very rare.这个博物馆里有关内战的档案弥足珍贵。
mosaic: n
表示" 马赛克"，means "art consisting of a design made of small pieces of colored stone or glass"，如：I stared for hours at the elaborate pattern in the mosaic. 我对着马赛克上精密的图案注视了好几个小时。
biocultural：adj
表示"生物文化的"，如：biocultural unconformity 生物文化失调
denominator: n
1.表示" 分母;"，means "the divisor of a fraction"，如：The second term in the last-written denominator can be dropped. 上式中分母的第二项可以略去。
2.表示"平均水平"，means "average level"，如：The success of the film demonstrates the denominator of public taste. 这部电影的成功表明了大众口味的平均水平
covet: v
表示" 觊觎；垂涎"，means "wish, long, or crave for something"，如：Mr Appleby does not covet power. 艾波比先生不觊觎权力。
philosophical：adj
表示"哲学的；达观的"，means "of or relating to philosophy or philosophers"，如：They belonged to different philosophical sects. 他们是不同哲学学派的成员。
gastronomical: adj
表示"；美食学的"，means "of or relating to gastronomy"，如：Face 7 charismatic chefs, from your mother to a five-star gastronomical genius.脸7魅力的厨师，从你的母亲到一家五星级美食天才。
adage: n
表示" 格言；谚语"，means "a condensed but memorable saying embodying some important fact of experience "，如：Nearly 150 years later, variations of this adage are still quoted. 差不多在150年之后，这个变化了的谚语一直被引用。
中文简要说明：
意大利历史学者格兰迪（Alberto Grandi）近期指称，包括意式培根蛋黄意大利面、披萨等传统意大利美食都源自于美国，这番话让意大利人群情激愤。
综合英国《卫报》（The Guardian）、纽约「每日新闻」（New York Daily News）、美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）报导，意大利帕尔马大学（University of Parma）专精食物历史的格兰迪教授近期接受英国《金融时报》（Financial Times）专访，称包括意式培根蛋黄意大利面（Carbonara）、披萨等传统意大利食物源自于美国。
格兰迪向来以大胆言论出名，他在专访中引述另一名历史学家的说法，称意式培根蛋黄意大利面是「在意大利诞生的美国菜」，是1944年一位意大利厨师为在意大利北部里奇奥尼（Riccione）的美军烹调的食物，「意大利菜肴真的更像美国菜，而不是意大利菜。」
关于披萨，他称二次世界大战之前，意大利只有部分南部城市有吃披萨，在他老爸生活的70年代，披萨在意大利就像现在的寿司一样新奇，他也称，第一间披萨专卖店是在1911年诞生于纽约。另外他也表示，可追溯至12世纪艾米利罗马那（Emilia Romagna）地区的真正帕玛森干酪，如今在意大利已经找不到原始配方，最接近的版本只能在美国威斯康星州找到，他推测是20世纪初远赴美国的意大利移民在威州生产、流传下来。格兰迪在专访中更称，提拉米苏、意大利水果蛋糕「潘纳朵尼」（Panettone）等是相对现代的产物。
格兰迪的一席话引发意大利社会哗然，意大利农牧协会（Coldiretti）痛批他的发言是对具有象征意义的意大利食物的「超现实攻击」，「基本上，他宣称美国人发明了意式培根蛋黄意大利面，潘纳朵尼及提拉米苏是近期商业产品。」
英国广播公司（BBC）记者布蕾桑（Anna Bressanin）也撰文指出，她的意大利朋友告诉她：「现在我们没办法谈其他事。」
意大利人对意大利菜肴的自豪可是不容怀疑的，就在《金融时报》出版格兰迪专访的同一天，意大利文化部及农业部正式宣布，意大利菜列入联合国教科文组织（UNESCO）世界遗产（World Heritage Site）的候选名单，2025年底将会正式决定。
不过究竟意式培根蛋黄意大利面源自于哪里？曾出版意式培根蛋黄意大利面相关书籍的意国美食记者兼作家珂泽菈（Eleonora Cozzella）表示，其实是「结合意大利才华及美国原物料的产物」。
她说二战后的1940年代末期，当时在意大利的美军向旅馆要求吃含有培根、蛋及意大利面的「意大利面早餐」，那时的意大利相当穷困，但是人们能在黑市中买到美国培根及英国面粉。她说第一个意式培根蛋黄意大利面食谱是在1952年于美国出版，配方源自于一间意大利餐厅的2名厨师，其中一名厨师是在美国出生的意大利裔第二代。
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