“ The news that the world has America, not Italy, to thank for the tomato base on pizza has gone down about as well as putting cream in carbonara among Italian gastro-nationalists. In a new book called La Cucina Italiana Non Esiste (literally “Italian Cuisine Does Not Exist”), food historian Alberto Grandi claims, among other things, that Italians only discovered tomato sauce when they emigrated to the Americas, where tomatoes are native, in the 19th century.” SOURCE: The Independent

A food historian has kicked up controversy after claiming that there is ‘no such thing’ as Italian cuisine, sparking debate over the origins and ownership of food. But perhaps we should reconsider our ideas about so-called ‘national dishes.’

This article highlights great, everyday examples that shows how cultural patterns and processes change and why they matter.  Places and cultures are proud of what they see as their accomplishments that are foundational to their heritage.  Interestingly though, many communities jealously guard what they see as their contributions as dislike hearing that their other communities may have had a hand in that contribution. 

In an analogous example to those given in the article, Mexicans are very proud of their cuisine, but must remember that nothing is created in cultural or geographic isolation.  Street tacos made with meat cooked on a rotating spit (al pastor) came to Mexican after WWI and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.  Migrant from what are now the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Turkey brought the Middle Eastern traditional manner of cooking meat and it became a new thing when it can to Mexico.  So, is it “authentically” Mexican?  Of course it’s still authentic, but there is a tendency in some circles to judge something to be less authentic when the origins are more diffused.  I think we should resist the temptation though, to judge the value of a culture or a cultural trait based on it’s perceived “authenticity” or “purity.” Cultures all over the world have their own regional variants of flatbread—partly as a result of stimulus diffusion from other places and partly bringing their own local flavor and customs. Cultures are delightfully intermixed, and the diffusion of cultural practices is what leads to continual human progress that shapes our modern world.    

Towards the end of the article, they say: “does it really matter who invented tomato sauce on pizza? Or where your croissant is from? To acknowledge that one country might have had an impact on the food of another isn’t to be complicit in cultural appropriation. Point to any dish on a menu and you’ll have a hard time finding one that hasn’t got war, politics, economics, emigration or poverty to thank for its place there.”  In essence, geographic processes can be seen everywhere you look.