Italian cuisine gets UNESCO ‘intangible heritage’ status

The UN declared Italian food an “intangible cultural heritage,” the first time a national cuisine has been awarded the status, which Rome hopes will help boost tourism and fight gastronomic “fakes.” UNESCO, the UN’s cultural arm, regularly names historic sites and artifacts as cultural property, physical examples of a society’s heritage: Examples include Stonehenge or the Pyramids of Giza. But it also endorses non-physical things such as traditional dances or religious rites. Specific foods — including Neapolitan pizza-making — have been included before, but never an entire national cuisine; Italy’s government campaigned for the move, in part to help it in an ongoing fight against “fake” Italian food. No doubt the nation will celebrate the decision with a can of Spaghettios.