Beyond global fame, Italians are looking to take it even further, seeking to
make their cuisine popular in outer space. Italian cuisine is to be recognized as an intangible UNESCO World Heritage, and part of that bid is to serve pasta to the
astronauts on the new International Space Station (ISS) mission. Fittingly, one of those astronauts is Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei.

The astronauts are set to start their journey into space from Florida
on Wednesday, Jan. 17, with numerous scientific experiments on
their menu. Italy’s
Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida leads the special "Italian Space Food" project and envisions astronauts
eating pasta on Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3).

Villadei is unlikely to have to do much convincing of his
fellow travelers, even if the pasta and sauce are a mere ready meal. He and the three other astronauts have already tried the dish
during their pre-blast-off quarantine.

The space mission (plus pasta) is set to launch on International
Italian Cuisine Day, a coincidence likely to please the government in
Rome. Since taking office more than a year ago, the government led by Prime
Minister Giorgia Meloni, bent on tradition, has been promoting
everything "Made in Italy." The World Day of "cucina italiana" and the space project came at just
the right time and Meloni was delighted to bring "excellent food and
an iconic product like pasta" into the heavens.

Meanwhile, on Earth, people are preparing to mark International
Italian Cuisine Day with events and food festivals worldwide. The
celebration is held on the feast day of St. Anthony the Great, a
Christian monk who is the patron saint of butchers.

But how traditional is Italian cuisine? Critics are increasingly
saying that "typically Italian" is merely a smart marketing strategy
for food that also strengthens the nation’s sense of identity, a key
concern for the right-wing government.

Is pasta not so traditional after all?


One critic is historian Alberto Grandi, whose comments have
repeatedly led to fury in his home country. His thesis on Italian
cuisine is that "cucina italiana" is not traditional but just a
couple of decades old and that much can be attributed to good
marketing. "You could say that almost everything said about
Italian cuisine is wrong," Grandi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Grandi shot to fame with his work "Denominazione di Origine Inventata
(DOI)" (which translates as "invented designation of origin"), a
corruption of the DOP seal for Italian goods, meaning protected
designation of origin. He has also launched a podcast called DOI.

Grandi says most Italians first heard of pizza in the 1950s. Carbonara originates from the U.S. as a dish, and he sees tiramisu and
panettone as relatively recent inventions. In his view, the best Parmesan – named
after the northern Italian region of Parma, is produced in
the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Furthermore, the famous
Pachino tomatoes – named after Pachino in southern Sicily – were cultivated
by researchers in Israel.

Grandi says Italians want to halt the further
development of their cuisine. History shows that dishes considered 100% Italian these
days result from crossbreeding, substitutions and
imitations. "Italians didn’t teach the world how to cook; they learned
it as migrants in the countries where they worked," he argues.

Grandi’s theories prove indigestible at home


The writer’s ideas are causing a stir in Italy, and the government in
Rome was even driven to action after an interview in the British
Financial Times newspaper last year.

"I believe that today, cuisine is the last element of their identity
that Italians have left. That’s why they get furious when the
history of our recipes is called into question," says Grandi. "Italy
wants to stop time, to live in an eternal present, with no past and
no future. But it is exactly this attitude that will destroy our
image."

He doubts that a world day and putting pasta in space will do his
nation’s cuisine any favors. In his view, the International Day of Italian
Cuisine is simply another advertising initiative. He
says the same about the project of putting pasta in space.

But he says such public relations activities are not merely the work of
Meloni’s right-wing government. "Tradition and cuisine are
cross-cutting issues that even the left rides on to a certain
extent."

The proof, meanwhile, is at least partly in the pudding. It remains to
be seen whether the food consumed by the ISS astronauts will go down
well – and whether that project might bring Italian cuisine a step
closer to coveted UNESCO World Heritage status.