Not just pizza: Italian cuisine makes UNESCO list

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose hard-right government has championed "Made in Italy" products as part of her nationalist agenda, hailed the recognition that she said "honours who we are and our identity".

"Because for us Italians, cuisine is not just food or a collection of recipes. It is much more: it is culture, tradition, work, wealth," she said in a statement.

Pizza-making in Naples already features on the UN cultural agency's list of intangible heritage, as does espresso coffee.

Meloni's government proposed the much wider "cucina italiana" in 2023.

The government said it was the first time the entire scope of a nation's cuisine has made the cut.

Culinary rival France in 2010 won UNESCO recognition for "the gastronomic meal of the French". That more celebratory affair, which begins with an aperitif and ends with liqueurs, includes four courses.

In Rome's Trastevere neighbourhood on Tuesday, the co-owner of the small "Da Gildo" trattoria, Leonora Saltalippi, said Italy's cuisine had centuries of mothers and grandmothers to thank.

"It is all a heritage born from the vision of women in the kitchen," the 43-year-old restauranteur told AFP.

They "have cooked for centuries and found, in the small things from the land and the poverty of the ages, a flavour that starts with oil and ends up in everything they touch," she said.

Pouring a delicate stream of olive oil over a plate of fettuccini with artichokes, she noted that across the country, every family had their own recipe, "with nothing written down".

Customer Tiziana Acanfora, 51, added: "What certainly makes the difference is the care and love with which things in general are prepared, not just the kitchen."

At a table nearby, US tourist Naomi King polished off an oxtail stew "that I would recommend a hundred times over".

"Italian food is one of the better foods in terms of flavour in the world," she told AFP, highlighting the huge variety she and her husband had eaten since arriving in Italy.

The focus on local fruits and vegetables also made the difference, she added: "They know how to take that and make it into something special."