There was not such a thing as a unique Italian cusine. My grandma from the Po plains used pork fat even for frying suites, while in southern Italy olive oil use dates back to the ancient Greek colonies.
That's like saying there isn't a unique Indian cuisine. It's very true (compare Kashmiri cuisine with Bengali with Bhojpuri with Mumbaya with Tamil, etc.), but it's also more than slightly false: there are distinct common elements that are distinctively Indian.
Consiglio al dott. Alberto grandi, storico, di leggere qualche libro di cucina scritto nel XVI, XVII. XVIII ecc. li troverà ricette che lo stupiranno, per esempio nell'opera dello Scappi del XVI sec. o il Cuoco piemontese del 1791 o mille altri testi simili, così si renderà conto che le ricette della cucina italiana hanno una lunghissima tradizione. A proposito del parmigiano; E' citato già nell'anno 1.000 era prodotto a Lodi e lo chiamavano grana o formaggio di Milano perchè veniva commercializzato li. Consiglio anche di leggere il menu del banchetto che i Medici hanno dato per la festa in onore della figlia Maria che andava in sposa al Re di Francia e che si è poi portata al seguito i cuochi di casa. Per quanto riguarda le nonne mia nonna, nata nel 1887, cucinava benissimo e con poco realizzava ottimi pranzi e cene. Se poi volesse esagerare nell'approfondire c'è in edizione moderna anche con doppio testo latino - italiano il de Re Coquinaria di Apicius contemporaneo di Plinio il vecchio.
As an Italian, I can say that Italian cuisine is full of myths and misconceptions, but it's so obvious that Grandi is just talking nonsense and probably just wants attention. It's clear that he's being intellectually dishonest. When someone talks about "Italian" culinary habits while completely ignoring the country's regional diversity, it already shows how low the quality of their historical analysis is. Saying things like "olive oil wasn't widely used in Italy before the 1980s" is ridiculou, WHERE in Italy? Are you talking about Piedmont or Puglia? There is a HUGE difference between those. My grandfather, born in southern Italy in 1905, had his own olive mill, and olive oil was always an essential part of his life. Maybe in Piedmont, they used butter or animal fats more, but to make sweeping statements like that is absurd. Then there's the claim that "pizza arrived in America first." My grandmother, from the province of Avellino (near Naples), was making pizza in her wood-fired oven every week in the 1930s, and it was a sacred dish for her. Maybe pizza became popular in New York before it did in Turin since many southern itlians went there before, but that doesn't mean it's more American. Pizza has been a staple in southern Italy for ages. Also nobody claims PIZZA as an WHOLE ITALY national dish, everybody knows it's droma Naples and the south. As for the carbonara, it’s so laughable what he affirms. Grandi plays the expert food historian and then makes claims without any historical evidence. What does he even mean by saying that carbonara ingredients aren’t part of Italian cuisine? Pasta, cheese (a staple in Italian gastronomy for centuries), and cured meats (whether pancetta or guanciale-Italians have always consumed tons of cured meats), along with eggs and pepper, aren’t "Italian" ingredients? It's like he's ignoring parallel recipes like Amatriciana or Gricia. And the idea that we need to pinpoint the origin of a simple dish like carbonara is absurd. It could have evolved in countless ways across different cities, towns, or even families. Do we really need Americans to enlighten us with the concept of adding eggs to pasta? Everything this clown says isn't just false, it’s completely senseless and proves nothing at all.
Ascoltati altre sue interviste, magari più lunghe di 2 minuti. Lo sa benissimo che la cucina italiana è regionale. Ma il succo del discorso è giusto, chiedi ai tuoi nonni cosa mangiavano da piccoli, ancora meglio bisnonni. La nostra cucina nasce nel dopoguerra, con il miracolo economico. Prima si mangiava per sopravvivere.
Io continuo a comprare il Parmigiano Reggiano al Caseificio lui può continuare a prenderlo dalle mucche dopate del Wisconsin visto che è quello originale.
@@barondino4628 Se lo sa benissimo allora non può asserire cose parlando di "Italia", come se fosse un unicum. Ci sta che la pizza abbia raggiunto livelli di popolarità elevati prima a NY che a Bolsano per dire, grazie tante...ma di certo non prima a NY che a Napoli. Quindi è un discorso che cade. Che poi la cucina popolare italiana come TUTTE le cucine popolari sia cambiata nello scorso secolo, grazie tante, ci voleva Grandi a spiegarcelo che nell'ottocendo non s mangiavano la pastasciutta (quella fresca invece si, c'era e come nei menu) ? Essendo stato un secolo dove è cambiata tutta la distribuzione, la globalizzazione e tutto le abitudini culinari di tutti i popoli sono cambiate tantissimo. Pensi che i Francesi nel 700-800 avessero la baguette? Pensi che gli americani mangiassero i burger? Qualcuno ha mai detto che la carbonara la facessero ai tempi di Napoleone? cioè non capisco quale sia il punto della cosa. I miei nonni da piccoli si facevano la pizza in casa dagli anni 20 quando a NY sapevano appena che fosse e consumavano eccome olio d'oliva. Poi un conto è rivedere un po' la storia della gastronomia italiana per riscrivere quante certe abitudini e prodotti sono effettivamente diventati popolari, un'altra è prendere TUTTO, dalla pizza, alla carbonara al PARMIGIANO, e attribuirlo forzatamente senza nessun straccio di prova all'America. Cioè ma anche a logica...ma se tutte le vecchie pizzerie storiche in America sono state aperti da ITALIANI, e la pizza classica base è fatta con salsa di pomodoro, basilico e mozzarella, ma da dove verrà, anche solo A LOGICA? Il parmigiano dal Wisconsin? Ma di cosa sta a parlà? Chiaro che vuole solo attenzione il tizio.
@@f0ns0r Il punto è che noi italiani abbiamo costruito la nostra identità attorno al cibo. È francamente imbarazzante. Grandi non fa che ricordarci che questa identità è, o inventata, come la storia della carbonara, o recentissima. Da "italiani popolo di santi, poeti e navigatori" siamo passati ad essere un popolo di pizzaioli e ristoratori che fanno cibo a ricchi turisti. Mentre in nord America sono andati sulla Luna ed hanno inventato l'internet, noi siamo 50 anni che non facciamo altro che farci le seghe su quanto siamo bravi a cucinare. E poi ce la prendiamo pure se qualche straniero rompe gli spaghetti o mette la panna nella carbonara. Facciamo pena.
If Italian food becomes world heritage multinationals like Heinz, Nestle, etc will have to pay royalties for using Italian names in their products. That is why there is an increasing interest to attack Italian candidacy
I think it's a bit overdoing to call the entire cuisine "world heritage" - it would cause a lot of issues to tens of millions of small places around the world Screw Heinz, but why screw the small Italian restaurant that is my street?
1. Pizza dates all the way back from the Middle ages. It was not invented in Naples but Neapolitan pizza was originally just a variety of pizza that became famous. Different regional varities of Pizza used to exist all over Italy and beyond. You have for example Sfincione, Pizzolo, Pizza pugliese, Pizza al tegamino, Rianata, Piscilandrea from Liguria. Some recipes for focaccia are also very similar to pizza (such as Focaccia messinese). Some of these regional pizza styles have influenced American pizza culture quite a bit, pan pizza and deep dish pizza or "cold cheese" pizza being descendants. Then you have stuffed pizzas of which there are countless varieties. Calzone is the only one world famous today. 2. Carbonara is just a name of one of the varities of "Pasta caci e uova" pasta with egg and cheese- A dish found throughout central and southern Italy with many variations. There are many of these traditional dishes which involve pasta, eggs, salt pork and cheese which makes it ridiculous to claim that it's not originally Italian. The story of American militaries taking eggs and bacon to Italy and thus creating the dish, is not credible. The combination existed before. Some very old pasta dishes, such as Timballo use this combination. Even adding peas and cream to similar dishes existed as variations on similar dishes, in Italy. 3. Olive oil was very much used in Ancient Roman cuisine and has been used in food since at least early Bronze age. Even though it was expensive at times doesn't mean that it wasn't used, especially in southern Italy and olive oil producing areas where it was cheaper. There are many olive oil recipes with continuity all the way from the ancient Roman ages such as Pesto genovese which is very similar to an Ancient Roman paste called Moretum. Olive oil breads and Italian salad dressings also go back to ancient Rome, and things such as dipping bread into oil and vinegar (which many Italians do). Grandis confidence and the way he just makes a bunch of sweeping claims is frankly incredulous, but the fact of the matter is that he doesn't even know the details of Italian cuisine. He just makes up history as he sees fit.
Are you italian, like me? Then just ask your grandparents or great grandparents if they alive. They used to eat like crap, italian food culture exploded when we exploded economically, during our "economic miracle" after WW2. If it wasn't for industrialization, in north italy we would still eat polenta or minestrone all day every single day.
i don't think it's intellectually honest to consider varieties of flatbread/focaccia as a form of "pizza", i feel like it's almost an insult to pizza. as an italian (like you are, i suspect) i am in no way bothered by Grandi's claims and i actually welcome the demystification.
@@reanavision7896 What's the huge difference? Maybe most Italians wouldn't know but there are many regional unkown Focaccia recipes from all over Italy. Many of them are practically like pizza and some are definitely on the pizza-spectrum. A clear example is "Focaccia messinese" from Sicily which uses scarola, tomatoes, tuma cheese and anchovies as topping on a thin bread. Practically indistinguishable to some American pan pizzas in it's design. There are even regional variations outside of Italy's borders such as Tarte nicoise and Pissaladiere in France and "Komiska pogaca" in Croatia. There are of course alot of misconceptions about Italian cuisine. Alot of the recipes are regarded as "holy sacraments" when they have in fact always been changing. Then there are many foreign influences. These things are to be celebrated and not discouraged. Also porridge and bread has historically been much more important than pasta has ever been, as staple foods. But Grandis claims are simply wrong because he doesn't know the details, it becomes a false history.
Mhh, in my opinion, the problem is that many people do not delve deeply enough into the history of italian cuisine. who is bartolomeo scappi for example, 99% do not know about it. the cuisine in italy is fully documented
The guy is mostly right, and even most of things that we know as of italian are not. Pizza was a comon thing in greece or other mediterarian regions for thousands of years.
I dont know why but it seems Alberto Grandi (for whatever reason) decided to go on a crusade against Italian cuisine. Must be for personal reasons, I cant explain it otherwise.
@@ophthalmophobicnpc8002 he has an almost political agenda, in his last book he states that he “hates nation states” and uses partial sources to prove his points
Lets call people "flat-earther" instead of attacking their argument with facts. You should use science if you disagree. Name-calling is for Trump-supporters.
And curry was adopted and adapted from the British sailors who visited Japan in the 19th century, who in their turn had adopted and adapted it from India! In Japanese culture, in fact, curry is still thought of as "foreign" food!
What the gentleman says in the end is the key to Italian cooking. My grandma taught me how to cook, she didn't cook to feed us, she cooked to show her love for us.
I've lived in both southern and northern Italy and some of the things that he says just don't ring true. Puglia is full of olive groves, some of which date back to the Roman empire. In that part of the world the traditional diet is mainly vegetarian and sometimes vegan. Olive oil seems to be a a vital product in nearly all of the recipes. However, this could definetly be different in nothern Italy, where most of the recipes and based around meat products and animal fat. The other things that he has said seem to be true. However, just because some things have evolved doesn't mean that they don't have italian orgins. Pecorino is from Italian, guanciale is from Italy. Also, La Carbonara is very similar to other Roman dishes, such as cacio e pepe. I think he is making a big fuss just for shock value and T.V appearances. Here in Italy he is frequently on TV just arguing with chefs for fun. Saying that Italian food culture is a lie is so far fetched as he only mentions a few really famous dishes. Every region in Italy has hundreds of local dishes, are they all from America too?
"Il vero parmigiano reggiano che arriva dal Wisconsin" Purtroppo non mi sorprende che un professore dell'Università di Parma dica una cosa del genere, l'Emilia Romagna vuole livellarsi, prima hanno puntato tutto sulla gestione del territorio e ora visto che il bagno al fiume è garantito ogni fine settimana è arrivato il momento di puntare sull'istruzione 😂😂😂😂😂😂
This one is a economic professor, not a historian or a geography expert. He can speak about che commercialisation of some products but obviously ignorant about how origins, evolve and consume foods. Italians been quite poor for the last 2 centuries, and divided. So talking about generic Italian origins of food is wrong as methodology. It's depends of place, social status, which cities. Nowadays come recipes are improved and promoted in specific ways, something with certification of quality and producing systems. But doesn't mean that a specific recipe was not present. Italians ad fascism era was in low of alphabetization, of course you can't find a lot of grandma's written recipe.
I can't speak about the Italians, but the sayings about olive oil is partially true. I am from Turkey and my father is from Antalya, the only liquid oil in my grandmothers house was the olive oil. Indeed olive oil was used in cooking, but, there is a but, never in quantities shown in some mediterranean recipes. My grandmother would travel to her village in mountains, collect the olives from steep mountain orchards and share the crop with people who taken the care of the trees. The olive pressing would take three days, at least. She would crash them with stones, since the mountain village had no mill, and roads and Motor cars not available to Transport the crop. Then she would left the crushed olives in sacks to ferment, then she would pour warm water oevr them, squeze them and collect the oil pooled over the water. It was inefficient, time and energy consuming process and olive oil was precious, but free since they had trees. So, my grandmother would use olive oil to season the olives in breakfast, with lemons and thyme. They would eat the oil with thyme and bread in winter cure diseases, and to be filled. She would cook vegatable dishes with olive oil but just in enough amount, not by pouring it. And they would not eat red meat except feast time. And when they purchase or sloughter a chicken or hunt some birds, they would Grill them, or boil them, make rice and soup with the broth and fry the meaty parts in butter. And in the colder parts of Turkey, areas my other ancestors came from. Olive oil was a commodity and expensive. They would use the rendered fats from sheep, and butter ocasionaly, before the rise of cheaper oils. I know the Turkey from my grandparents stories, but I believe the italy would be the same. Perhaps in the parts of italy where soil and climate is wetter the situation could be different, but i don't think it would be more different in southern parts. Today we don't make our own oil, the machines are doing it, and thanks to irrigation, fertilisers and chemicals we have good harvest, and thanks to that we don't pay a Fortune for the food. But in past oil was precious
Thank you for sharing this. The comments, like yours, are why I like You Tube, beause they give me a picture or knowledge of what I would never have otherwise known.
@@ronaldevans4457 Se consideri il consumo pro capite, ti dò ragione. Ma secondo te, quegli alberi di ulivo che vedo e che hanno centinaia di anni, che cosa producevano? E la giara in terracotta da 50 litri, ormai un cimelio di famiglia utilizzato solo come arredo, che cosa conteneva? Nelle zone in cui era diffusa (da millenni) la coltivazione dell'olivo, l'olio d'oliva ottenuto dalla spremitura delle olive ne costituiva il primo prodotto e il suo principale utilizzo era a scopi alimentari (sicuramente per i nobili, possidenti terrieri, la ricca borghesia e per il clero).
@@ronaldevans4457 Evoluzione: questo è l'unico aspetto vero nelle tesi del professore. La cultura (e il cibo ne fa parte) è un qualcosa in continua evoluzione e in quanto tale risponde alle leggi darwiniane. Ma adattamento, contaminazione, selezione naturale non distruggono ciò che chiamiamo "tradizione", ma portano via via all'affermazione di un modello che viene assunto come riferimento, codificando in una ricetta ingredienti, procedimento e prodotto finito (confrontandosi con le 1000, e ancora 1000 varianti realizzate). La tradizione non è però una ricetta, ma un saper fare storicizzato, consapevole dei caratteri che deve possedere il prodotto finito e le competenze per ottenere il risultato atteso, utilizzando le materie prime da lungo tempo disponibili in quell'area, comprese quelle ormai assimiliate. L'analisi critica, non dogmatica, di Grandi va bene fintanto che non si perde nelle sue iperbole (vere e proprie "sparate", anzi "cazzate"), fate per accendere la discussione e prendere in considerazione anche altri aspetti alieni, non centrali, ma lui arriva a produrre delle affermazioni che ignorano, tralasciano o sminuiscono tante evidenze storiche, facendo sospettare che dietro le sue parole ci siano altre personali finalità, portando a dubitare della sua onestà intellettuale.
hancock is factual , did his research and came to conclusions. just because mainstream people disagree with him doesn't make graham wrong.. you cant argue with facts.
@@OnlyThe1Son Completely making stuff up isn't "research." It's creative writing. If he focused on fabricating stories and world building, he could be the next George RR Martin instead of a laughing stock of archeology. You can't just make something up, declare it true and tell actual experts to disprove it. That's MAGA territory. You have to actually have evidence to back to your claim. And Hancock admitted to having no evidence on his latest Rogan appearance.
@@OnlyThe1Son he did zero research. He's a creative writer. He admitted on the latest JRE that he has no proof, just wishful thinking and fooling gullible rubes and children into believing him. Congrats on that.
I am not Italian but know quite a lot about the culture and food and this guy has clearly lost his mind. Just trying to state absurd facts just to get some attention. Yes Italian food just like any other has and will continue to evolve but that doesn't mean it is not Italian.
I am italian from the "food capital" of Italy. This guy is correct, we built our national identity around food. It's frankly embarrassing at this point. My grandparents used to eat like s*it mostly because they were too poor to afford anything, like every single person in the world living in a pre-industrialized country. Our food was born after WW2, during our "economic miracle". When ladies could afford to go shopping in a weird new place called "supermarket".
@@barondino4628 Sono italiano anche io. Ti faccio notare che in Italia, pur in un economia spesso di sussistenza, gli italiani usavano mangiare anche prima del 1945. Probabilmente una cucina italiana "unificata" è recente quanto una cultura italiana "unitaria", ma in quella che oggi chiamiamo cucina italiana sono confluite quelle sviluppate a livello regionale e locale. Al boom economico possiamo addebitare una spinta allo sviluppo, alla diffusione, alla contaminazione, a una riappropriazione culturale anche delle nostre tradizioni e un impulso alla creazione di nuove. Ma i buoni ingredienti, il saper fare e la diffusione delle conoscenze (anche se circoscritte in ambienti limitati) esistevano anche prima. Per fortuna oggi quei vecchi ricettari e libri di cucina, da Apicio in poi, sono diventati un patrimonio facilmente disponibile, che ci permettono di affermare che il cibo comunque non era considerato solo come materia per sopravvivere, ma poteva essere elevato anche a forma d'arte. Ma anche nella cucina povera, nel saper comunque trattare ingredienti raccolti a costo zero o poco più, disponiamo di un ricco patrimonio culturale e gastronomico.
This "professor" is absolutely a clown. Everything he said is false. I'll just here contradict the "theory" n. 3. Olive oil was used a lot in cuisine at the time of my grandmother, in fact, they were even used in drinking small portions of it. It was their main source of food, so this claim is absolutely ridiculous
It was actually a lot better in the old days,processed with wheels made of granite,organically grown,freshly processed etc unlike the mass production of today
@@carlotosoni9577 my ancestors in The Sannio region of Campania have grown olives since MagnaGrecia ,I myself in the early sixties used to pick olives as a child( the worst job) I use to hate it ,best olive oil ever though ,this professor is so disrespectful to our ancestors he is a total idiot.ps my mother used to put sugar on a piece of home made bread and top it with olive oil ,era molto buono
I think there's a big misconception of what a tradition is. Something that is made the same way over the course of century is a memorial of a dead thing, remembering it is just doing history. Tradition however, just like culture, does not only change, it evolves from the former basis. The natural and productive conditions for doing Parmesan cheese has changed and so has the cheese, this is tradition, just like incorporating an american recipe within the area of competence of italian cuisine, like Carbonara that eventually was modified with more italian ingredients, is the most culturally italian thing ever. Tradition is alive only if it constantly changes, otherwise is a moving dead
When it comes to grandmothers, it depends on what is available. Of course if they lived in periods of plenty they would have cooked rich and complicated dishes but if they lived through hardships of economic crisis, wars, weather changes that hindered production the kitchen will suffer too. An Albanian great grandmother once told me "Grandma knows but she is poor". In the 40s and 50s the Italian grandmothers were poor, Italians who immigrated to north America had more and were able to apply their traditional skills better and more creatively.
La povertà, la "cucina povera", obbligava le persone ad essere interdipendenti. È nella condivisione e nel confronto (scambiandosi materie prime, cucinando insieme, celebrando insieme anche quelle occasioni speciali che ricorrono nelle vite) che sono nati e si sono sviluppati buona parte dei piatti che oggi chiamiamo tradizionali. Spostando una persona in un altro ambiente, anche economicamente più ricco, sei comunque costretto a rinunciare alla gran parte dei tuoi ingredienti originari e la tua cucina risulterà notevolmente mutilata, assolutamente non migliore: si è costretti ad arrangiarsi e ad apportare cambiamenti, ad essere creativi accettando dei compromessi il più delle volte al ribasso. Gli immigrati avevano di più, come quantità disponibile, solo per una limitata quantità di prodotti (tra tutti la carne).
Olive oil was produced and traded through out the Mediterranean for at least 3 millennia. It is attested by archeological findings. In Albania there are olive trees 3 and 4 thousand years old and we still have mills four and five centuries old, run by donkeys/horses/water, that produced olive oil. This guy is not of the field, neither in the food history nor in the archeology. He should not be heard as an expert but just as a person with a different opinion, an ill informed at that.
The historian guy is from Northern Italy and yes, olive oil in north Italy is less common and a recent habit. I'm from Southern Italy where still exist ancient oil mills that keep making great extra virgin olive oil for centuries in the same way. My own family produce olive oil and enjoy it for generations. Never seen in my family animal fats, except sometimes butter for some desserts. Grannies and old women in my family were excellent cooks and passed down their culinary secrets, learned as a girl, to the new generations. That's it. Last fact: pizza is a very common food throughout Italy and almost ever great even if it's different from place to place, but I agree with him on this point: that's a quite recent culture delivered from italian-americans and, in my region, until 10-20 years ago pizzas were kind of American style...BUT more recently the traditional Neapolitan style pizza, never known in US until few years ago, is finally having its big success in the whole world and now it's the ONLY REAL PIZZA for me and the only one born in Naples and with no doubt it deserves 100% Made in Italy trade mark! ❤
Sono abbastanza d'accordo, tranne che per un punto: la pizza in Italia, al di fuori dall'area campana (posto in cui può essere fatta risalire quella che definiamo "pizza"), non si è diffusa in Italia grazie agli italo-americani. Chi apriva pizzerie in su e giù per lo stivale, isole comprese, non erano certo maestranze americane.
As an Italian I can say that this guy is a troll looking for popularity. Maybe some of his claims have some truth in them but he's exaggerating to make noise. As an example, my nonna could make a restaurant menu basically, not only three dishes.
The first pizzeria in NYC which likely first in America was started by guy or guy from Naples. He took his pizza making skills from Naples, and applied it here. Then after WW2 two Kansas white boys stopped over after their Navy stint over, got a job at that pizzeria to learn for a few months. Then went back to Wichita, and came up with their own thing they called Pizza Hut. Of course they changed the recipes.
Cooking with love - one of the most overused and hyperbolic phrases in the world's vocabulary. Yes, a lot of mothers and grandmothers cook because they love their families, but most do the cooking because it's been traditionally a woman's domain. Skill and experience are confused with the nebulous word "love".
As as foodie obsessive myself, the most consistent fact about the origins of food and recipes, is that most of them come from poverty (Rich people don't cook really 🤷♂️)If you follow that rule, you will understand that the best food from Europe, for example, is simply a mix of wars and invasions by the Moorish, Romans and Ottoman Empires across the region😉Every recipe can be interpreted differently, because each one of us have diverse backgrounds and cultural influences😉For example, when making a Carbonara, you can use a high quality Prosciutto when you can't find Guanciale🥓which is hard to find; if you don't have Pecorino, you can use Parmesan🧀The best Pizza of the world?🍕It's NOT a simple question, because there is no real winner, but countries and cities in the US as New York & New Haven and Argentina & Naples, including Italy in general🤔Why? Because there are all DIFFERENT, but EXCELLENT in there own WAY🤷♂️The author has a good point👍
This man is doing politics not history and most of what he says is subjective and objectionable, after the italian (leftists) medias on summer he doesn’t deserve all this space here too
@@ronaldevans4457 so what? ‘Lots of facts’ the only fact is that he despises the national pride about italian food and built an ideological personal stand that reflects his own view on society and multiculturalism, we can replicate his analysis almost for every kind of national food or tradition in the world
Speaking as one who cooks a lot of pasta dishes, I will tell you the shapes do matter. In fact they matter very much, matched to the characteristics of the sauce and the nature of the dish. Dry or fresh is also an important distinction in pasta. As is type of flour used. Egg or no egg is only one of the many things that make the difference.
Pizza is not Italian in the sense that the hellenic colonisers introduced the flatbread with meat and cheese to southern Italy (Napoli is Neapolis, New City) and Sicili. There are flatbread recipes from 500 BC in Greek cookbooks, describing a thin flatbread topped with goats cheese, roast goat slices, figs, honey and thyme.
By this logic, nothing in the world originates from anywhere. Then, just saying, Magna Grecia wasn't a colony of an empire or something, it was an integral part of Hellenic civilization, which happened to exist in Italy too. So if we say that the pizza "comes from hellenics," so it can still comes from Italy?lol And if we follow this logic further, considering pizza the mere equivalent of flatbread, then burgers, for example, shouldn't be considered American because they're just "sandwiches", and people have been putting meat between bread long before burgers were officially "invented." That's nonsense. The point isn't necessarily about who did something first and where, because it's nearly impossible to determine the origins of most things with 100% certainty. It's more about the cultural identity that developed around something. Pizza culture is undeniably Italian: the word "pizza" is Italian, the methods and styles of pizza-making that are globally recognized are italians, and the role of the "pizzaiolo" is an Italian craft, the igridients of the most classic pizzas perfectly match the Southern Italian palate and culinary traditions. Pizza is as Italian as tacos are Mexican, and burgers are American. It’s the cultural and historical context that defines the origins, not just who might have put ingredients 2 of a dish together first.
Flat bread was brought in Europe by the first Anatolian farmers, it's the first bread, almost every country in this planet has flat bread, it existed since neolithic times, all over Italy we have different kinds of flat bread.
@@gio7799 I agree and it was adopted by the Greeks, being almost identical to with today's pizzas. There is a recipe from the book Dipnosofistes from the 5th century BC that describes a popular flatbread with goats cheese slices, figs, slices of black pig sausage, thyme and honey. I had the exact pizza in Rome. My point is that I agree that flatbreads originate from the middle East, but the ancient Greek cuisine transfer to the colonies had flatbread/pizzas almost identical with today. Napoli introduced the pizza with tomato, but unless you maintain that any pizza without tomato is not a pizza then you can see the direct influence of the Greek population in Sicily and Southern Italy
??? La pizza è fondamentalmente del pane piatto cotto insieme ai propri condimenti. Ma riesci a distinguere una pizza dal comune pane? Ed è possibile distinguere una pizza da una comune focaccia? Si...
@@antc.4457I am talking about thin round flatbreads topped with cheese, meat, herbs etc. Ie pizza but without tomatoes. This exists in mesopotamia and Greece since 1000BC. Greek settlers brought these to Sicily and Southern Italy and local populations carried the tradition. Isn't it interesting that the places in most commonly associated with pizza, Napoli (Neapolis ie New City) and Sicily are the largest Greek colonies? Don't you think why that might be?
Italy still can't cook a half way good steak or BBQ rib enough said. Their cows suck too lean tough as rawhide, steaks typically undercooked below ideal medium rare and no salt or other seasoning.
A lot of the ingredients considered essential to Italian cuisine came from somewhere else. For example, tomatoes, peppers, and corn for polenta came from the Americas. So did potatoes for gnocchi.
undenieably true, but that is irrelevant to the original argument. Jeans are still an American clothing item, even if cotton came from somewhere else (either India or South America)
Everyone is complaining in the comments, but maybe his points have some truth to them? He is an academic after all and it would be good to go through his sources. I mean 1944 for carbonara is not very old so it may very well be true? The others too, just cause italians are angry about this does not mean there may be a bit of critical truth to it…
Guanciale, bacon, Eggs, and durum wheat have been around for Thousands of years. Someone must have combined them. Chicken and Pork did not come from New World.
He is not a historian, nor food historian, gastronomer, nothing. He is a woke socialist economist professor who hates anything italian. A hack essentially. Like those gender studies lunatics in the US who write articles about biology not being real.
So how come the ancient Romans generally only invaded and occupied places where olives could grow? Olive oil was a massive part of their diet. This guy is just being provocative in order to get publicity
That's obviously not true, you can look at a map of olive tree cultivation and compare it to the borders of the Roman Empire. They don't grow olives in Britain, Northern Italy, Northern Iberia, the Balkans, Alps etc. The Romans tried to invade Germany and got pushed out at the battle of Teutoburg forest too.
the man is a realist . its true what he says.. its a touchy subject because Italian food is well known globally , its in the top 5 of cuisines right? , chinese, italian, french , indian, japanese but... we need to remember .. in the 1800s there was no fine dining. the restaurant, brunch, lunch culture.. none of that existed.. magazines, chefs, tv shows.. hospitality culture.. the 1900s in italy.. was regional cooking.. and tourists werent coming like 2000 pizza was exploding in the USA in the 1900 to 1950s.. but in italy it was still only in naples. it wasnt until after the war when it went nationwide. but by the 1960s in the USA it was already An american product and pizza chains had dominated the world. might have had its origins in naples in a small area to a small group of people in the 1850s.. but for 100 years did nothing. it was the Americans who turned Pizza into a global food. coffee too.. now.. the italian food our great great great grandparents ate in italy was NOTHING like we eat today.. NOTHING... in the 1600s and 1700s they werent even eating tomatoes.. this is why y,ou NEVER see a tomato in any paintings from the past.. because tomatoes didnt arrive until the 1600s and wasnt really used in eating until the late 1700s... so LEONARDO DAVINCI never ate a pizza, never ate a caprese , never ate spaghetti pomodoro. actually he wouldnt even know 90% of italian food. but this goes for all countries.. dont get me started on American food in the 1600s or 1700s compared to today.. we all evolved... the famous italian food of today is only a few decades old... but thats because life as we know it on earth is really only 100 years old and mostly 50 years old and the hospitality industry as we know it today is probably 40 years old... and really exploded in the past 30.. grand mothers cant cook? cooking is a skill... some can,.. some cant.. also italian food is relgional.. mothers in naples dont make food from piedmont, and mothers from sicily dont cook food from rome.. or neopolitan mothers dont cook food from venice they didnt know how! they only cooked with what they had.. which wasnt very much... the man is correct..
As if any nation's cuisine was the same at all times. Cuisine changes. That applies to Italy, China, India, Japan and France, as well as all other countries.
veramente la pizza era un prodotto un po´ curiosa originaria da Barletta...al epoca i Francesci occuparano la cittá e bloccarono il passaggio impodendo il trasporto di cibo. Cosí un cuoco furioso prese resti di carne, legumi e formaggio e mescolava tutto con pane, friggendo in una pentola...dopodiché lancio tutto sul capo dei soldati dal muro... certamente é una leggenda, ma bella di leggerla:))
è vero, puoi trovare anche austriaci bravi in cucina sicuramente, ma l'italiano ha la cucina nel dna, tutto qui. come ad esempio l'inglese ha il rugby nelle vene e noi no.
I fully agree with his basic argument. The best Pizza Margherita I ever had was in the most unlikely place - on a beach in Indonesia (not Bali). The young man had a wood fired oven on wheels. The pizzas cost around 6 USD for a smallish size pizza which is expensive by Indonesian standards but they were delicious. They had a perfect crunchy crust because the wheat was produced locally. The tomato 🍅 sauce was super fresh (he told me he picks the tomatoes himself from his tomato field in the early morning hours and cooks them every morning in a big pot with local herbs on a flame from 6 am till 10 am stirring insistently.until the sauce thickens). The cheese is made by his mother from the milk of his own buffalos. If you even pay 60 Euros for a pizza in Italy in the most hyped venue you will never eat such a delicious one.
@@sargon4451 have you ever tried a pizza in Naples? The original and the best by miles ,what you tried was an Indonesian pizza not a Neapolitan original,I’m sure it tasted good but still an Indonesian pizza,it’s like an Italian restaurant run by Chinese or vice versa,not the same ,all the produce is grown locally in volcanic soil the buffalo mozzarella is also locally sourced,and that makes it that little bit better,and like in Indonesia you have to buy them from the local pizzeria not the typical tourist traps,then you can make a fair comparison
@@JohnGarofano-s5j I have eaten pizza in Napoli but I personally prefer the Roman version. Anyhow you can't build an entire cuisine on basically one ingredient which is white wheat with slight variations (pizza, pasta, gnocchi, panini, bread, grissini, brioche. Isn't it boring?!).
@@sargon4451 the pasta is used as a carrier just like the Chinese cousineuses rice,there are virtually hundreds of pasta dishes and they all have different combinations of ingredients and none of them taste remotely similar,we use different meats,vegetables,cream,milk,olive oil,butter,lard,different dishes different flavours you don’t even taste the pasta which can be shaped according to the dish you are serving ,we also have different cheeses for different dishes served,on top of that we have hundreds of meat dishes,chicken dishes,vegetarian dishes,soups, and don’t forget we also have dozens of RICE dishes yes RiCE dishes ever heard of risotto? This is why the Italian cuisine is so popular and famous around the world,pasta is part of it but not ALL of it, and definitely NEVER EVER BORING,I can eat a different dish every day for the next five years .My advice to you look at life with your eyes open, by the way I’m Italian can I respectfully ask you what nationality are you? By the way can you verify your knowledge of pizzas by telling me ( a Neapolitan) the difference between the 2 pizzas? And why you prefer the Roman version? I forgot to mention our sweets,cakes,cannoli,tiramisu,amaretti,Nutella,torrone,sfogliatelle,cornetto,arancini,coffee culture,espresso macchiato affogato ristretto,cappuccino,caffe e latte, gelato,mortadella,salami,prosciutto,coppa ,panchetta,guanciale,parmigiana,pecorino,mozzarella,provolone,panettone,biscotti,wines ,liqueurs Do you still think it’s boring?
@@JohnGarofano-s5j Thank you for taking the time to respond in detail and let me further elaborate on my point of view : # 1 : I am an Australian born to Lebanese parents and I was familiar with Italian cuisine even before I started visiting Italy extensively in the mid 1990's and to this day. I stayed in Busto Arsizio in the province of Varese for work purposes for 5 years on and off in the mid 2010's (typically 3 to 4 months in every year) and I also stayed in Mendrisio for some months which is technically Switzerland but has excellent and frequent train links to Milano. I visited Naples 5 - 6 times, the beautiful Salerno, the magnificent Capri, as well as many Italian cities (Bologna, Palermo, Firenze, Venezia, Torino, Rimini etc ) and many small and beautiful towns (my personal favourites are Arona and Anguillara Sabazia because I like quaint towns on rivers and lakes). In short - I know Italy quite well (with the exception of regions I never visited such as Calabria, Puglia, Valle D'Aosta, Trentino - South Tyrol so I can't comment on them) and I love some aspects of it (and dislike some aspects and am always upfront and frank with my Italian friends and colleagues who usually are not thrilled to hear my criticism. # 2 : I absolutely adore many of the high quality agricultural produce available in Italy. However, to have fantastic products and use them wisely are two very different matters ! When in Italy I usually cook for myself because I am BORED of the total lack of innovation. This is especially true in Napoli because I don't eat seafood of any kind and sure Baba is nice to eat once. A year but not very day ! The problem that the author of the book points to is the lack of innovation in Italian cooking. This is why I fully agree with his argument that ITALIAN CUISINE DOES NOT EXIST. # 3 : I am a fan of Pasta and I always buy 5 kilos of excellent quality pasta to carry away from Italy but I pointed to a problem that seems to have escaped your attention. Eating is not only about filling your stomach but also about health and nutrition and VARIETY. Starting from the terrible Italian breakfast that is full of sugar and bad oils to the lunch that is very low on spices (this is why people age badly and why many men in their forties in Italy wear their suites and ties in the height of summer sweating profusely. Maybe they are trying to look attractive this way but incorporating spices such as turmeric, nutmeg, cloves etc.that mango Italians never even heard of let alone uses would make them look and feel a lot better. # 4 : The Italian coffee culture of 2024 (my latest visit was in June 2024) is a far cry from the Italian coffee culture of the 1990's. Coffee beans are expensive these days and Italians (especially in the north of Italy) are obsessed with saving money. What is so "cultural" about espresso or macchiato or cappuccino that is made of 90% Robusta beans and sold for 1 euro or 1.10 or even 1.30 Euros "standing at the bar". For a real taste of coffee culture I suggest Vietnam and even some countries in Europe such as Serbia, Bulgaria and North Macedonia where coffee costs a little more than it does in Italy (though these 3 countries I mentioned are much poorer than Italy) but tastes a lot better.
@@sargon4451 thank you for your detailed response I really appreciate it,I agree with you 100% regarding the Italian breakfast ,but being Italian I’m unlike you I’m a bit biased when it comes to Italian food,we actually cook it so it’s home made unlike restaurant bought meals made nowadays for the sole purpose of making a profit first ,I really respect your opinion, Italy like the rest of Europe it’s not the same as it was 20 years ago,and the standard of food served in some places has deteriorated becoming more and more commercialised American style ,but trust me home made cooking its on a different level, just like the pizza you ate in Indonesia,have a good day ,mate!
Thinking about this Americans don't get their panties all balled up about where food originated from we take it as is and put our twist on it and enjoy. Reason America is called a melting pot.
@@barondino4628 ma cosa c'entra, pure mia nonna mangiava solo lenticchie, la maggior parte della popolazione non si poteva permettere manco il pane. Ma non importa, sono polemiche della domenica, credete quello che volete tanto se volete mangiare bene bisogna rimanere in Italia, non esiste altro paese europeo con la varietà e la ricchezza di sapori del nostro.
While pizza originated in Naples, it reached New York before northern Italy. Without its American popularity pizza would likely remain a local dish in Naples (or southern Italy in general).
What a stupid ignorant man. Never heard more nonsense counter to all evidence in my life, and worse. Him saying all those foods are disgusting. Just cause he is a hater. Why even give him 2 seconds of oxygen?
Fa davvero impressione apprendere che la cucina italiana è una bugia colossale ed è solo un'operazione di marketing! quindi solo la cucina francese può vantare una certa autenticità!!
Neapolitan pizza is one of the most disgusting inventions. It has a thick crust and it is soggy. The wheat used for the pizza is highly refined so it has almost no nutitional benefits. The tomato sauce ALWAYS comes from a can. Of course South Italy generally and Naples particularly have the tastiest fresh tomatoes in Europe because of the volcanic soil but they are too lazy to peel tomatoes and put them in a blender for pizza (for pasta they make tomato sauce once a year and keep it in a jar so its nutritiinal value is also close to zero and it isn't tasty). The tragedy is the typical Italian living south of the city of Rome eats a brioche, cornetto or a panini for breakfast, a pizza or a pasta for lunch and a pizza or a pasta for dinner and some silly salty biscuit made of (you guessed it) MORE white flour as a snack between meals. It is a diet consisting mainly of carbohydrates and it is more boring than jail food in most parts of Western Europe.
Ho letto qualche altro tuo post e per quanto trovassi discutibili alcune tue affermazioni (accompagnate comunque da altre condivisibili) mi sono astenuto dal commentare. Ma qui hai detto una serie di stronzate, ben messe in fila una dopo l'altra e mi fai dubitare della bontà di quanto hai scritto in altri commenti. TI piace provocare... ma almeno cerca di essere accurato. Sembri molto ignorante in materia di produzione alimentare. Cosa vuol dire "wheat highly refined" (grano altamente raffinato)? Tutti i panificati hanno come ingrediente base una farina, riducendo in polvere un qualche seme come ad esempio il frumento, in modo da poterlo impastare con semplice acqua. Nel processo di molitura rimangono gli amidi e le proteine del cariosside, viene eliminata la crusca (quella si che ha scarsi valori nutrizionali, sebbene sia utile al nostro macrobiota). In genere niente di molto differente da quanto l'uomo fa da migliaia di anni, da quando ha inventato l'agricoltura. Il problema, nella coltivazione del grano e nelle farine attuali, è quando vengono aggiunti altri prodotti per "migliorarle". Meglio imparare a leggere correttamente le etichette sui prodotti alimentari che acquistiamo! Sai quante varietà di pomodori esistono? Sai quali sono quelli utilizzati per fare "sugo"? Da come ti esprimi non hai idea che la finestra temporale utile per la raccolta di questi pomodori ed il loro immediato utilizzo è molto limitata (2 o al massimo 3 settimana su un intero anno). Quello che si può fare è utilizzare tecniche adeguate di conservazione, per averli disponibili tutto l'anno (i pomodori, dopo essere stati selezionati, lavati, sbollentati in modo da pelarli, vengono inscatolati e sterilizzati... nessuna pigrizia in tutte queste operazioni, i metodi di conservazione migliori sono quelli che meglio vogliono preservare le caratteristiche organolettiche e nutrizionali degli alimenti. A proposito i pomodori per fare il sugo vanno macinati, non frullati: non abbiamo assolutamente bisogno di incorporare aria andando a degradare il risultato finale). I pasti nel sud Italia sono molto più vari di quanto dica la tua ignoranza. La presenza di verdura e frutta sono una costante nella alimentazione cosiddetta mediterranea (dieta riconosciuta, purtroppo non da te, ma a livello mondiale come sana. Sai cosa sia una "zona blu"?). Dicevi altrove che sei stato tante volte in Italia? E non ti sei mai accorto della varietà di cibi che ci sono? Tanto meno di come sono preparati... A proposito la pizza napoletana è sottile (thick crust? Gnurant!).
He's totally right. Pizza is an American product, and carbonara has nothing to do with Mediterranean cuisine. Pizza essentially originates from the middle east, same as spaghetti come from China.
come on , italy is about burly more than 100 year old country , with friendship with powerful america they stole recipes from greece china persia and spain, took the credit for themselves as a nation making project, the language itself create 100 year ago and still not all people in that place cannot speak it
Italy was unified in the 1860s, true, but Italy did not "steal" recipes (with or without the help of "America"), and did not claim credit for them. Most nations are influenced by and influence other nations, particularly in cuisine.
That sad reality is that we italians built our national identity around food. Embarrassing. We used to be scientists, navigators, philosophers, now we are pizza and pasta makers for rich tourists and we get pissed if someone break spaghetti or do not respect our 50 years old recipe.
There was not such a thing as a unique Italian cusine.
My grandma from the Po plains used pork fat even for frying suites, while in southern Italy olive oil use dates back to the ancient Greek colonies.
That's like saying there isn't a unique Indian cuisine. It's very true (compare Kashmiri cuisine with Bengali with Bhojpuri with Mumbaya with Tamil, etc.), but it's also more than slightly false: there are distinct common elements that are distinctively Indian.
Reality check: If you tell an Italian Grandma she can't cook. She'll beat you within an inch of your life.
Just ditch here, like your American greatgrandad GI Joe, did.
@@Dosadniste2000 My Grandpa was definitely not American. I tripled check when I was 14.
What country would you tell the grandmas they can't cook? I think grandmas in every country I've been to are good cooks.
Consiglio al dott. Alberto grandi, storico, di leggere qualche libro di cucina scritto nel XVI, XVII. XVIII ecc. li troverà ricette che lo stupiranno, per esempio nell'opera dello Scappi del XVI sec. o il Cuoco piemontese del 1791 o mille altri testi simili, così si renderà conto che le ricette della cucina italiana hanno una lunghissima tradizione. A proposito del parmigiano; E' citato già nell'anno 1.000 era prodotto a Lodi e lo chiamavano grana o formaggio di Milano perchè veniva commercializzato li. Consiglio anche di leggere il menu del banchetto che i Medici hanno dato per la festa in onore della figlia Maria che andava in sposa al Re di Francia e che si è poi portata al seguito i cuochi di casa. Per quanto riguarda le nonne mia nonna, nata nel 1887, cucinava benissimo e con poco realizzava ottimi pranzi e cene. Se poi volesse esagerare nell'approfondire c'è in edizione moderna anche con doppio testo latino - italiano il de Re Coquinaria di Apicius contemporaneo di Plinio il vecchio.
io consiglio a lei di leggere qualche libro di Grandi, in cui veramente tutte le tematiche che cita vengono affrontate.
As an Italian, I can say that Italian cuisine is full of myths and misconceptions, but it's so obvious that Grandi is just talking nonsense and probably just wants attention. It's clear that he's being intellectually dishonest. When someone talks about "Italian" culinary habits while completely ignoring the country's regional diversity, it already shows how low the quality of their historical analysis is. Saying things like "olive oil wasn't widely used in Italy before the 1980s" is ridiculou, WHERE in Italy? Are you talking about Piedmont or Puglia? There is a HUGE difference between those. My grandfather, born in southern Italy in 1905, had his own olive mill, and olive oil was always an essential part of his life. Maybe in Piedmont, they used butter or animal fats more, but to make sweeping statements like that is absurd.
Then there's the claim that "pizza arrived in America first." My grandmother, from the province of Avellino (near Naples), was making pizza in her wood-fired oven every week in the 1930s, and it was a sacred dish for her. Maybe pizza became popular in New York before it did in Turin since many southern itlians went there before, but that doesn't mean it's more American. Pizza has been a staple in southern Italy for ages. Also nobody claims PIZZA as an WHOLE ITALY national dish, everybody knows it's droma Naples and the south.
As for the carbonara, it’s so laughable what he affirms. Grandi plays the expert food historian and then makes claims without any historical evidence.
What does he even mean by saying that carbonara ingredients aren’t part of Italian cuisine? Pasta, cheese (a staple in Italian gastronomy for centuries), and cured meats (whether pancetta or guanciale-Italians have always consumed tons of cured meats), along with eggs and pepper, aren’t "Italian" ingredients? It's like he's ignoring parallel recipes like Amatriciana or Gricia. And the idea that we need to pinpoint the origin of a simple dish like carbonara is absurd. It could have evolved in countless ways across different cities, towns, or even families. Do we really need Americans to enlighten us with the concept of adding eggs to pasta?
Everything this clown says isn't just false, it’s completely senseless and proves nothing at all.
He's a marxist clown
Ascoltati altre sue interviste, magari più lunghe di 2 minuti. Lo sa benissimo che la cucina italiana è regionale. Ma il succo del discorso è giusto, chiedi ai tuoi nonni cosa mangiavano da piccoli, ancora meglio bisnonni. La nostra cucina nasce nel dopoguerra, con il miracolo economico. Prima si mangiava per sopravvivere.
Io continuo a comprare il Parmigiano Reggiano al Caseificio lui può continuare a prenderlo dalle mucche dopate del Wisconsin visto che è quello originale.
@@barondino4628 Se lo sa benissimo allora non può asserire cose parlando di "Italia", come se fosse un unicum. Ci sta che la pizza abbia raggiunto livelli di popolarità elevati prima a NY che a Bolsano per dire, grazie tante...ma di certo non prima a NY che a Napoli. Quindi è un discorso che cade. Che poi la cucina popolare italiana come TUTTE le cucine popolari sia cambiata nello scorso secolo, grazie tante, ci voleva Grandi a spiegarcelo che nell'ottocendo non s mangiavano la pastasciutta (quella fresca invece si, c'era e come nei menu) ? Essendo stato un secolo dove è cambiata tutta la distribuzione, la globalizzazione e tutto le abitudini culinari di tutti i popoli sono cambiate tantissimo. Pensi che i Francesi nel 700-800 avessero la baguette? Pensi che gli americani mangiassero i burger? Qualcuno ha mai detto che la carbonara la facessero ai tempi di Napoleone? cioè non capisco quale sia il punto della cosa. I miei nonni da piccoli si facevano la pizza in casa dagli anni 20 quando a NY sapevano appena che fosse e consumavano eccome olio d'oliva. Poi un conto è rivedere un po' la storia della gastronomia italiana per riscrivere quante certe abitudini e prodotti sono effettivamente diventati popolari, un'altra è prendere TUTTO, dalla pizza, alla carbonara al PARMIGIANO, e attribuirlo forzatamente senza nessun straccio di prova all'America. Cioè ma anche a logica...ma se tutte le vecchie pizzerie storiche in America sono state aperti da ITALIANI, e la pizza classica base è fatta con salsa di pomodoro, basilico e mozzarella, ma da dove verrà, anche solo A LOGICA? Il parmigiano dal Wisconsin? Ma di cosa sta a parlà? Chiaro che vuole solo attenzione il tizio.
@@f0ns0r Il punto è che noi italiani abbiamo costruito la nostra identità attorno al cibo. È francamente imbarazzante. Grandi non fa che ricordarci che questa identità è, o inventata, come la storia della carbonara, o recentissima. Da "italiani popolo di santi, poeti e navigatori" siamo passati ad essere un popolo di pizzaioli e ristoratori che fanno cibo a ricchi turisti. Mentre in nord America sono andati sulla Luna ed hanno inventato l'internet, noi siamo 50 anni che non facciamo altro che farci le seghe su quanto siamo bravi a cucinare. E poi ce la prendiamo pure se qualche straniero rompe gli spaghetti o mette la panna nella carbonara. Facciamo pena.
If Italian food becomes world heritage multinationals like Heinz, Nestle, etc will have to pay royalties for using Italian names in their products. That is why there is an increasing interest to attack Italian candidacy
I think it's a bit overdoing to call the entire cuisine "world heritage" - it would cause a lot of issues to tens of millions of small places around the world Screw Heinz, but why screw the small Italian restaurant that is my street?
@@RomaInvicta202 I sure the royalties only apply to the largest companies, and not small mom and pop.
Who would they pay royalties to? The Italians and Americans that invented "Italian Food" are all dead now.
@@ronaldevans4457 The Italian State.
@@TeddyAura So if someone makes a Hawaiian pizza, do they have to pay Hawaii or Italy?
This guy seems to work for the American multinationals to avoid Italian cuisine to be part of Unesco world heritage.
He is just a socialist university professor who wrote a rage bait book based on conjectures
I never thought I'd say it, but my support goes to those Mulitinationals.
1. Pizza dates all the way back from the Middle ages. It was not invented in Naples but Neapolitan pizza was originally just a variety of pizza that became famous. Different regional varities of Pizza used to exist all over Italy and beyond. You have for example Sfincione, Pizzolo, Pizza pugliese, Pizza al tegamino, Rianata, Piscilandrea from Liguria. Some recipes for focaccia are also very similar to pizza (such as Focaccia messinese). Some of these regional pizza styles have influenced American pizza culture quite a bit, pan pizza and deep dish pizza or "cold cheese" pizza being descendants. Then you have stuffed pizzas of which there are countless varieties. Calzone is the only one world famous today.
2. Carbonara is just a name of one of the varities of "Pasta caci e uova" pasta with egg and cheese- A dish found throughout central and southern Italy with many variations. There are many of these traditional dishes which involve pasta, eggs, salt pork and cheese which makes it ridiculous to claim that it's not originally Italian. The story of American militaries taking eggs and bacon to Italy and thus creating the dish, is not credible. The combination existed before. Some very old pasta dishes, such as Timballo use this combination. Even adding peas and cream to similar dishes existed as variations on similar dishes, in Italy.
3. Olive oil was very much used in Ancient Roman cuisine and has been used in food since at least early Bronze age. Even though it was expensive at times doesn't mean that it wasn't used, especially in southern Italy and olive oil producing areas where it was cheaper. There are many olive oil recipes with continuity all the way from the ancient Roman ages such as Pesto genovese which is very similar to an Ancient Roman paste called Moretum. Olive oil breads and Italian salad dressings also go back to ancient Rome, and things such as dipping bread into oil and vinegar (which many Italians do).
Grandis confidence and the way he just makes a bunch of sweeping claims is frankly incredulous, but the fact of the matter is that he doesn't even know the details of Italian cuisine. He just makes up history as he sees fit.
Are you italian, like me? Then just ask your grandparents or great grandparents if they alive. They used to eat like crap, italian food culture exploded when we exploded economically, during our "economic miracle" after WW2. If it wasn't for industrialization, in north italy we would still eat polenta or minestrone all day every single day.
i don't think it's intellectually honest to consider varieties of flatbread/focaccia as a form of "pizza", i feel like it's almost an insult to pizza. as an italian (like you are, i suspect) i am in no way bothered by Grandi's claims and i actually welcome the demystification.
@@reanavision7896 What's the huge difference? Maybe most Italians wouldn't know but there are many regional unkown Focaccia recipes from all over Italy. Many of them are practically like pizza and some are definitely on the pizza-spectrum. A clear example is "Focaccia messinese" from Sicily which uses scarola, tomatoes, tuma cheese and anchovies as topping on a thin bread. Practically indistinguishable to some American pan pizzas in it's design.
There are even regional variations outside of Italy's borders such as Tarte nicoise and Pissaladiere in France and "Komiska pogaca" in Croatia.
There are of course alot of misconceptions about Italian cuisine. Alot of the recipes are regarded as "holy sacraments" when they have in fact always been changing. Then there are many foreign influences. These things are to be celebrated and not discouraged. Also porridge and bread has historically been much more important than pasta has ever been, as staple foods.
But Grandis claims are simply wrong because he doesn't know the details, it becomes a false history.
Pellegrino Artusi's cookbook is from 1891 and uses olive oil as food. I guess that 'professor' didn't do a great job at research.
At 3:35 he acknowledges that people were eating olive oil but it was rare. Did you even watch the video?
Mhh, in my opinion, the problem is that many people do not delve deeply enough into the history of italian cuisine. who is bartolomeo scappi for example, 99% do not know about it. the cuisine in italy is fully documented
The guy is mostly right, and even most of things that we know as of italian are not. Pizza was a comon thing in greece or other mediterarian regions for thousands of years.
I dont know why but it seems Alberto Grandi (for whatever reason) decided to go on a crusade against Italian cuisine. Must be for personal reasons, I cant explain it otherwise.
@@ophthalmophobicnpc8002 he has an almost political agenda, in his last book he states that he “hates nation states” and uses partial sources to prove his points
It sucks. That's why
@@Dosadniste2000tua sorella
@Dosadniste2000 it's rated #1 world wide tho
He's a marxist
6th myth: Dr. Grandi's credibility.
The flath-earther of italian gastronomy.
LOL...great
you sound upset by facts.. don't get emotional over truth
Lets call people "flat-earther" instead of attacking their argument with facts.
You should use science if you disagree. Name-calling is for Trump-supporters.
Mahatma Grandi!
The same could be said with Japanese cuisine . Gyoza and ramen are in fact chinese popularized in Japan only after the second world war
And curry was adopted and adapted from the British sailors who visited Japan in the 19th century, who in their turn had adopted and adapted it from India! In Japanese culture, in fact, curry is still thought of as "foreign" food!
What the gentleman says in the end is the key to Italian cooking. My grandma taught me how to cook, she didn't cook to feed us, she cooked to show her love for us.
I've lived in both southern and northern Italy and some of the things that he says just don't ring true. Puglia is full of olive groves, some of which date back to the Roman empire. In that part of the world the traditional diet is mainly vegetarian and sometimes vegan. Olive oil seems to be a a vital product in nearly all of the recipes. However, this could definetly be different in nothern Italy, where most of the recipes and based around meat products and animal fat. The other things that he has said seem to be true.
However, just because some things have evolved doesn't mean that they don't have italian orgins. Pecorino is from Italian, guanciale is from Italy. Also, La Carbonara is very similar to other Roman dishes, such as cacio e pepe. I think he is making a big fuss just for shock value and T.V appearances. Here in Italy he is frequently on TV just arguing with chefs for fun.
Saying that Italian food culture is a lie is so far fetched as he only mentions a few really famous dishes. Every region in Italy has hundreds of local dishes, are they all from America too?
"Il vero parmigiano reggiano che arriva dal Wisconsin" Purtroppo non mi sorprende che un professore dell'Università di Parma dica una cosa del genere, l'Emilia Romagna vuole livellarsi, prima hanno puntato tutto sulla gestione del territorio e ora visto che il bagno al fiume è garantito ogni fine settimana è arrivato il momento di puntare sull'istruzione 😂😂😂😂😂😂
This one is a economic professor, not a historian or a geography expert. He can speak about che commercialisation of some products but obviously ignorant about how origins, evolve and consume foods. Italians been quite poor for the last 2 centuries, and divided. So talking about generic Italian origins of food is wrong as methodology. It's depends of place, social status, which cities. Nowadays come recipes are improved and promoted in specific ways, something with certification of quality and producing systems. But doesn't mean that a specific recipe was not present. Italians ad fascism era was in low of alphabetization, of course you can't find a lot of grandma's written recipe.
I can't speak about the Italians, but the sayings about olive oil is partially true. I am from Turkey and my father is from Antalya, the only liquid oil in my grandmothers house was the olive oil. Indeed olive oil was used in cooking, but, there is a but, never in quantities shown in some mediterranean recipes. My grandmother would travel to her village in mountains, collect the olives from steep mountain orchards and share the crop with people who taken the care of the trees. The olive pressing would take three days, at least. She would crash them with stones, since the mountain village had no mill, and roads and Motor cars not available to Transport the crop. Then she would left the crushed olives in sacks to ferment, then she would pour warm water oevr them, squeze them and collect the oil pooled over the water. It was inefficient, time and energy consuming process and olive oil was precious, but free since they had trees. So, my grandmother would use olive oil to season the olives in breakfast, with lemons and thyme. They would eat the oil with thyme and bread in winter cure diseases, and to be filled. She would cook vegatable dishes with olive oil but just in enough amount, not by pouring it. And they would not eat red meat except feast time. And when they purchase or sloughter a chicken or hunt some birds, they would Grill them, or boil them, make rice and soup with the broth and fry the meaty parts in butter. And in the colder parts of Turkey, areas my other ancestors came from. Olive oil was a commodity and expensive. They would use the rendered fats from sheep, and butter ocasionaly, before the rise of cheaper oils. I know the Turkey from my grandparents stories, but I believe the italy would be the same. Perhaps in the parts of italy where soil and climate is wetter the situation could be different, but i don't think it would be more different in southern parts. Today we don't make our own oil, the machines are doing it, and thanks to irrigation, fertilisers and chemicals we have good harvest, and thanks to that we don't pay a Fortune for the food. But in past oil was precious
Thank you for sharing this. The comments, like yours, are why I like You Tube, beause they give me a picture or knowledge of what I would never have otherwise known.
I think the professor would agree with you. At 3:35 he acknowledges that high quality olive oil was produced.
I am sure that, in the 1970' when I was a kid, my italian grandmother always had Olive oil in her kitchen.
At 3:35 he acknowledges that people were eating olive oil but it was rare. Did you even watch the video?
@@ronaldevans4457 what I meant was: "she always had in her kitchen" = "she used it all the time".
@@ivanpetro8464 Widespread use started in 1950, so your grandmother using it in 1970 is in-line with the professors comments.
@@ronaldevans4457 Se consideri il consumo pro capite, ti dò ragione. Ma secondo te, quegli alberi di ulivo che vedo e che hanno centinaia di anni, che cosa producevano? E la giara in terracotta da 50 litri, ormai un cimelio di famiglia utilizzato solo come arredo, che cosa conteneva? Nelle zone in cui era diffusa (da millenni) la coltivazione dell'olivo, l'olio d'oliva ottenuto dalla spremitura delle olive ne costituiva il primo prodotto e il suo principale utilizzo era a scopi alimentari (sicuramente per i nobili, possidenti terrieri, la ricca borghesia e per il clero).
The dude is just trying to sell his book…
"Evolution is fake. Darwin was just trying to sell his book" -someone who doesn't believe in science
@@ronaldevans4457 Evoluzione: questo è l'unico aspetto vero nelle tesi del professore. La cultura (e il cibo ne fa parte) è un qualcosa in continua evoluzione e in quanto tale risponde alle leggi darwiniane. Ma adattamento, contaminazione, selezione naturale non distruggono ciò che chiamiamo "tradizione", ma portano via via all'affermazione di un modello che viene assunto come riferimento, codificando in una ricetta ingredienti, procedimento e prodotto finito (confrontandosi con le 1000, e ancora 1000 varianti realizzate). La tradizione non è però una ricetta, ma un saper fare storicizzato, consapevole dei caratteri che deve possedere il prodotto finito e le competenze per ottenere il risultato atteso, utilizzando le materie prime da lungo tempo disponibili in quell'area, comprese quelle ormai assimiliate.
L'analisi critica, non dogmatica, di Grandi va bene fintanto che non si perde nelle sue iperbole (vere e proprie "sparate", anzi "cazzate"), fate per accendere la discussione e prendere in considerazione anche altri aspetti alieni, non centrali, ma lui arriva a produrre delle affermazioni che ignorano, tralasciano o sminuiscono tante evidenze storiche, facendo sospettare che dietro le sue parole ci siano altre personali finalità, portando a dubitare della sua onestà intellettuale.
Bro is doing old school rage bait
This guy seems like the Graham Hancock of Italian cuisine.
hancock is factual , did his research and came to conclusions. just because mainstream people disagree with him doesn't make graham wrong.. you cant argue with facts.
@@OnlyThe1Son Completely making stuff up isn't "research." It's creative writing. If he focused on fabricating stories and world building, he could be the next George RR Martin instead of a laughing stock of archeology.
You can't just make something up, declare it true and tell actual experts to disprove it. That's MAGA territory. You have to actually have evidence to back to your claim. And Hancock admitted to having no evidence on his latest Rogan appearance.
@@OnlyThe1Son he did zero research. He's a creative writer. He admitted on the latest JRE that he has no proof, just wishful thinking and fooling gullible rubes and children into believing him. Congrats on that.
I am not Italian but know quite a lot about the culture and food and this guy has clearly lost his mind. Just trying to state absurd facts just to get some attention. Yes Italian food just like any other has and will continue to evolve but that doesn't mean it is not Italian.
Thanks for not providing any specific examples.
I am italian from the "food capital" of Italy. This guy is correct, we built our national identity around food. It's frankly embarrassing at this point. My grandparents used to eat like s*it mostly because they were too poor to afford anything, like every single person in the world living in a pre-industrialized country. Our food was born after WW2, during our "economic miracle". When ladies could afford to go shopping in a weird new place called "supermarket".
@@barondino4628
Sono italiano anche io. Ti faccio notare che in Italia, pur in un economia spesso di sussistenza, gli italiani usavano mangiare anche prima del 1945. Probabilmente una cucina italiana "unificata" è recente quanto una cultura italiana "unitaria", ma in quella che oggi chiamiamo cucina italiana sono confluite quelle sviluppate a livello regionale e locale. Al boom economico possiamo addebitare una spinta allo sviluppo, alla diffusione, alla contaminazione, a una riappropriazione culturale anche delle nostre tradizioni e un impulso alla creazione di nuove.
Ma i buoni ingredienti, il saper fare e la diffusione delle conoscenze (anche se circoscritte in ambienti limitati) esistevano anche prima. Per fortuna oggi quei vecchi ricettari e libri di cucina, da Apicio in poi, sono diventati un patrimonio facilmente disponibile, che ci permettono di affermare che il cibo comunque non era considerato solo come materia per sopravvivere, ma poteva essere elevato anche a forma d'arte.
Ma anche nella cucina povera, nel saper comunque trattare ingredienti raccolti a costo zero o poco più, disponiamo di un ricco patrimonio culturale e gastronomico.
This "professor" is absolutely a clown. Everything he said is false. I'll just here contradict the "theory" n. 3. Olive oil was used a lot in cuisine at the time of my grandmother, in fact, they were even used in drinking small portions of it. It was their main source of food, so this claim is absolutely ridiculous
It was actually a lot better in the old days,processed with wheels made of granite,organically grown,freshly processed etc unlike the mass production of today
@@JohnGarofano-s5j yes exactly
Do you have a source backing this claim?
@@carlotosoni9577 my ancestors in The Sannio region of Campania have grown olives since MagnaGrecia ,I myself in the early sixties used to pick olives as a child( the worst job) I use to hate it ,best olive oil ever though ,this professor is so disrespectful to our ancestors he is a total idiot.ps my mother used to put sugar on a piece of home made bread and top it with olive oil ,era molto buono
In the US, grandma pizza is identical to what schools serve for lunch. (:
But i still like Italian food. And Spanish's
Alberto Grandi.
Professore Universitario e Storico.
Luminare all’Università di Scasazza.
Everyone do you have website..?
I think there's a big misconception of what a tradition is. Something that is made the same way over the course of century is a memorial of a dead thing, remembering it is just doing history. Tradition however, just like culture, does not only change, it evolves from the former basis. The natural and productive conditions for doing Parmesan cheese has changed and so has the cheese, this is tradition, just like incorporating an american recipe within the area of competence of italian cuisine, like Carbonara that eventually was modified with more italian ingredients, is the most culturally italian thing ever. Tradition is alive only if it constantly changes, otherwise is a moving dead
When it comes to grandmothers, it depends on what is available. Of course if they lived in periods of plenty they would have cooked rich and complicated dishes but if they lived through hardships of economic crisis, wars, weather changes that hindered production the kitchen will suffer too. An Albanian great grandmother once told me "Grandma knows but she is poor". In the 40s and 50s the Italian grandmothers were poor, Italians who immigrated to north America had more and were able to apply their traditional skills better and more creatively.
La povertà, la "cucina povera", obbligava le persone ad essere interdipendenti. È nella condivisione e nel confronto (scambiandosi materie prime, cucinando insieme, celebrando insieme anche quelle occasioni speciali che ricorrono nelle vite) che sono nati e si sono sviluppati buona parte dei piatti che oggi chiamiamo tradizionali.
Spostando una persona in un altro ambiente, anche economicamente più ricco, sei comunque costretto a rinunciare alla gran parte dei tuoi ingredienti originari e la tua cucina risulterà notevolmente mutilata, assolutamente non migliore: si è costretti ad arrangiarsi e ad apportare cambiamenti, ad essere creativi accettando dei compromessi il più delle volte al ribasso. Gli immigrati avevano di più, come quantità disponibile, solo per una limitata quantità di prodotti (tra tutti la carne).
That's an honest Italian scholar
Olive oil was produced and traded through out the Mediterranean for at least 3 millennia. It is attested by archeological findings. In Albania there are olive trees 3 and 4 thousand years old and we still have mills four and five centuries old, run by donkeys/horses/water, that produced olive oil. This guy is not of the field, neither in the food history nor in the archeology. He should not be heard as an expert but just as a person with a different opinion, an ill informed at that.
The historian guy is from Northern Italy and yes, olive oil in north Italy is less common and a recent habit. I'm from Southern Italy where still exist ancient oil mills that keep making great extra virgin olive oil for centuries in the same way. My own family produce olive oil and enjoy it for generations. Never seen in my family animal fats, except sometimes butter for some desserts. Grannies and old women in my family were excellent cooks and passed down their culinary secrets, learned as a girl, to the new generations. That's it.
Last fact: pizza is a very common food throughout Italy and almost ever great even if it's different from place to place, but I agree with him on this point: that's a quite recent culture delivered from italian-americans and, in my region, until 10-20 years ago pizzas were kind of American style...BUT more recently the traditional Neapolitan style pizza, never known in US until few years ago, is finally having its big success in the whole world and now it's the ONLY REAL PIZZA for me and the only one born in Naples and with no doubt it deserves 100% Made in Italy trade mark! ❤
Sono abbastanza d'accordo, tranne che per un punto: la pizza in Italia, al di fuori dall'area campana (posto in cui può essere fatta risalire quella che definiamo "pizza"), non si è diffusa in Italia grazie agli italo-americani. Chi apriva pizzerie in su e giù per lo stivale, isole comprese, non erano certo maestranze americane.
As an Italian I can say that this guy is a troll looking for popularity. Maybe some of his claims have some truth in them but he's exaggerating to make noise. As an example, my nonna could make a restaurant menu basically, not only three dishes.
I'm not allowed to eat bread, pizza or pasta. I miss them.
The first pizzeria in NYC which likely first in America was started by guy or guy from Naples. He took his pizza making skills from Naples, and applied it here. Then after WW2 two Kansas white boys stopped over after their Navy stint over, got a job at that pizzeria to learn for a few months. Then went back to Wichita, and came up with their own thing they called Pizza Hut. Of course they changed the recipes.
This man is mixing some true facts with a lot of fakes.
Cooking with love - one of the most overused and hyperbolic phrases in the world's vocabulary. Yes, a lot of mothers and grandmothers cook because they love their families, but most do the cooking because it's been traditionally a woman's domain. Skill and experience are confused with the nebulous word "love".
This guy will never set foot on Italian soil again, lmao
As as foodie obsessive myself, the most consistent fact about the origins of food and recipes, is that most of them come from poverty (Rich people don't cook really 🤷♂️)If you follow that rule, you will understand that the best food from Europe, for example, is simply a mix of wars and invasions by the Moorish, Romans and Ottoman Empires across the region😉Every recipe can be interpreted differently, because each one of us have diverse backgrounds and cultural influences😉For example, when making a Carbonara, you can use a high quality Prosciutto when you can't find Guanciale🥓which is hard to find; if you don't have Pecorino, you can use Parmesan🧀The best Pizza of the world?🍕It's NOT a simple question, because there is no real winner, but countries and cities in the US as New York & New Haven and Argentina & Naples, including Italy in general🤔Why? Because there are all DIFFERENT, but EXCELLENT in there own WAY🤷♂️The author has a good point👍
You are a true American Sir, I mean, Mr. Italian Professor.
This man is doing politics not history and most of what he says is subjective and objectionable, after the italian (leftists) medias on summer he doesn’t deserve all this space here too
He provided a lot of facts. For example: Parmesan used to be a soft cheese.
@@ronaldevans4457 so what? ‘Lots of facts’ the only fact is that he despises the national pride about italian food and built an ideological personal stand that reflects his own view on society and multiculturalism, we can replicate his analysis almost for every kind of national food or tradition in the world
@@starmanjesus5679 I don't think he is unpatriotic. He just believes that people should take pride in things that are truly Italian.
StarManJesus doesn’t know the difference between regular medias and Mediaset
@@giovannimoriggi5833 don’t watch that much tv, I meant newspapers that gave this man full page interviews
Myth no. 6 - There are only two types of pasta. The one with eggs and the one without eggs. The shapes do not matter.
If you say so
Bravo: continua a non usare i condimenti. Non sforzarti di capire come questi interagiscono con la pasta e... la sua forma.
Speaking as one who cooks a lot of pasta dishes, I will tell you the shapes do matter. In fact they matter very much, matched to the characteristics of the sauce and the nature of the dish. Dry or fresh is also an important distinction in pasta. As is type of flour used. Egg or no egg is only one of the many things that make the difference.
This man is filled with BS. Just playing contrarian to garner some visibility
That's what they said about Charles Darwin. And they were wrong.
Grandi's points are not fully explained here.
What does @lionfield think about it?
Pizza is not Italian in the sense that the hellenic colonisers introduced the flatbread with meat and cheese to southern Italy (Napoli is Neapolis, New City) and Sicili. There are flatbread recipes from 500 BC in Greek cookbooks, describing a thin flatbread topped with goats cheese, roast goat slices, figs, honey and thyme.
By this logic, nothing in the world originates from anywhere. Then, just saying, Magna Grecia wasn't a colony of an empire or something, it was an integral part of Hellenic civilization, which happened to exist in Italy too. So if we say that the pizza "comes from hellenics," so it can still comes from Italy?lol
And if we follow this logic further, considering pizza the mere equivalent of flatbread, then burgers, for example, shouldn't be considered American because they're just "sandwiches", and people have been putting meat between bread long before burgers were officially "invented." That's nonsense. The point isn't necessarily about who did something first and where, because it's nearly impossible to determine the origins of most things with 100% certainty. It's more about the cultural identity that developed around something.
Pizza culture is undeniably Italian: the word "pizza" is Italian, the methods and styles of pizza-making that are globally recognized are italians, and the role of the "pizzaiolo" is an Italian craft, the igridients of the most classic pizzas perfectly match the Southern Italian palate and culinary traditions.
Pizza is as Italian as tacos are Mexican, and burgers are American. It’s the cultural and historical context that defines the origins, not just who might have put ingredients 2 of a dish together first.
Flat bread was brought in Europe by the first Anatolian farmers, it's the first bread, almost every country in this planet has flat bread, it existed since neolithic times, all over Italy we have different kinds of flat bread.
@@gio7799 I agree and it was adopted by the Greeks, being almost identical to with today's pizzas. There is a recipe from the book Dipnosofistes from the 5th century BC that describes a popular flatbread with goats cheese slices, figs, slices of black pig sausage, thyme and honey. I had the exact pizza in Rome. My point is that I agree that flatbreads originate from the middle East, but the ancient Greek cuisine transfer to the colonies had flatbread/pizzas almost identical with today. Napoli introduced the pizza with tomato, but unless you maintain that any pizza without tomato is not a pizza then you can see the direct influence of the Greek population in Sicily and Southern Italy
???
La pizza è fondamentalmente del pane piatto cotto insieme ai propri condimenti.
Ma riesci a distinguere una pizza dal comune pane?
Ed è possibile distinguere una pizza da una comune focaccia?
Si...
@@antc.4457I am talking about thin round flatbreads topped with cheese, meat, herbs etc. Ie pizza but without tomatoes. This exists in mesopotamia and Greece since 1000BC. Greek settlers brought these to Sicily and Southern Italy and local populations carried the tradition. Isn't it interesting that the places in most commonly associated with pizza, Napoli (Neapolis ie New City) and Sicily are the largest Greek colonies? Don't you think why that might be?
The revisionists, never get things perfect.
Someone is desperate for attention.
Of course and since this is a German channel, the question is: what is it about garlic and Germans? Why the seemingly negative relationship?
Italy still can't cook a half way good steak or BBQ rib enough said. Their cows suck too lean tough as rawhide, steaks typically undercooked below ideal medium rare and no salt or other seasoning.
CONTROVERSIAL.
People were poor and that was reflected in the food they ate. As people became more prosperous, they got better ingredients and food.
A lot of the ingredients considered essential to Italian cuisine came from somewhere else. For example, tomatoes, peppers, and corn for polenta came from the Americas. So did potatoes for gnocchi.
That can be said about most cuisines.
So what?
undenieably true, but that is irrelevant to the original argument. Jeans are still an American clothing item, even if cotton came from somewhere else (either India or South America)
Pork, beef, and chicken which is quintessential to Mexican/Caribbean cuisine, and Latin American Cuisine comes from Europe.
By that logic 90% of mexican food is spanish and arab
Everyone is complaining in the comments, but maybe his points have some truth to them? He is an academic after all and it would be good to go through his sources. I mean 1944 for carbonara is not very old so it may very well be true? The others too, just cause italians are angry about this does not mean there may be a bit of critical truth to it…
Guanciale, bacon, Eggs, and durum wheat have been around for Thousands of years. Someone must have combined them. Chicken and Pork did not come from New World.
He is not a historian, nor food historian, gastronomer, nothing. He is a woke socialist economist professor who hates anything italian. A hack essentially. Like those gender studies lunatics in the US who write articles about biology not being real.
Parmesan may be American. But PARMIGIANO REGGIANO is definitely Italian. Why do Americans think they invented everything??? 😡😡😡
So how come the ancient Romans generally only invaded and occupied places where olives could grow? Olive oil was a massive part of their diet. This guy is just being provocative in order to get publicity
That's obviously not true, you can look at a map of olive tree cultivation and compare it to the borders of the Roman Empire. They don't grow olives in Britain, Northern Italy, Northern Iberia, the Balkans, Alps etc. The Romans tried to invade Germany and got pushed out at the battle of Teutoburg forest too.
@@catlover7971 Olives grow in Balkans.
Can you grow olives in England, and Northern France?
@@MbisonBalrog I can grow them here in Balkans, dumbas. Along with rice and lemons and figs.
@@Dosadniste2000 On the coast, not in the northern areas.
Thank you for sharing this video. Hope to watch more videos from you. Have a Great Day. Greetings from our Family - Kapiso Mo Vlog 6:15
the man is a realist . its true what he says..
its a touchy subject because Italian food is well known globally , its in the top 5 of cuisines right? , chinese, italian, french , indian, japanese
but... we need to remember .. in the 1800s there was no fine dining. the restaurant, brunch, lunch culture.. none of that existed..
magazines, chefs, tv shows.. hospitality culture..
the 1900s in italy.. was regional cooking.. and tourists werent coming like 2000
pizza was exploding in the USA in the 1900 to 1950s.. but in italy it was still only in naples. it wasnt until after the war when it went nationwide.
but by the 1960s in the USA it was already An american product and pizza chains had dominated the world.
might have had its origins in naples in a small area to a small group of people in the 1850s.. but for 100 years did nothing.
it was the Americans who turned Pizza into a global food.
coffee too..
now.. the italian food our great great great grandparents ate in italy was NOTHING like we eat today.. NOTHING...
in the 1600s and 1700s they werent even eating tomatoes.. this is why y,ou NEVER see a tomato in any paintings from the past.. because tomatoes didnt arrive until the 1600s and wasnt really used in eating until the late 1700s... so LEONARDO DAVINCI never ate a pizza, never ate a caprese , never ate spaghetti pomodoro. actually he wouldnt even know 90% of italian food.
but this goes for all countries.. dont get me started on American food in the 1600s or 1700s compared to today..
we all evolved...
the famous italian food of today is only a few decades old...
but thats because life as we know it on earth is really only 100 years old and mostly 50 years old and the hospitality industry as we know it today is probably 40 years old...
and really exploded in the past 30..
grand mothers cant cook? cooking is a skill... some can,.. some cant..
also italian food is relgional.. mothers in naples dont make food from piedmont, and mothers from sicily dont cook food from rome.. or neopolitan mothers dont cook food from venice
they didnt know how! they only cooked with what they had.. which wasnt very much...
the man is correct..
This is what over education does to you,😂😂😂😂
As if any nation's cuisine was the same at all times. Cuisine changes. That applies to Italy, China, India, Japan and France, as well as all other countries.
veramente la pizza era un prodotto un po´ curiosa originaria da Barletta...al epoca i Francesci occuparano la cittá e bloccarono il passaggio impodendo il trasporto di cibo.
Cosí un cuoco furioso prese resti di carne, legumi e formaggio e mescolava tutto con pane, friggendo in una pentola...dopodiché lancio tutto sul capo dei soldati dal muro...
certamente é una leggenda, ma bella di leggerla:))
Seems the professor is looking for controversy to promote his books
è vero, puoi trovare anche austriaci bravi in cucina sicuramente, ma l'italiano ha la cucina nel dna, tutto qui.
come ad esempio l'inglese ha il rugby nelle vene e noi no.
Nice content 🙂❤️
Want to see the recipe of cinque e cinque ❤❤
Lol this guy is creating new myths.
Like what? Name one myth he created
Mah ... per favore....
I fully agree with his basic argument.
The best Pizza Margherita I ever had was in the most unlikely place - on a beach in Indonesia (not Bali).
The young man had a wood fired oven on wheels.
The pizzas cost around 6 USD for a smallish size pizza which is expensive by Indonesian standards but they were delicious.
They had a perfect crunchy crust because the wheat was produced locally.
The tomato 🍅 sauce was super fresh (he told me he picks the tomatoes himself from his tomato field in the early morning hours and cooks them every morning in a big pot with local herbs on a flame from 6 am till 10 am stirring insistently.until the sauce thickens).
The cheese is made by his mother from the milk of his own buffalos.
If you even pay 60 Euros for a pizza in Italy in the most hyped venue you will never eat such a delicious one.
@@sargon4451 have you ever tried a pizza in Naples? The original and the best by miles ,what you tried was an Indonesian pizza not a Neapolitan original,I’m sure it tasted good but still an Indonesian pizza,it’s like an Italian restaurant run by Chinese or vice versa,not the same ,all the produce is grown locally in volcanic soil the buffalo mozzarella is also locally sourced,and that makes it that little bit better,and like in Indonesia you have to buy them from the local pizzeria not the typical tourist traps,then you can make a fair comparison
@@JohnGarofano-s5j
I have eaten pizza in Napoli but I personally prefer the Roman version.
Anyhow you can't build an entire cuisine on basically one ingredient which is white wheat with slight variations (pizza, pasta, gnocchi, panini, bread, grissini, brioche. Isn't it boring?!).
@@sargon4451 the pasta is used as a carrier just like the Chinese cousineuses rice,there are virtually hundreds of pasta dishes and they all have different combinations of ingredients and none of them taste remotely similar,we use different meats,vegetables,cream,milk,olive oil,butter,lard,different dishes different flavours you don’t even taste the pasta which can be shaped according to the dish you are serving ,we also have different cheeses for different dishes served,on top of that we have hundreds of meat dishes,chicken dishes,vegetarian dishes,soups, and don’t forget we also have dozens of RICE dishes yes RiCE dishes ever heard of risotto? This is why the Italian cuisine is so popular and famous around the world,pasta is part of it but not ALL of it, and definitely NEVER EVER BORING,I can eat a different dish every day for the next five years .My advice to you look at life with your eyes open, by the way I’m Italian can I respectfully ask you what nationality are you? By the way can you verify your knowledge of pizzas by telling me ( a Neapolitan) the difference between the 2 pizzas? And why you prefer the Roman version? I forgot to mention our sweets,cakes,cannoli,tiramisu,amaretti,Nutella,torrone,sfogliatelle,cornetto,arancini,coffee culture,espresso macchiato affogato ristretto,cappuccino,caffe e latte, gelato,mortadella,salami,prosciutto,coppa ,panchetta,guanciale,parmigiana,pecorino,mozzarella,provolone,panettone,biscotti,wines ,liqueurs
Do you still think it’s boring?
@@JohnGarofano-s5j
Thank you for taking the time to respond in detail and let me further elaborate on my point of view :
# 1 : I am an Australian born to Lebanese parents and I was familiar with Italian cuisine even before I started visiting Italy extensively in the mid 1990's and to this day.
I stayed in Busto Arsizio in the province of Varese for work purposes for 5 years on and off in the mid 2010's (typically 3 to 4 months in every year) and I also stayed in Mendrisio for some months which is technically Switzerland but has excellent and frequent train links to Milano.
I visited Naples 5 - 6 times, the beautiful Salerno, the magnificent Capri, as well as many Italian cities (Bologna, Palermo, Firenze, Venezia, Torino, Rimini etc ) and many small and beautiful towns (my personal favourites are Arona and Anguillara Sabazia because I like quaint towns on rivers and lakes).
In short - I know Italy quite well (with the exception of regions I never visited such as Calabria, Puglia, Valle D'Aosta, Trentino - South Tyrol so I can't comment on them) and I love some aspects of it (and dislike some aspects and am always upfront and frank with my Italian friends and colleagues who usually are not thrilled to hear my criticism.
# 2 : I absolutely adore many of the high quality agricultural produce available in Italy.
However, to have fantastic products and use them wisely are two very different matters !
When in Italy I usually cook for myself because I am BORED of the total lack of innovation.
This is especially true in Napoli because I don't eat seafood of any kind and sure Baba is nice to eat once. A year but not very day !
The problem that the author of the book points to is the lack of innovation in Italian cooking.
This is why I fully agree with his argument that ITALIAN CUISINE DOES NOT EXIST.
# 3 : I am a fan of Pasta and I always buy 5 kilos of excellent quality pasta to carry away from Italy but I pointed to a problem that seems to have escaped your attention.
Eating is not only about filling your stomach but also about health and nutrition and VARIETY.
Starting from the terrible Italian breakfast that is full of sugar and bad oils to the lunch that is very low on spices (this is why people age badly and why many men in their forties in Italy wear their suites and ties in the height of summer sweating profusely. Maybe they are trying to look attractive this way but incorporating spices such as turmeric, nutmeg, cloves etc.that mango Italians never even heard of let alone uses would make them look and feel a lot better.
# 4 : The Italian coffee culture of 2024 (my latest visit was in June 2024) is a far cry from the Italian coffee culture of the 1990's.
Coffee beans are expensive these days and Italians (especially in the north of Italy) are obsessed with saving money.
What is so "cultural" about espresso or macchiato or cappuccino that is made of 90% Robusta beans and sold for 1 euro or 1.10 or even 1.30 Euros "standing at the bar".
For a real taste of coffee culture I suggest Vietnam and even some countries in Europe such as Serbia, Bulgaria and North Macedonia where coffee costs a little more than it does in Italy (though these 3 countries I mentioned are much poorer than Italy) but tastes a lot better.
@@sargon4451 thank you for your detailed response I really appreciate it,I agree with you 100% regarding the Italian breakfast ,but being Italian I’m unlike you I’m a bit biased when it comes to Italian food,we actually cook it so it’s home made unlike restaurant bought meals made nowadays for the sole purpose of making a profit first ,I really respect your opinion, Italy like the rest of Europe it’s not the same as it was 20 years ago,and the standard of food served in some places has deteriorated becoming more and more commercialised American style ,but trust me home made cooking its on a different level, just like the pizza you ate in Indonesia,have a good day ,mate!
05:39 i love how she raised her voice a bit and gets a bit angry..... and that is how we now the dude is has a point 🙂
ridiculous character is related to the Spanish who claims Christopher Columbus is not Italian
CC was Jewish research recently confirmed it.
@@JimmieBrown-sg8fq the body if it is his? he was wearing a kippah🤣🤣
Thinking about this Americans don't get their panties all balled up about where food originated from we take it as is and put our twist on it and enjoy. Reason America is called a melting pot.
This dude should not be taken seriously
Hahaha, buthurt detected.
I agree. Cleopatra was black, Napoleon weak, Columbus Portuguese, whatever.. if you like food Italy is the place 🤷🏻♂️
@@quelodequeloI am italian and this guy is correct. How do I know? I just asked my granma what she and her family used to eat as a child.
@@barondino4628 ma cosa c'entra, pure mia nonna mangiava solo lenticchie, la maggior parte della popolazione non si poteva permettere manco il pane. Ma non importa, sono polemiche della domenica, credete quello che volete tanto se volete mangiare bene bisogna rimanere in Italia, non esiste altro paese europeo con la varietà e la ricchezza di sapori del nostro.
Why not?
Oh yeah i know this guy, Italian flatearther . Neapolitans didn't like pizza??😂😂 🤣 This guy has never gone outside his hometown.😂
First, I have no life so let me have this!🥰
While pizza originated in Naples, it reached New York before northern Italy. Without its American popularity pizza would likely remain a local dish in Naples (or southern Italy in general).
Itallian food are the best
What a stupid ignorant man. Never heard more nonsense counter to all evidence in my life, and worse. Him saying all those foods are disgusting. Just cause he is a hater. Why even give him 2 seconds of oxygen?
Fa davvero impressione apprendere che la cucina italiana è una bugia colossale ed è solo un'operazione di marketing! quindi solo la cucina francese può vantare una certa autenticità!!
Tbh, as much as I love Italian food and culture. He isnt wrong actually
Italian version of Benedict Arnold😂 traditore!!
Yeah, he's a traitor because he doesn't think Pizza Hut is Italian
@@ronaldevans4457 you’re very correct,how did you pick it? Genius!
He is correct.
I'm buying his book immediately.
Neapolitan pizza is one of the most disgusting inventions.
It has a thick crust and it is soggy.
The wheat used for the pizza is highly refined so it has almost no nutitional benefits.
The tomato sauce ALWAYS comes from a can.
Of course South Italy generally and Naples particularly have the tastiest fresh tomatoes in Europe because of the volcanic soil but they are too lazy to peel tomatoes and put them in a blender for pizza (for pasta they make tomato sauce once a year and keep it in a jar so its nutritiinal value is also close to zero and it isn't tasty).
The tragedy is the typical Italian living south of the city of Rome eats a brioche, cornetto or a panini for breakfast, a pizza or a pasta for lunch and a pizza or a pasta for dinner and some silly salty biscuit made of (you guessed it) MORE white flour as a snack between meals.
It is a diet consisting mainly of carbohydrates and it is more boring than jail food in most parts of Western Europe.
Ho letto qualche altro tuo post e per quanto trovassi discutibili alcune tue affermazioni (accompagnate comunque da altre condivisibili) mi sono astenuto dal commentare. Ma qui hai detto una serie di stronzate, ben messe in fila una dopo l'altra e mi fai dubitare della bontà di quanto hai scritto in altri commenti.
TI piace provocare... ma almeno cerca di essere accurato.
Sembri molto ignorante in materia di produzione alimentare.
Cosa vuol dire "wheat highly refined" (grano altamente raffinato)? Tutti i panificati hanno come ingrediente base una farina, riducendo in polvere un qualche seme come ad esempio il frumento, in modo da poterlo impastare con semplice acqua. Nel processo di molitura rimangono gli amidi e le proteine del cariosside, viene eliminata la crusca (quella si che ha scarsi valori nutrizionali, sebbene sia utile al nostro macrobiota). In genere niente di molto differente da quanto l'uomo fa da migliaia di anni, da quando ha inventato l'agricoltura. Il problema, nella coltivazione del grano e nelle farine attuali, è quando vengono aggiunti altri prodotti per "migliorarle". Meglio imparare a leggere correttamente le etichette sui prodotti alimentari che acquistiamo!
Sai quante varietà di pomodori esistono? Sai quali sono quelli utilizzati per fare "sugo"? Da come ti esprimi non hai idea che la finestra temporale utile per la raccolta di questi pomodori ed il loro immediato utilizzo è molto limitata (2 o al massimo 3 settimana su un intero anno). Quello che si può fare è utilizzare tecniche adeguate di conservazione, per averli disponibili tutto l'anno (i pomodori, dopo essere stati selezionati, lavati, sbollentati in modo da pelarli, vengono inscatolati e sterilizzati... nessuna pigrizia in tutte queste operazioni, i metodi di conservazione migliori sono quelli che meglio vogliono preservare le caratteristiche organolettiche e nutrizionali degli alimenti. A proposito i pomodori per fare il sugo vanno macinati, non frullati: non abbiamo assolutamente bisogno di incorporare aria andando a degradare il risultato finale).
I pasti nel sud Italia sono molto più vari di quanto dica la tua ignoranza. La presenza di verdura e frutta sono una costante nella alimentazione cosiddetta mediterranea (dieta riconosciuta, purtroppo non da te, ma a livello mondiale come sana. Sai cosa sia una "zona blu"?).
Dicevi altrove che sei stato tante volte in Italia? E non ti sei mai accorto della varietà di cibi che ci sono? Tanto meno di come sono preparati...
A proposito la pizza napoletana è sottile (thick crust? Gnurant!).
Of course it fake. Tomatoes are from Mexico, Pasta making is from China, Cheese from the middle east, basil is from southeast asia.
Rubbish.
Woke nonsense.
He's totally right. Pizza is an American product, and carbonara has nothing to do with Mediterranean cuisine. Pizza essentially originates from the middle east, same as spaghetti come from China.
False
Spaghetti were made in Sicily in the tenth century when the Island was ruled by the Arabs.
Spaghetti does NOT come from China. It was introduced into Sicily by the Greeks and Arabs.
Italians can't be bothered to speak english? I can't be bothered to watch that video. Ciao
come on , italy is about burly more than 100 year old country , with friendship with powerful america they stole recipes from greece china persia and spain, took the credit for themselves as a nation making project, the language itself create 100 year ago and still not all people in that place cannot speak it
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Italy was unified in the 1860s, true, but Italy did not "steal" recipes (with or without the help of "America"), and did not claim credit for them. Most nations are influenced by and influence other nations, particularly in cuisine.
People talk about food like it's important.
I know right. Who needs food any way.
Not everyone is content eating garbage like you.
What you eat should be important
That sad reality is that we italians built our national identity around food. Embarrassing. We used to be scientists, navigators, philosophers, now we are pizza and pasta makers for rich tourists and we get pissed if someone break spaghetti or do not respect our 50 years old recipe.
@@barondino4628 LOL, good observation.
I primi 40 secondi pura verità ahahha grade