Italian Cuisine Becomes UNESCO Heritage
A personal reflection from an Italian chef who carried its flavors across the world
When UNESCO officially announced that Italian cuisine is now recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, I felt something move inside me. Not just pride. Not just happiness. Something deeper — as if a long journey suddenly revealed its destination.
I have spent most of my life far from home — from Milan to Calabria, from Europe to the Middle East, Asia and the islands of the Indian Ocean. I chose a path that few understand at the beginning: leaving Italy to bring Italian cuisine to the world.
People often ask why I left.
Today, more than ever, I know the answer.
Cuisine is not a technique — it is identity
Italian cuisine is made of simple gestures.
Hands flour-dusted.
A wooden board worn by time.
Olive oil that tastes like sun.
Sunday ragù that simmers without hurry.
Bread broken and shared, not served.
It is a grandmother teaching you how dough should feel, not how many grams to weigh. It is a dialect hidden inside every recipe. It is memory — edible, fragrant, alive.
UNESCO has recognized this invisible treasure. Not a dish. Not a product.
An entire way of living food.
A table set for lunch. A family gathered. A plate that brings people together.
This is heritage.
This is culture.
And somehow — without knowing where it would lead — I carried pieces of it in my suitcase years ago.
A night in the Maldives
Some months ago, during a very popular Italian dinner night in the Maldives, I prepared risotto inside a wheel of Grana Padano. No theatrics, no smoke, no excessive trends — just rice, butter, stock and cheese bonding slowly into cream.
Tourists from different countries stood around in silence, watching the grains disappear into the cheese. The tropical air was warm, but the atmosphere felt like a northern Italian trattoria. Someone whispered, “It feels like Italy is right here.”
In that moment I understood:
I wasn’t only cooking. I was translating Italy.
It was a simple dish — a humble bowl of risotto — yet it carried 2000 years of history, fields of wheat, generations of women stirring pots with patience. And it traveled across oceans to arrive on a plate under palm trees.
Food moves like that — quietly, beautifully.
It is cultural diplomacy without speeches.
Looking back — I chose well
Leaving Italy was not easy. The world is big, kitchens are demanding, cultures unfamiliar. I made mistakes, I learned new ways, I met chefs from every corner of the planet. But my compass was always the same: authentic Italian cuisine, prepared with respect.
Today, knowing that Italian cuisine is now UNESCO heritage, I feel that the hours, sacrifices and years spent representing my country abroad were not only a career — but an intuition. A good one. A true one.
Cooking has not only fed guests around the world.
It has fed me — culturally, emotionally, humanly.
It gave me purpose.
It gave me a home everywhere.
And now, the cuisine I carried with me — in hotels, resorts, cruise ships, islands — is officially recognized as a world treasure worth protecting.
Heritage lives only if someone keeps it alive
This recognition is a celebration, yes.
But it is also a responsibility.
To teach, to honor ingredients, to preserve tradition, to respect simplicity.
To show that extraordinary food is often made of humble things.
To remember that cuisine is not only taste, but memory, story, connection.
I feel grateful to have contributed, in my small way, to keeping the soul of Italian cuisine breathing in places far from home.
A toast to Italy — and to every kitchen that keeps its spirit alive
To the farmers harvesting wheat under the sun.
To cheesemakers stirring vats of milk at dawn.
To bakers waking before light.
To grandmothers who cook without recipes.
To chefs who cross oceans with pasta in their heart.
Italian cuisine is now UNESCO heritage.
And as I write these words, I realize something simple and beautiful.
I chose well.
Because what I carried across the world is now recognized as part of humanity’s cultural legacy.
And I will continue to share it — one dish, one memory, one story at a time.
We do not just cook.
We keep Italy alive.
About The Author
