Rome. Until recently, Italians overwhelmingly ate Italian food, but a decade or more of immigration has seen a surge of new foreign food eateries.
Now, one city has declared that enough is enough. The walled, medieval bastion of Lucca, in the heart of Tuscany, wants no more of the kebab shops and Chinese restaurants that have sprung up along the cobbled streets of its centro storico, or historic center.
Lucca, a tourist hot spot located 40 miles from Florence, has banned the opening of new “ethnic” food outlets in what it says is a campaign to preserve authentic Italian — or more specifically, Tuscan — culinary traditions.
The initiative, announced last month, has sparked an intense debate about whether it amounts to cultural protectionism in an age of rapid globalization, or an ugly display of gastronomic racism.
Lucca’s center-right council, which voted 23 to 11 for the measure, says ethnic restaurants betray Tuscany’s culinary heritage.
Kebabs, curries, and couscous are now out, in favor of such local specialties as zuppa di faro, a grain-based soup, and torta di spinaci, a tart made with spinach.
The ban is staunchly supported by Italy’s agriculture minister. “This is not a battle against anything or anyone, but a defense of our culture and our agriculture,” said Luca Zaia, a member of the right-wing, anti-immigration Northern League, which wants greater autonomy for Italy’s rich north.
“In Italy we have available 4,500 typical food products,” he said. “Every one of these represents the culture and history of our country.”
Others are embarrassed by what they see as a case of extreme parochialism. The new law is “an absurdity,” said an opposition member of Parliament, Andrea Marcucci, because it would “make it impossible to open in Lucca not only a kebab shop but also a high-class French bar serving oysters and champagne.” The legislation had damaged Lucca’s image and was a big mistake, Marcucci added.
Critics of Lucca’s new law point out that many of the staples of Italian food have foreign origins — tomatoes were introduced from South America, and pasta is believed to have been brought from China by Marco Polo. And what of food from Sicily, which has a heavy Arab influence — should couscous, a Sicilian staple, be seen as foreign or Italian?
Vittorio Castellani, a television chef and author of cookbooks, said there was “no dish on the face of the earth” that is not derived from a melange of different ingredients and a fusion of culinary styles.
“The enemy is not so much ethnic food, but food of poor quality,” said Roberto Burdese, the president of Slow Food, a movement that campaigns for the use of locally grown food in regional recipes. “A bad Tuscan trattoria does more damage than a kebab shop.”
The national debate is reflected online, where a Facebook group, the Cous Cous Clan, has been formed to protest the ban.
But it is not just Lucca that is concerned with the invasion of foreign food. The Lombardy region, also run by the Northern League, said it, too, would campaign for Italians to eat Italian.
The number of kebab shops in Milan has come under particular scrutiny, leading one Italian newspaper to declare that politicians were unleashing “a new Lombard crusade against the Saracens.”
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