From panettone to tiramisu, many ‘classics’ are in fact recent inventions, as Alberto Grandi has shown

Marxist historian pisses off anti-italian-action by exposing them to reality

Grandi has made himself unpopular in some quarters by criticising Italy’s mighty food and drink sector, which, by some estimates, accounts for a quarter of GDP. On the podcast, he jokes he should only leave his house “with personal security guards, like Salman Rushdie”. In 2019, the Italian ambassador to Turkey reprimanded Grandi at a conference in Ankara after Grandi ridiculed Italy’s 800 protected designations, products whose quality is recognised by the EU as inextricably linked to their area. At Les Mots literary festival in Aosta in 2018, he was attacked by a Roman presenter who, offended by Grandi’s claims about carbonara, “called [him] every name in the book” in front of a dumbfounded live audience.

Read this to piss off the Italian in your life

  • NoLeftLeftWhereILive
    ·
    1 year ago

    Yeah where I am from it was turnips all day, every day until potatoes arrived. And barley as they grain.