Though it’s hard to believe that anyone — especially the locals — would find Italian food an acquired taste, a new series of classes are aimed at teaching Italians how to enjoy what may be the world’s most popular cuisine.
These so-called ‘taste seminars’ will soon be offered in Bologna, Modena and Parma — home to tortellini, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese — and are targeted to students and adults, with the aim to train the palate and initiate a closer acquaintance with local specialties.
The taste classes are the latest in a series of protective measures to ensure Italians don’t abandon the traditional Mediterranean diet.
Officials are willing to try anything to buck the trend of Italians eating more like their American counterparts — from a special symbol given by the government to restaurants where the food is healthy to abolishing the school bus for overweight children. Mayor and physician Filippo Vigano, from Albiate near Milan, appalled at the number of chubby children in his area announced last week that riding the bus to school was ‘off limits.’
"We’re losing what used to be good Italian habits — we eat the wrong foods and are becoming too sedentary, " he said. "For most of the kids, it’s about a mile walk and it would do them good."
The problem is that harried Bel Paese residents are eating faster, out more and relying on frozen or precooked foods. According to a 2002 survey by Astra Demoskopea only 24% of Italian adults cook one meal a day for themselves or the family, 55% of 14-19 year olds eat something pre-fabbed every day — hardly the stereotype of the mamma and family reuinited for lengthy meals. Though US obesity adult rates are currently about twice as high as those in Italy, the rates for obesity in Italian children, currently 25%, are among the highest in Europe.
Even though habits are changing, Italians are not likely to give up entirely the bounty of the national diet. Movements like slow food, started in Turin in 1977 to counteract the appeal of fast food, are becoming increasingly popular — offering excellent guide books to regional foods and wines, specialized seminars, food fairs and a network of ‘slow cities.’ ?1999-2004 zoomata.com
Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingualjournalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.Related resources:
Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures of Food
In an effort to raise an interest in dying traditions, a town near Naples held three days of back-to-basics lessons on the fall harvest, including a grape-stomping workshop for kids.
A new campaign promotes what grandma already knew — olive oil has many uses outside the kitchen. The Italian agricultural association, Coldiretti, felt it was time to remind inhabitants of the Bel Paese that extra virgin olive oil can be used to soften skin, obtain shiny hair and even remove stubborn ear wax.
Hard to imagine why Italians have to be coaxed into eating ice cream — but gelato makers hope to tempt them this summer with flavors like limoncello, Barbera and special concoctions named after new saint Padre Pio, the Italian first lady and the World Cup.