Troviamo questo articolo di Michele Boldrin estrememamente interessante e puntuale. La nostra campagna elettorale e' veramente deprimente e priva di discussioni necessarie ed importanti sulla necessita' di riforme fondamentali per l'Italia.
Roma e Marcon: il Titanic nel Mediterraneo
di michele boldrin, 7 Aprile 2008
Ho seguito con annoiata attenzione questa campagna elettorale cercando di trovare nei messaggi delle varie parti, se non le misure che m'appaiono necessarie per frenare il declino italiano, almeno la consapevolezza della sua natura e gravità. Non ho trovato assolutamente nulla. La casta politica che si ricandida sembra aver deciso che la strategia vincente è l'opposto del famoso slogan clintoniano: it is NOT the economy, stupid! Va bene, sono stupido.
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... e altri 34 articoli
Collegamenti: elezioni 2008 (14) paese impazzito (14) politica (14)
I titoli troppo ermetici non aiutano, quindi ecco alcune chiavi interpretative.
Roma sapete tutti dove stia ed a cosa serva: è il luogo dove la casta ha accentrato il proprio potere, dove esercita i propri riti e da dove s'appropria, per redistribuirla ai propri fini, della ricchezza prodotta in altre parti del paese.
Marcon è una delle tante e sconosciute parti del paese in cui tale ricchezza viene prodotta. Quand'ero ragazzino si scherzava dicendo che "Tuto el mondo ze paese, fora che Marcon, Gaggio e Dese". Oggi, invece, Marcon (e Gaggio, e Dese ...) fanno il paese, essendo diventati la sede di varie centinaia di piccole e medie aziende che, dalla fine degli anni '70 in poi, hanno compensato la sparizione della grande industria pubblica (e sussidiata) di Porto Marghera creando migliaia di posti di lavoro, valore aggiunto, ricchezza diffusa. Insomma, Marcon è uno dei tanti luoghi ignorati da Roma in cui il settore privato continua, con sempre maggior fatica, a cercare di produre cose vendibili a prezzi che siano allo stesso tempo competitivi e capaci di generare valore aggiunto.
Titanic è il luogo metaforico dell'incoscienza. Il "luogo" dove, mentre il transatlantico imbarcava acqua e cominciava ad affondare, la banda di bordo cercava d'intrattenere con le proprie musiche i passeggeri di prima classe.
A ben pensarci, Roma e Marcon - Roma e Sagunto forse sintetizza meglio la situazione. L'articolo potrebbe, forse dovrebbe, finire qui, dopo aver incontrato il titolo appropriato.
Perché il resto è presto detto: da nessuna parte, in questa campagna elettorale, ho sentito dire alcunché di menchemeno rilevante per la situazione economico-sociale del paese. Giovanni Sartori sembra aver colto l'aspetto tattico della cosa, almeno per la parte che compete al PD. Alla scelta di VW di lanciarsi nell'ottimismo populista-giovanilista, di non parlare delle difficoltà, di rimuovere gli errori del governo Prodi, di mettere in lista giovani carini-vuoti-supini, di far promesse di panem, circenses e salami minimi degne d'un BS d'annata, ha fatto da ovvio contraltare la scelta della sua controparte. BS si è presentato come l'uomo della concretezza e delle scelte difficili ma mai specificate che ha poi annegato in un mare di battute e provocazioni da repubblica bananera. Ha promesso persino la lotta all'evasione (salvo poi dichiarare legittima la medesima) e la fine dei condoni fiscali (i precedenti devono essergli bastati per emendare le evasioni proprie). Aldilà del posizionamento tattico dei due, mirato semplicemente a distanziare nell'immaginario collettivo l'uno dall'altro al fine di giustificare gli attacchi e la richiesta di "votate per me che sono differente e meglio di lui", non s'è visto altro.
Inutile fare l'elenco delle questioni rimosse e NON affrontate, tutti le conoscono. Persino l'annuncio di una crescita per il 2008 pari praticamente allo 0.0% (l'ultimo numero credo sia 0.3%, ma aspettate solo due mesi e calerà) è stato allegramente ignorato da entrambi. Perché? Per due semplicissime ragioni: nessuna delle due parti ha consapevolezza piena del declino italiano e comprensione delle sue cause; a nessuna delle due parti conviene affrontare il tema delle riforme perché queste, se non sono buffonate populistiche come Alitalia che rimane italiana ed il salario minimo per tutti, richiedono d'intaccare i privilegi monopolistici di decine di caste e gruppi medievali che siedono l'un contro l'altro armati, e dei voti d'ognuno dei quali sia VW che BS hanno grande bisogno.
Detto altrimenti: dire la verità sulla situazione economico-sociale, in Italia, sembra essere diventato politicamente troppo pericoloso. Quindi tutti, cooperativamente, sono stati zitti ed hanno giocato alle belle figurine con l'immaginario degli elettori, producendosi in esercizi pubblicitari da televisione spazzatura. Esibendo chi una finta economista vera frequentatrice dei boudoir del potere, chi un vero fascista finto imprenditore romano.
Fosse solo questo, sarebbe il meno. La cosa grave, che spiega il titolo, è che da nessuna parte privata, da nessun pezzo visibile di società civile è arrivata la denuncia di questo silenzio assordante e la richiesta di dire agli elettori, che fra una settimana andranno a votare, come intendono VW e BS far uscire dalla decadenza un paese che da 12 anni ha smesso di crescere.
A Marcon, son certo, qualcuno di quelli che il valore aggiunto lo producono questa domanda se l'è posta. Ma non avendo accesso alcuno alla stampa ed alle televisioni nazionali, tali domande sono rimaste inespresse, censurate, sommerse dal rumore prodotto dalla banda che suona all'impazzata ad ogni apparizione dei rappresentanti della casta a Porta a Porta
Monday, April 7, 2008
Rival Economic Plans - da The Economist del 3 April 2008
Apr 3rd 2008 ROME
From The Economist print edition
Both main parties have similar plans—but neither is bold enough
Alamy
It's hard out there
Get article background
THE most striking claim in Italy's election comes in the programme of Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance, People of Freedom. “We don't do, or promise, miracles,” it says. Yet Mr Berlusconi has made a fortune (and a political career) from hawking dreams. The threat of world recession, plus Italy's economic fragility, has brought even him down to earth. His centre-left rival, Walter Veltroni, leader of the Democratic Party, is equally downbeat. The scale of Italy's economic problems has encouraged both men to come up with proposals that sound strikingly similar.
Romano Prodi's centre-left government fell in part because it tried to meet the European Commission's demands for smaller budget deficits by raising taxes and cracking down on evasion. His would-be successors appear to accept that they too must attack spending. Mr Veltroni pledges to trim current spending by 0.5% of GDP in the first year and 1% in each of the next two. Mr Berlusconi is less specific, if more convincing on the means: a “digitalisation” of the administration. What neither admits is that serious cuts must lead to job losses that will create a direct conflict with Italy's powerful trade unions.
Both main parties say they want to cut taxes, but both have big new spending plans. The Democrats pledge to pass the benefits of the drive against tax-dodging to employees who are taxed at source. They promise annual cuts in income-tax rates from 2009. Mr Berlusconi plans to scrap a property tax, inheritance tax and gift tax as part of a plan to get the fiscal burden below 40% of GDP. Yet his People of Freedom manifesto offers motorways through the foothills of the Alps and a bridge to link Sicily to the mainland. The Democrats are committed to higher welfare spending.
None of this leaves much scope for reducing Italy's vast debts. Both contenders say that, though the state's debts are huge, its assets are even greater—and lots (the People of Freedom programme estimates €700 billion, or $1 trillion) could be sold. Mr Berlusconi points to disused barracks in city centres as prime examples. If some of the proceeds were used to cut the debt, it would create a virtuous circle, reducing the interest bill and freeing up more cash for tax cuts and increased spending.
It is hard to believe that asset sales can both pay for debt reduction and cover more spending and tax cuts. And there is another problem. Two-thirds of state assets are owned not by the central government but by regional, provincial and local authorities. This, says the People of Freedom, calls for a “grand and free pact” between the various levels of government.
The Democrats' commitment to asset sales underlines another paradox: even as the centre-left has warmed to liberal ideas, the centre-right has deserted them. Mr Berlusconi's likely finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, has talked of lobbying the European Union for tariff barriers on Asian imports. Mr Berlusconi himself has expressed opposition to the sale of Alitalia to Air France, protesting that it is inconceivable for Italy to be without a flag-carrier.
Just as important, both he and Mr Veltroni are vague about plans for deregulation and more competition. Mr Veltroni has promised a liberalisation bill every year, but his programme gives only the sketchiest idea of what these might encompass. Italy needs more clarity in this area if it is to avoid relying on miracles.
From The Economist print edition
Both main parties have similar plans—but neither is bold enough
Alamy
It's hard out there
Get article background
THE most striking claim in Italy's election comes in the programme of Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance, People of Freedom. “We don't do, or promise, miracles,” it says. Yet Mr Berlusconi has made a fortune (and a political career) from hawking dreams. The threat of world recession, plus Italy's economic fragility, has brought even him down to earth. His centre-left rival, Walter Veltroni, leader of the Democratic Party, is equally downbeat. The scale of Italy's economic problems has encouraged both men to come up with proposals that sound strikingly similar.
Romano Prodi's centre-left government fell in part because it tried to meet the European Commission's demands for smaller budget deficits by raising taxes and cracking down on evasion. His would-be successors appear to accept that they too must attack spending. Mr Veltroni pledges to trim current spending by 0.5% of GDP in the first year and 1% in each of the next two. Mr Berlusconi is less specific, if more convincing on the means: a “digitalisation” of the administration. What neither admits is that serious cuts must lead to job losses that will create a direct conflict with Italy's powerful trade unions.
Both main parties say they want to cut taxes, but both have big new spending plans. The Democrats pledge to pass the benefits of the drive against tax-dodging to employees who are taxed at source. They promise annual cuts in income-tax rates from 2009. Mr Berlusconi plans to scrap a property tax, inheritance tax and gift tax as part of a plan to get the fiscal burden below 40% of GDP. Yet his People of Freedom manifesto offers motorways through the foothills of the Alps and a bridge to link Sicily to the mainland. The Democrats are committed to higher welfare spending.
None of this leaves much scope for reducing Italy's vast debts. Both contenders say that, though the state's debts are huge, its assets are even greater—and lots (the People of Freedom programme estimates €700 billion, or $1 trillion) could be sold. Mr Berlusconi points to disused barracks in city centres as prime examples. If some of the proceeds were used to cut the debt, it would create a virtuous circle, reducing the interest bill and freeing up more cash for tax cuts and increased spending.
It is hard to believe that asset sales can both pay for debt reduction and cover more spending and tax cuts. And there is another problem. Two-thirds of state assets are owned not by the central government but by regional, provincial and local authorities. This, says the People of Freedom, calls for a “grand and free pact” between the various levels of government.
The Democrats' commitment to asset sales underlines another paradox: even as the centre-left has warmed to liberal ideas, the centre-right has deserted them. Mr Berlusconi's likely finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, has talked of lobbying the European Union for tariff barriers on Asian imports. Mr Berlusconi himself has expressed opposition to the sale of Alitalia to Air France, protesting that it is inconceivable for Italy to be without a flag-carrier.
Just as important, both he and Mr Veltroni are vague about plans for deregulation and more competition. Mr Veltroni has promised a liberalisation bill every year, but his programme gives only the sketchiest idea of what these might encompass. Italy needs more clarity in this area if it is to avoid relying on miracles.
Berlusconi in The Economist del 3 Aprile 2008
Anche se Italia Nuova e' dichiaratamente apolitica, troviamo sia importante riportare articoli che appaiono su quotidiani e periodici importanti come l'Economist e che hanno un impatto sull'immagine del Paese.
Silvio Berlusconi has failed to show that he is any more worthy of leading Italy today than he was in the past
UNLESS a technical hitch causes a postponement, Italy will go to the polls on April 13th and 14th to elect its 62nd post-war government—and the signs are that it will be led by Silvio Berlusconi, just like the 53rd, the 59th and the 60th. By clinging to the familiar, are the Italians paradoxically hoping for change? Theirs, after all, is a country in which “everything must change so that everything can stay the same,” according to Giuseppe di Lampedusa, author of “The Leopard”, the great Sicilian novel. Perhaps they believe that by bringing Mr Berlusconi back to power they can invert this maxim and keep everything the same in order to promote reform. If so, they are likely to be disappointed.
During his most recent spell in office, between 2001 and 2006, Mr Berlusconi did achieve modest improvements to Italy's unsustainable pension system and to its inflexible labour market. Much of his energy, though, was devoted to furthering his own, or his friends', interests. Some of his efforts took the form of laws (like the country's statute of limitations) that helped him to avoid conviction, some to attacks on the judiciary, some to the introduction of a voting system partly designed to keep him in power. In this he was disappointed, but the new system did lead—as intended—to a parliament in which a plethora of parties was represented, nine of the 39 in a centre-left government with a carpaccio-thin majority. Predictably, it carried out few reforms. Predictably, too, it came to a premature end. Hence the election.
Perhaps, now that he is rid of most of his legal troubles, he can start to think more about a place in history as a great reformer and less about staying out of jail. It's possible. He is 71, and could take the view that he has nothing to lose by attacking the immobilismo of politics that lies behind the relative decline of the Italian economy (see article). But that is unlikely. He has never shown much interest in reform. He is more likely to have his eyes on a populist route to the presidency.
Besides, more is at stake in this election than the possibility of real change. For this year, as in every year in which Mr Berlusconi has been a candidate, Italians are being asked to vote for someone who is simply unfit to lead a modern democracy. That seemed likely from the very first, in 1994, when he came to office presiding over a huge business empire that included a virtual monopoly of Italy's commercial television. He merely shrugged at this, just as he shrugged when corruption came to light at his main company and his brother Paolo, to whom he had entrusted some of his affairs, was charged. The magistrates were politically motivated, he averred.
His government fell, for unrelated reasons, but just over six years later he was back. The judicial investigations into his affairs had multiplied and the conflicts of interest were still unresolved. The Economist, which had called on him to resign in 1994, declared him unfit to run Italy (see article). His response was a libel suit, which remains open. Our judgment, however, has been amply vindicated. Not only did the charges and conflicts of interest persist but so did the attacks on the judiciary. They were accompanied by changes in the law designed to ensure that no conviction would ever sully his name. In January this year, for instance, he was acquitted of false accounting in the 1980s because a law passed by his government in 2002 had decriminalised the activities he was accused of.
Two months ago the European Court of Justice ruled that Italy smothered competition in broadcasting. Private television is still dominated by Mr Berlusconi. He is still Italy's richest man, still beset by conflicts of interest, still unfit, even if he were a great reformer, to rule Italy. Italians should vote for Walter Veltroni, his opponent from the centre-left, instead.
Silvio Berlusconi has failed to show that he is any more worthy of leading Italy today than he was in the past
UNLESS a technical hitch causes a postponement, Italy will go to the polls on April 13th and 14th to elect its 62nd post-war government—and the signs are that it will be led by Silvio Berlusconi, just like the 53rd, the 59th and the 60th. By clinging to the familiar, are the Italians paradoxically hoping for change? Theirs, after all, is a country in which “everything must change so that everything can stay the same,” according to Giuseppe di Lampedusa, author of “The Leopard”, the great Sicilian novel. Perhaps they believe that by bringing Mr Berlusconi back to power they can invert this maxim and keep everything the same in order to promote reform. If so, they are likely to be disappointed.
During his most recent spell in office, between 2001 and 2006, Mr Berlusconi did achieve modest improvements to Italy's unsustainable pension system and to its inflexible labour market. Much of his energy, though, was devoted to furthering his own, or his friends', interests. Some of his efforts took the form of laws (like the country's statute of limitations) that helped him to avoid conviction, some to attacks on the judiciary, some to the introduction of a voting system partly designed to keep him in power. In this he was disappointed, but the new system did lead—as intended—to a parliament in which a plethora of parties was represented, nine of the 39 in a centre-left government with a carpaccio-thin majority. Predictably, it carried out few reforms. Predictably, too, it came to a premature end. Hence the election.
Perhaps, now that he is rid of most of his legal troubles, he can start to think more about a place in history as a great reformer and less about staying out of jail. It's possible. He is 71, and could take the view that he has nothing to lose by attacking the immobilismo of politics that lies behind the relative decline of the Italian economy (see article). But that is unlikely. He has never shown much interest in reform. He is more likely to have his eyes on a populist route to the presidency.
Besides, more is at stake in this election than the possibility of real change. For this year, as in every year in which Mr Berlusconi has been a candidate, Italians are being asked to vote for someone who is simply unfit to lead a modern democracy. That seemed likely from the very first, in 1994, when he came to office presiding over a huge business empire that included a virtual monopoly of Italy's commercial television. He merely shrugged at this, just as he shrugged when corruption came to light at his main company and his brother Paolo, to whom he had entrusted some of his affairs, was charged. The magistrates were politically motivated, he averred.
His government fell, for unrelated reasons, but just over six years later he was back. The judicial investigations into his affairs had multiplied and the conflicts of interest were still unresolved. The Economist, which had called on him to resign in 1994, declared him unfit to run Italy (see article). His response was a libel suit, which remains open. Our judgment, however, has been amply vindicated. Not only did the charges and conflicts of interest persist but so did the attacks on the judiciary. They were accompanied by changes in the law designed to ensure that no conviction would ever sully his name. In January this year, for instance, he was acquitted of false accounting in the 1980s because a law passed by his government in 2002 had decriminalised the activities he was accused of.
Two months ago the European Court of Justice ruled that Italy smothered competition in broadcasting. Private television is still dominated by Mr Berlusconi. He is still Italy's richest man, still beset by conflicts of interest, still unfit, even if he were a great reformer, to rule Italy. Italians should vote for Walter Veltroni, his opponent from the centre-left, instead.
Alitalia - Le uniche due soluzioni sono la vendita a Air France o bancarotta e ricostituzione in piccolo
La saga dell'Alitalia ha solo due soluzioni razionali: La vendita alla Air France (qualora la compagnia francese decida di ritornare al tavolo negoziale e i sindacati accettino di trattare in buona fede) oppure la bancarotta e riorganizzazione della line aerea in piccolo (risultando in una piu' piccola societa' come la Swissair, diventata oggi Swiss, o in una vendita dopo la ristrutturazione come la Sabena, poi, ironicamente, assorbita dalla Air France).
Non ci sembra possibile introdurre una cordata Italiana perche' i problemi della Alitalia sono fondamentalmente operativi (troppe rotte, costi eccessivi, inefficienza del personale, sprechi vari) che possono essere risolti solo risolvendo fondamentalmente la struttura della societa' stessa.
In un certo senso, ci sembra utile che la EEC vieti al governo di dare sussidi ulteriori all'Alitalia e spinga percio' la societa' a dovere affrontare queste scelte difficili da sola. L'Alitalia non ha ragione di continuare ad esistere nella forma e struttura attuale.
Commenti?
Non ci sembra possibile introdurre una cordata Italiana perche' i problemi della Alitalia sono fondamentalmente operativi (troppe rotte, costi eccessivi, inefficienza del personale, sprechi vari) che possono essere risolti solo risolvendo fondamentalmente la struttura della societa' stessa.
In un certo senso, ci sembra utile che la EEC vieti al governo di dare sussidi ulteriori all'Alitalia e spinga percio' la societa' a dovere affrontare queste scelte difficili da sola. L'Alitalia non ha ragione di continuare ad esistere nella forma e struttura attuale.
Commenti?
Is the Cuisine Italian even if the Chef Isn't? dal New York Times del 7 marzo 2008
April 7, 2008
Is the Cuisine Still Italian Even if the Chef Isn’t?
By IAN FISHER
ROME — Last month, Gambero Rosso, the prestigious reviewer of restaurants and wine, sought out Rome’s best carbonara, a dish of pasta, eggs, pecorino cheese and guanciale (cured pig cheek; for the aficionados, pancetta is not done) that defines tradition here.
In second place was L’Arcangelo, a restaurant with a head chef from India. The winner: Antico Forno Roscioli, a bakery and innovative restaurant whose chef, Nabil Hadj Hassen, arrived from Tunisia at 17 and washed dishes for a year and a half before he cooked his first pot of pasta.
“To cook is a passion,” said Mr. Hassen, now 43, who went on to train with some of Italy’s top chefs. “Food is a beautiful thing.”
Spoken like an Italian. But while much of the rest of the world learned about pasta and pizza from poor Italian immigrants, now it is foreigners, many of them also poor, who make some of the best Italian food in Italy (as well as some of the worst and everything between).
With Italians increasingly shunning sweaty and underpaid kitchen work, it can be hard now to find a restaurant where at least one foreigner does not wash dishes, help in the kitchen or, as is often the case, cook. Egyptians have done well as pizza makers, but restaurant kitchens are now a snapshot of Italy’s relatively recent immigrant experience, with Moroccans, Tunisians, Romanians and Bangladeshis at work.
That fact itself may not be surprising: On one level, restaurants in Italy, a country that even into the 1970s exported more workers than it brought in, now more closely mirror immigrant-staffed kitchens in much of Europe.
But Italians take their food very seriously, not just as nourishment and pleasure but also as the chief component of national and regional identity. Change is not taken lightly here, especially when the questions it raises are uncomfortable: Will Italy’s food change — and if so, for the worse or, even more disconcertingly, for the better? Most Italian food is defined by its good ingredients and simple preparation, but does it become less distinct — or less Italian — if anyone can prepare it to restaurant standards? Does that come at some cost to national pride?
“If he is an Egyptian cook, nothing changes — nothing,” said Francesco Sabatini, 75, co-owner of Sabatini in Trastevere, one of Rome’s oldest neighborhoods. His restaurant is considered one of the city’s most conservative, serving classic Roman dishes like oxtail, yet 7 of his 10 cooks are not Italian.
For Mr. Sabatini, the issue is not the origin of the cook but the training — his chefs apprentice for five years — and keeping alive Italy’s culinary traditions, which he defines as “the flavors of your mother’s kitchen.”
“That’s why I’m here,” he said. “If not, I’d just go to the beach.”
But in a debate likely to grow in the coming years, others argue that foreign chefs can mimic Italian food but not really understand it.
“Tradition is needed to go forward with Italian youngsters, not foreigners,” said Loriana Bianchi, co-owner of La Canonica, a restaurant also in Trastevere, which hires several Bangladeshis, though she does the cooking. “It’s not racism, but culture.”
While much of Italy’s best food is prepared at home, Ms. Bianchi despairs at the difficulty of finding people to do the same in restaurants. (There is even a greater shortage, experts say, of Italian waiters.) “It’s tiring and the hours are very long,” she said.
But it has been an undeniable boon to Italy’s new immigrants. Twelve years ago, Abu Markhyyeh, a young Jordanian, finished an apprenticeship with a Neapolitan pizza maker, borrowed money from his Italian mother-in-law, then opened his own pizzeria in Milan, Da Willy, after his nickname here.
He did well, in part because he made the pizzas bigger but kept the prices low. Now Mr. Markhyyeh, 41, presides over an untraditional pizza empire. He has 11 restaurants in Milan, 4 in Jordan, 2 in Cyprus and franchises in Dubai, Beirut, Sharm el Sheik in Egypt and now in Shanghai.
Despite this success — and thousands of loyal Italian customers — he said he has never felt fully accepted. “Italians say they aren’t racist, but then they say to me that in Milan, I have found America,” he said, referring to a slightly insulting expression for finding success without really working for it. “It makes me feel lousy.”
Qunfeng Zhu, 30, a Chinese immigrant who opened a coffee bar in Rome’s center, has had a similar experience even though he makes an authentic espresso in a classic Italian atmosphere (overlooking a few bottles of Chinese liquor).
“Some people come in, see we are Chinese and go away,” he said.
But in the last few years, he said, that happens less frequently, one sign that Italy is opening up — if slowly — to other kinds of food. Twenty years ago it was hard to find much beyond the occasional Chinese restaurant. Now the choices are broader, especially for Asian food like Japanese or Indian.
“We live in a globalized society — there are so many people represented in our city,” said Maria Coscia, the commissioner of Rome’s public schools. So much so that last year the city began a program of serving a meal from different countries once a month. But many parents complained loudly.
“The first time we did it, the menu was Bangladeshi,” she said. “That was a problem.”
As a result of the complaints, the program was tweaked slightly and now at least one dish in four on those days — even grade-school students eat well here — will remain Italian. Now it is largely accepted, though the program’s Web site includes this reminder for the still wary: “In the total of the 210 school days, when lunches are served, only eight days are dedicated to the menus from other countries.”
With this mixing of cultures only in its early days, there seems to be no major shift in Italian cuisine, even if foreigners are doing the cooking more and more. Unlike in France, where foreign flavors have blended well over time with native ones, attempts here at some fusion of Italian and other cuisines have not caught on. There is, as yet, no equivalent to curry in Britain.
Still, there seems some leakage. Food experts say that foreign chefs, here and there, add spices not often used in Italy, like coriander and cumin. Couscous and vanilla are no longer novelties.
But there is a question whether those changes, so far subtle, are happening as a conscious effort to be creative, or simply foreign chefs reverting to the flavors they know from home.
Pierluigi Roscioli, a member of the family that runs the restaurant that won the best carbonara award, said there was a risk that tradition would slowly erode if Italian chefs did note oversee those foreign ones who had less training.
“Without supervision, they tend to drift toward what is in their DNA,” he said. “When it’s by choice, it’s great, but not when it happens because someone isn’t paying attention.”
Given the current pace of change, he and other experts estimate that cooks in low- to middle-level restaurants in Italy may be almost entirely non-Italian within a decade. But that trend coincides with another, in which Italians are showing a rejuvenated interest in the best of their own food, as shown by the popularity of groups like Gambero Rosso, which publishes a magazine and books reviewing wine and restaurants, and the Slow Food movement, which emphasizes fresh and local products.
Four years ago, the International School of Italian Cooking opened in Parma, arguably Italy’s best food city, and is attracting a new generation of Italian chefs interested more in high-end cooking than the home-style cooking in local restaurants that has made Italian food popular around the world.
Its executive manager, Andrea Sinigaglia, said it was possible that Italian restaurants would soon divide into two camps, with elite restaurants staffed by Italian chefs, and trattorias and restaurants aimed more at tourists run by foreign chefs.
But with Italy changing, he said, its food will inevitably change, too, though his school is partly aimed at keeping the basics — local products, fresh ingredients, simplicity in preparation — intact.
“We cannot defend a recipe,” he said. “We cannot stop progress. We can indicate, pinpoint, what are the real important things. And the rest is creativity.”
Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Milan, and Daniele Pinto from Rome.
Is the Cuisine Still Italian Even if the Chef Isn’t?
By IAN FISHER
ROME — Last month, Gambero Rosso, the prestigious reviewer of restaurants and wine, sought out Rome’s best carbonara, a dish of pasta, eggs, pecorino cheese and guanciale (cured pig cheek; for the aficionados, pancetta is not done) that defines tradition here.
In second place was L’Arcangelo, a restaurant with a head chef from India. The winner: Antico Forno Roscioli, a bakery and innovative restaurant whose chef, Nabil Hadj Hassen, arrived from Tunisia at 17 and washed dishes for a year and a half before he cooked his first pot of pasta.
“To cook is a passion,” said Mr. Hassen, now 43, who went on to train with some of Italy’s top chefs. “Food is a beautiful thing.”
Spoken like an Italian. But while much of the rest of the world learned about pasta and pizza from poor Italian immigrants, now it is foreigners, many of them also poor, who make some of the best Italian food in Italy (as well as some of the worst and everything between).
With Italians increasingly shunning sweaty and underpaid kitchen work, it can be hard now to find a restaurant where at least one foreigner does not wash dishes, help in the kitchen or, as is often the case, cook. Egyptians have done well as pizza makers, but restaurant kitchens are now a snapshot of Italy’s relatively recent immigrant experience, with Moroccans, Tunisians, Romanians and Bangladeshis at work.
That fact itself may not be surprising: On one level, restaurants in Italy, a country that even into the 1970s exported more workers than it brought in, now more closely mirror immigrant-staffed kitchens in much of Europe.
But Italians take their food very seriously, not just as nourishment and pleasure but also as the chief component of national and regional identity. Change is not taken lightly here, especially when the questions it raises are uncomfortable: Will Italy’s food change — and if so, for the worse or, even more disconcertingly, for the better? Most Italian food is defined by its good ingredients and simple preparation, but does it become less distinct — or less Italian — if anyone can prepare it to restaurant standards? Does that come at some cost to national pride?
“If he is an Egyptian cook, nothing changes — nothing,” said Francesco Sabatini, 75, co-owner of Sabatini in Trastevere, one of Rome’s oldest neighborhoods. His restaurant is considered one of the city’s most conservative, serving classic Roman dishes like oxtail, yet 7 of his 10 cooks are not Italian.
For Mr. Sabatini, the issue is not the origin of the cook but the training — his chefs apprentice for five years — and keeping alive Italy’s culinary traditions, which he defines as “the flavors of your mother’s kitchen.”
“That’s why I’m here,” he said. “If not, I’d just go to the beach.”
But in a debate likely to grow in the coming years, others argue that foreign chefs can mimic Italian food but not really understand it.
“Tradition is needed to go forward with Italian youngsters, not foreigners,” said Loriana Bianchi, co-owner of La Canonica, a restaurant also in Trastevere, which hires several Bangladeshis, though she does the cooking. “It’s not racism, but culture.”
While much of Italy’s best food is prepared at home, Ms. Bianchi despairs at the difficulty of finding people to do the same in restaurants. (There is even a greater shortage, experts say, of Italian waiters.) “It’s tiring and the hours are very long,” she said.
But it has been an undeniable boon to Italy’s new immigrants. Twelve years ago, Abu Markhyyeh, a young Jordanian, finished an apprenticeship with a Neapolitan pizza maker, borrowed money from his Italian mother-in-law, then opened his own pizzeria in Milan, Da Willy, after his nickname here.
He did well, in part because he made the pizzas bigger but kept the prices low. Now Mr. Markhyyeh, 41, presides over an untraditional pizza empire. He has 11 restaurants in Milan, 4 in Jordan, 2 in Cyprus and franchises in Dubai, Beirut, Sharm el Sheik in Egypt and now in Shanghai.
Despite this success — and thousands of loyal Italian customers — he said he has never felt fully accepted. “Italians say they aren’t racist, but then they say to me that in Milan, I have found America,” he said, referring to a slightly insulting expression for finding success without really working for it. “It makes me feel lousy.”
Qunfeng Zhu, 30, a Chinese immigrant who opened a coffee bar in Rome’s center, has had a similar experience even though he makes an authentic espresso in a classic Italian atmosphere (overlooking a few bottles of Chinese liquor).
“Some people come in, see we are Chinese and go away,” he said.
But in the last few years, he said, that happens less frequently, one sign that Italy is opening up — if slowly — to other kinds of food. Twenty years ago it was hard to find much beyond the occasional Chinese restaurant. Now the choices are broader, especially for Asian food like Japanese or Indian.
“We live in a globalized society — there are so many people represented in our city,” said Maria Coscia, the commissioner of Rome’s public schools. So much so that last year the city began a program of serving a meal from different countries once a month. But many parents complained loudly.
“The first time we did it, the menu was Bangladeshi,” she said. “That was a problem.”
As a result of the complaints, the program was tweaked slightly and now at least one dish in four on those days — even grade-school students eat well here — will remain Italian. Now it is largely accepted, though the program’s Web site includes this reminder for the still wary: “In the total of the 210 school days, when lunches are served, only eight days are dedicated to the menus from other countries.”
With this mixing of cultures only in its early days, there seems to be no major shift in Italian cuisine, even if foreigners are doing the cooking more and more. Unlike in France, where foreign flavors have blended well over time with native ones, attempts here at some fusion of Italian and other cuisines have not caught on. There is, as yet, no equivalent to curry in Britain.
Still, there seems some leakage. Food experts say that foreign chefs, here and there, add spices not often used in Italy, like coriander and cumin. Couscous and vanilla are no longer novelties.
But there is a question whether those changes, so far subtle, are happening as a conscious effort to be creative, or simply foreign chefs reverting to the flavors they know from home.
Pierluigi Roscioli, a member of the family that runs the restaurant that won the best carbonara award, said there was a risk that tradition would slowly erode if Italian chefs did note oversee those foreign ones who had less training.
“Without supervision, they tend to drift toward what is in their DNA,” he said. “When it’s by choice, it’s great, but not when it happens because someone isn’t paying attention.”
Given the current pace of change, he and other experts estimate that cooks in low- to middle-level restaurants in Italy may be almost entirely non-Italian within a decade. But that trend coincides with another, in which Italians are showing a rejuvenated interest in the best of their own food, as shown by the popularity of groups like Gambero Rosso, which publishes a magazine and books reviewing wine and restaurants, and the Slow Food movement, which emphasizes fresh and local products.
Four years ago, the International School of Italian Cooking opened in Parma, arguably Italy’s best food city, and is attracting a new generation of Italian chefs interested more in high-end cooking than the home-style cooking in local restaurants that has made Italian food popular around the world.
Its executive manager, Andrea Sinigaglia, said it was possible that Italian restaurants would soon divide into two camps, with elite restaurants staffed by Italian chefs, and trattorias and restaurants aimed more at tourists run by foreign chefs.
But with Italy changing, he said, its food will inevitably change, too, though his school is partly aimed at keeping the basics — local products, fresh ingredients, simplicity in preparation — intact.
“We cannot defend a recipe,” he said. “We cannot stop progress. We can indicate, pinpoint, what are the real important things. And the rest is creativity.”
Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Milan, and Daniele Pinto from Rome.
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