If you've only ever wanted to eat at Italian restaurants, make pasta almost every day for dinner, and entertain Italian holidays regardless of season, much to the chagrin of your oversaturated friends and family, then you're about to feel extremely vindicated: Italian cooking has been officially recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. The announcement was made on Wednesday, December 10, during the cultural organisation's assembly in Delhi.
Rather than selecting specific food items like, say, sfogliatelle from Campania, agnolotti pasta from Piedmont, or Chianti Classico wine, the designation of Italian cuisine in its entirety emphasizes instead the human and human-made elements of the nation's cooking tradition. UNESCO's entry for Italian cooking on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage highlights its artisanal techniques, communal nature, “intimacy with food, respect for ingredients, and shared moments around the table.”
“We are so happy about what happened today,” says Maddalena Fossati, the editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Traveller Italia and La Cucina Italiana, the Italian food magazine (both are published by Traveller's parent company Condé Nast). Fossati was the driving force behind the recognition, and first developed the idea during COVID when she witnessed just how linked food and the Italian people are. She brought the concept to the Italian government, which then named Fossati as President of the Committee Promoting Italian Cuisine for UNESCO Recognition.
The delegation worked tirelessly for five years to bring the case to UNESCO. “The value of Italians is through our food. That is who we are,” Fossati tells Traveller on a phone call from Delhi. "[This recognition] is really history – for the country, for Italians all around the world, and for everybody that loves Italian cooking.”
The designation of an entire nation's cuisine is a global first for the United Nations organisation, which in the past has recognised specific dishes, like tom yum, a prawn soup from Thailand, or traditions associated with a particular cuisine, like ceviche making in Peru.
In the same way that UNESCO World Heritage Sites spotlight physical places and monuments worth preserving and celebrating, UNESCO's compendium of Intangible Cultural Heritage means to do the same for cultural practices representative of humanity's ingenuity, as well as safeguard traditions at risk of dying out. For example, in Italy, arts such as opera singing, pizzaiuolo (Neapolitan pizza-making), and traditional violin craftsmanship in the town of Cremona were inscribed on the list in 2023, 2017, and 2012, respectively.
The selection is a timely reminder of food's power to bring together people across different backgrounds and generations. As UNESCO puts it, Italian cooking “gives communities an outlet to share their history and describe the world around them. It also helps safeguard specific cultural expressions, such as language and gestures. The practice thus fosters social inclusion while promoting well-being and offering a channel for lifelong, intergenerational learning.” In fairness, one could argue that the same could be said for many other culinary traditions around the world, and so this designation only opens doors for future spotlights on the myriad food practices around the world worth preserving – and travelling for.
Other 2025 additions to the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list include Iceland's swimming pool culture, Ghana's highlife music and dance, India's Diwali festival, rod marionette puppetry in Belgium, and family circus traditions in Chile. See UNESCO's full list here.