December 10, 2025, 1:46 pm | Read time: 3 minutes
UNESCO has added Italian cuisine to the intangible cultural heritage list. The first worldwide. TRAVELBOOK has the details.
Today is an especially good day for pizza and pasta. The United Nations’ cultural organization, UNESCO, declared Italian cuisine an intangible cultural heritage on this Wednesday (December 10, 2025). The first entire national cuisine worldwide. And this means far more than a huge recognition of popular Italian dishes.
Italian Cuisine Is More Than Just Food
Italy’s delicacies are now on the representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO has found in dishes like Pasta Carbonara, lasagna, and ossobuco not only an admittedly outstandingly delicious and globally popular cuisine. No, it primarily recognizes the “cultural and social fusion of culinary traditions.” This involves using raw materials combined with traditional preparation methods. Italy’s national cuisine is a “communal activity that emphasizes the connection with food, respect for ingredients, and shared moments at the table,” UNESCO writes in its statement on the inclusion of Italian cuisine in the world heritage list. “The practice is rooted in recipes that avoid food waste and the transmission of flavors, skills, and memories across generations,” it continues. Moreover, it is “a means to connect with family and community.”
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And according to UNESCO, everyone is involved. Young, old, and everyone in between exchange ideas, and traditional dishes often remain in families for generations. Even outside the family, food plays a central role. Knowledge about it is even taught in schools and universities. Italians see their cuisine as more than just cooking; it’s a “way to care for oneself and others, express love, and rediscover one’s cultural roots.” According to UNESCO, Italian cuisine also helps “preserve specific cultural expressions such as language and gestures.” This fosters a sense of belonging as well as well-being, strengthens bonds, and promotes “lifelong, intergenerational learning.”
Heritage Status Aims to Protect Against Imitators
According to the news site of the TV channel CNN, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed UNESCO’s decision even before the cultural organization announced it. “We are the first worldwide to receive this recognition, which honors our essence and identity,” Meloni is quoted by CNN. For Italians, “cuisine is not just food or a collection of recipes but much more: culture, tradition, work, and prosperity.”
The recognition of Italian national cuisine today follows three years of work by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture. According to CNN, they wanted to have the “traditional way of growing, harvesting, preparing, and serving food in Italy” recognized. This is also because the Southern European country constantly defends itself against counterfeits of its traditional foods. These include olive oil, jarred carbonara sauce, and the use of Italian-sounding names for products that actually come from other countries.
The Ministry of Agriculture hopes that recognizing Italian cuisine as world heritage will help protect it from “culinary abuses,” according to the news magazine.