The culture that is Italy

by on March 7, 2010 at 3:18 pm in Food and Drink, Law | Permalink

Italy’s Ministry of Health has passed a bill that bans the use of chemical additives and liquid nitrogen from restaurant kitchens.

The goal is to target molecular gastronomy and effectively ban many of its forms.  Oddly, the bill is slated to last for only a year.

For the pointer I thank Steve Silberman.

7 comments

Economists Do It With Models March 7, 2010 at 3:27 pm

I’m just waiting for the Italian people to riot over the non-existence of Dippin’ Dots in their country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dippin'_Dots

IWantCookieNow March 7, 2010 at 4:19 pm

Culture? Or just political mess?

Dangger March 7, 2010 at 6:13 pm

Here you go Bill: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Liquid+nitrogen+for+cooking

dearieme March 7, 2010 at 6:34 pm

“Oddly, the bill is slated to last for only a year.” Since it’s Italy we’re discussing, that hardly matters.

billswift March 7, 2010 at 7:34 pm

What is not “molecular” gastronomy, fantasy food?

Africa Franchises March 8, 2010 at 2:14 am

I would like to say inside baseball as to why Chefs must be able to experiment within safe guidelines and without the Government telling them what to do. Watch every video carefully – it totally pertains to this particle and those interests that are spearheading this ridiculous piece of law trash.

Ed March 8, 2010 at 11:05 am

I agree with Michael Heller. I’ve seen two historical, non-cultural explanations for Italy’s problems in governing itself, which by the way are getting much worse.

One is that the country has simply had no revolutions from below, and that every attempt at one was crushed. Reunification was mostly accomplished by the elites. I’m not sure I buy that, because Canada is at least one place that is fairly well governed and has never had anything approaching a revolution. But it is an interesting attempt at a non-cultural explanation.

Another is that Italy from the start incorporated the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, over Cavour’s opposition, and this was not just one of the most misgoverned places in Europe at the time, but one of the most misgoverned places in the world. Its reunification with the north for one thing saddled the whole country with the mafia. This seems much more plausible, look at Germany’s difficulties in incorporating the former DDR, and most of their problems so far have been economic.

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post: