Italy says cheese as Neapolitan pizza gains UN world heritage status

08-Dec-2017 - Italy

Pizza-making as practised in Naples has been added to the UNESCO list of "intangible" world heritage traditions, the Italian government said Thursday.

"The art of the Neapolitan pizza-maker is [part of] UNESCO world heritage. Victory!" Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina wrote on Twitter.

The decision, taken during a meeting of the UN cultural body on the South Korean resort island of Jeju, was welcomed with pride by the True Neapolitan Pizza Association.

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"Job done!" it wrote on its Facebook page. "Congratulations and all the best to all the Neapolitan pizza-makers around the world."

Pizza is popular worldwide - but Naples claims to be home to its original version.

The True Neapolitan Pizza Association has set very specific guidelines on what makes an authentic product, regulating ingredients and cooking techniques.

For example, the association says in an 11-page rulebook that "the cooking ... must be done exclusively in a wood fire oven which has reached the cooking temperature of 485 degrees Celsius."

Cooking time "should not exceed 60-90 seconds," it says.

In the application for heritage status, Italy's Agriculture Ministry described the region's pizza as "a culinary know-how transmitted through generations until today."

The ministry said that the practice fosters social cohesion and intergenerational exchange.

The skill and cultural significance of the maker of the pizza - or pizzaiolo - who skilfully prepares the dough by spinning it between both hands, traditionally singing while doing so, the ministry said.

Around 3,000 piazzaioli are estimated to live and work in Naples today.

The Italian Culture Ministry said the oven where the first pizza with the classic mozzarella-and-tomato Margherita topping was baked in 1889, in honour of the queen of Italy, Margherita of Savoy, will soon open to the public.

The oven is located in the gardens of the former royal palace of Capodimonte, now a public museum, and the plan is to set up a restaurant there, offering pizza and produce from the museum's gardens.

"We are preparing a European call for tenders to find an entrepreneur willing to invest in this project, in which we would like to involve historic Neapolitan pizza houses, because pizza is Neapolitan," museum director Sylvain Bellenger said. (dpa)

https://www.yumda.com/en/news/1152606/italy-says-cheese-as-neapolitan-pizza-gains-un-world-heritage-status.html