Pasta and Pizza

by Franco La Cecla

Pasta and pizza, in all their infinitely delicious and universally appealing varieties, are inextricably connected to Italian identity. These familiar foods not only represent Italy’s culinary traditions, according to anthropologist Franco La Cecla, they have unified the Italian people and spread Italian culture worldwide. Pasta and Pizza tells the story of how cuisine born in the south of Italy during the Arab conquest became a foundation for the creation of a new nation. As La Cecla shows, this process intensified as millions of Italians immigrated to the it was abroad that pasta and pizza became synonymous with being Italian, and the foods’ popularity grew as the Italian presence expanded in American culture.

More than literature, art, or even language, food serves as a strong cultural rallying point for the Italian people and a way to disseminate Italian traditions worldwide. Available for the first time in English translation, La Cecla’s lively and accessible study will be of interest to a wide range of readers, from social theorists to avid foodies.

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Franco La Cecla (Palermo, 1950), antropologo e architetto, insegna Antropologia visuale alla NABA e Arte e Antropologia allo IULM di Milano. Ha insegnato Antropologia culturale presso l’Università Vita e Salute San Raffaele di Milano, allo IUAV di Venezia e al DAMS di Bologna. Ha insegnato inoltre all’Università di Berkeley, all’EHESS di Parigi e all’UPC di Barcellona. Il suo documentario In altro mare ha vinto il “San Francisco International Film Festival” nel 2011. Autore di numerosi saggi sulla contemporaneità, ha intrecciato la riflessione antropologica con temi quali lo spazio, l’architettura, l’urbanistica, il genere maschile, i media. Tra i suoi libri ricordiamo: Contro l’urbanistica (Einaudi, 2015) e Ivan Illich e l’arte di vivere (Elèuthera, 2018). Con Stefano Savona ha curato l’installazione Praytime e, con Lucetta Scaraffia, la mostra Pregare, un’esperienza umana, alla Reggia di Venaria (2016). Sempre per Einaudi ha pubblicato Essere amici (2019), il suo ultimo libro è Mente locale (Elèuthera, 2021). Per Einaudi è in uscita il suo Tradire i sentimenti.

Reviews

[Tacodisc · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, if at times academically obtuse, cultural and political history of Italy's national foods that addresses three major questions:

1. What political and historical factors were at play in making pasta and pizza (in some form or another) universally eaten dishes? On this point, La Cecla his clearest and best supported arguments, taking readers through the progandistic exploits of Risorgimento leaders ("pulling the Mediterranean bedsheets to the North") and the entrepreneurial skills of American-bound Italian emigrants.

2. To what extent do pasta and pizza demonstrate the concept of "Italianness"? Here La Cecla takes us through the formal complexities of pasta - hundreds of types, sizes, shapes - that, according to his argument, show a resistance to innovation and colonization and innovativeness on the part of the proletariat that revolutionized their means of sustenance in the face of poverty.

3. Can pasta and pizza survive the McDonaldization of globalization? La Cecla here is unconvincing on two counts: a. Demonstrating that the either food has in fact remained immune to the McDonaldization process to-date and b. What the "authentic" character of pasta is to begin with. His claim that one can only sample a cuisine without having lived in and known first-hand its environment suggests paradoxically that pasta had lost its authenticity as soon as it appeared in an American restaurant.

While I found the thread of his arguments difficult to follow at times, La Cecla's "Pizza and Pasta" is a valuable attempt - an essay after all! - at challenging the readers unexamined relationship with two foods that have been taken for granted as "always there."

From Prickly Press books in Chicago. Worth a read.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

weird, melodramatic, made a few wild and poorly supported claims, but I really enjoyed it.