[Peace-discuss] I don't want to go to Milan

[C. G. Estabrook]

 From The Times
January 31, 2009
Italy bans kebabs and foreign food from cities

Richard Owen in Rome
The tomato comes from Peru and spaghetti was probably a gift from China.

It is, though, the “foreign” kebab that is being kicked out of Italian cities as 
it becomes the target of a campaign against ethnic food, backed by the 
centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi.

The drive to make Italians eat Italian, which was described by the Left and 
leading chefs as gastronomic racism, began in the town of Lucca this week, where 
the council banned any new ethnic food outlets from opening within the ancient 
city walls.

Yesterday it spread to Lombardy and its regional capital, Milan, which is also 
run by the centre Right. The antiimmigrant Northern League party brought in the 
restrictions “to protect local specialities from the growing popularity of 
ethnic cuisines”.

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Luca Zaia, the Minister of Agriculture and a member of the Northern League from 
the Veneto region, applauded the authorities in Lucca and Milan for cracking 
down on nonItalian food. “We stand for tradition and the safeguarding of our 
culture,” he said.

Mr Zaia said that those ethnic restaurants allowed to operate “whether they 
serve kebabs, sushi or Chinese food” should “stop importing container loads of 
meat and fish from who knows where” and use only Italian ingredients.

Asked if he had ever eaten a kebab, Mr Zaia said: “No – and I defy anyone to 
prove the contrary. I prefer the dishes of my native Veneto. I even refuse to 
eat pineapple.”

Mehmet Karatut, who owns one of four kebab shops in Lucca, said that he used 
Italian meat only.

Davide Boni, a councillor in Milan for the Northern League, which also opposes 
the building of mosques in Italian cities, said that kebab shop owners were 
prepared to work long hours, which was unfair competition.

“This is a new Lombard Crusade against the Saracens,” La Stampa, the daily 
newspaper, said. The centre-left opposition in Lucca said that the campaign was 
discrimination and amounted to “culinary ethnic cleansing”.

Vittorio Castellani, a celebrity chef, said: “There is no dish on Earth that 
does not come from mixing techniques, products and tastes from cultures that 
have met and mingled over time.”

He said that many dishes thought of as Italian were, in fact, imported. The San 
Marzano tomato, a staple ingredient of Italian pasta sauces, was a gift from 
Peru to the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th century. Even spaghetti, it is 
thought, was brought back from China by Marco Polo, and oranges and lemons came 
from the Arab world.

Mr Castellani said that the ban reflected growing intolerance and xenophobia in 
Italy. It was also a blow to immigrants who make a living by selling ethnic 
food, which is popular because of its low cost. There are 668 ethnic restaurants 
in Milan, a rise of nearly 30 per cent in one year.

The centre Right won national elections in April last year partly because of 
alarm about crime and immigration. This week there was a series of attacks on 
immigrants in bars and shops after the arrest of six Romanians accused of 
gang-raping an Italian girl in the Rome suburb of Guidonia.

Filippo Candelise, a Lucca councillor, said: “To accuse us of racism is 
outrageous. All we are doing is protecting the culinary patrimony of the town.”

Massimo Di Grazia, the city spokesman, said that the ban was intended to improve 
the image of the city and to protect Tuscan products. “It targets McDonald’s as 
much as kebab restaurants,” he added.

There is confusion, however, over what is meant by ethnic. Mr Di Grazia said 
that French restaurants would be allowed. He was unsure, though, about Sicilian 
cuisine. It is influenced by Arab cooking.