Chefs contest the carbonara in a can proposed by Heinz. Vissani: 'This is how you destroy Italian culture'

Spaghetti alla carbonara, yes, but in a can. The announcement by the American company Heinz that, among sauces and other ready-made dishes in the famous 'tin', the aluminium packaging, is ready to put on the market in the UK one of the best-known recipes of Italian cuisine. On the label, pink on a yellow background, it reads 'Spaghetti carbonara, pasta in creamy sauce with pancetta' (pasta in creamy sauce with pancetta, ed.).
This alone sends a shiver down the spine of connoisseurs of rigatoni, maccheroni and, as tradition dictates, spaghetti.

The news, among others, is reported by the Daily Mail, which emphasises the company's goal: to provide Generation Z with a ready-made pasta dish at a cost of £2 (less than EUR 2.50, ed.). Young people who do not want to or, according to a survey, would not be able to cook and would therefore prefer ready-made, quick meals, just to be put in the microwave to heat up. The American company, specialising in products that are as special and divisive as they are coveted, offers in the UK sauces such as 'beef ravioli' or 'spaghetti bolognese', but also 'hoops' (tomato rings, ed.) and the more famous mac & cheese. All, strictly speaking, in cans.

The comment of Gianfranco Vissani was furious: 'I would send them to the country, with these proposals they are destroying Italian culture and our cuisine. They should be ashamed of themselves'. According to the chef, with these proposals companies 'try to make innovations for their own sake': in such a product, he emphasises, 'there is nothing that represents Italy beyond the name'.

'A bastardisation of our cuisine. I find it a horrendous idea and the risk is that consumers will try this canned version sooner than the original, perhaps even being disappointed'. Chef Cristina Bowerman, Michelin star at Glass Hostaria in Rome, rejects without appeal the carbonara in a tin presented by Heinz. For the well-known chef, the canned one 'can only be an imitation'. On the other hand, stresses Bowerman, 'only through knowledge of Italian cuisine can one understand that this product cannot represent the original recipe. Carbonara must be prepared and served immediately. Besides, the egg inside a tin would congeal immediately, so not even the right products are used'.