It’s Not Just Pasta. It’s a Way of Being.

What Italian cuisine really is—and what it isn’t, even when it looks the part.

A field note on flavor, memory, and the quiet hospitality that holds it all together.

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Italian cuisine isn’t a vibe or a list of ingredients. It’s memory. Place. Ritual. This reflection explores what gets lost in translation—and what still holds.

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APERITIVO
I used to joke with friends in Italy:
"Da noi è 'cibo italiano'... da voi è solo 'cibo'. Giustamente."
For us, it’s “Italian food”... for you, it’s just “food.” And rightfully so.

They’d smile, wave a hand, and say,
“Ma che cosa dice! Cibo è cibo.”
(“What are you talking about? Food is food.”)

Always with that signature mix of affection, disbelief, and the hand gesture that somehow said you’re overthinking it, but we love you anyway.

Because the truth is, it is simply food; it doesn’t need branding or performance. It’s how you eat, how you live, how you love people.

Italy has shaped my culinary life since childhood. Over the years, I’ve eaten in nearly every region, in every season. From the simplicity of a countryside lunch in Rocegno, to a seaside crudo in Taormina, to a timeless plate of cacio e pepe in Rome, to an after-performance dinner under the stars in Catania—on the lawn of a grand old building where the evening stretched into morning—I’ve learned that Italian cuisine isn’t a performance. It’s a practice. It’s rhythm. Memory. Season. Place.

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ANTIPASTO

Everyone’s Cooking Italian Right Now

Crudo. Cavatelli. Cacio e pepe.
Olive oil gelato. Truffle tagliolini.
“Nonna vibes” on the plate. Negronis in multiple variations.

In cities across America, Italian influence is everywhere—on menus, in interiors, in the stories restaurants tell about themselves. Some chefs say they’re cooking Italian because they trained under someone Italian. Others point to their use of local, seasonal ingredients. Some blend global flavors and call it Italian because… well, there’s pasta.

But here’s the thing:
Italian cuisine isn’t a flavor profile. It isn’t a look. And it certainly isn’t a playlist of ingredients.
It’s a way of life—rooted in pacing, in seasonality, in memory. A tradition of gathering, of offering care, of slowing down long enough to notice who’s at the table. It’s not just carried through food—it’s carried through the honoring of a grounded life.

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PRIMO

So, What Is Italian Cuisine, Really?

Italian cooking doesn’t begin in the kitchen.
It begins with choosing ingredients offered by the season—what’s fresh today, what’s local, what’s ready. It begins at the market, in the garden, in conversation with the hands that grew the food. And then, once gathered, it becomes a rhythm, a ritual, a way of showing up for others, and for the moment itself. Italian cuisine isn’t just about how you cook. It’s how you care. How you gather. How you pass something ordinary—but meaningful—on. And most importantly, why and for whom you cook it.

To be Italian in the kitchen is to carry a relationship—to land, to family, to time.
It’s not just what you cook, but how and why you cook it.

Italian cuisine is not:

• Tomatoes + olive oil + Parmigiano

• Burrata + pasta + crudo

• Slick plating with “rustic elegance” and vintage charm

It is:

• A sense of place (Calabria is not Piedmont. Venice is not Rome.)

• A sense of time (Eating isn’t rushed. And what’s meant to simmer—does.)

• A sense of relationship (to the land, to the people, to the ritual of feeding others with care)

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SECONDO

When It Looks Italian… But Isn’t

Some restaurants serve food that looks Italian—beautiful pastas, handmade focaccia, coastal crudo dressed in oil and citrus. But behind the presentation, there’s no regional logic. No cultural memory. No lineage.

In some places, “Italian” is treated like a blank canvas:

• Seasonal

• Local

• Globally curious

• Light on story, heavy on plating

The result may be impressive, but it’s not Italian. Because Italian food doesn’t just taste like something. It comes from somewhere.

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CONTORNO

What’s Missing in So Many “Italian” Restaurants Today?