We've all committed them, but now, at last, we have no excuses. A respected food institute has listed those culinary no-nos that make Italians wince inwardly but which they are too polite to tell you about. The Parma-based Academia Barilla, which aims "to defend and safeguard Italian food products made by reputable artisans and certified denominations against poor-quality imitations", has listed ten kitchen faux pas, in order to "teach foreigners how to avoid culinary horrors" in confronting Italian food.
So now, we can be free of that feeling that the waiter is laughing up his sleeve at us. The list is compiled with a degree of self-mockery and lacks the seriousness of, say, the Académie française's strictures on the French language. Nonetheless, that's us put in our place. The rules are as follows:
* Never, ever, sip a cappuccino during a meal. (Espresso) coffee and cappuccino are Italy's pride. The first is to be consumed after a meal, and a cappuccino is for breakfast, ideally with something sweet. You can order one after a meal but you should know an Italian would never do so.
* Risotto and pasta are not meant to accompany other dishes (apart from specialities such as l'Ossobuco alla milanese). Pasta served as if it were a veg is "a mistake committed in many other countries, but in Italy is considered sacrilegious". Gennaro Contaldo, author of several books on Italian food and Jamie Oliver's mentor, agrees. He told The Independent: "I used to see this combination of everything on a plate in Italian restaurants in the Seventies when I first came to England - I'm glad to say this has died out."
