The American food giant is trying to win over students with easy and quick-to-prepare pasta… even if it means arousing the ire of the inhabitants of the Boot.
Are Italians ready to go on a crusade against a food giant to defend an iconic dish of their cuisine? In recent days, more than one Italian has choked upon discovering the new product from the American brand Heinz: carbonara pasta, with cream and… in a can. Marketed in the United Kingdom, the can, ironically named #NoDramaCarbonara, is clearly aimed at Gen Z and Millennials, with a low price (£1.75) and ultra-easy preparation.
“Did you know that 32% of Gen Z wants their food to be both fast and convenient?” Heinz proclaims on its website. “These #NoDramaCarbonara are set to become a new favorite dish for younger generations, with a delicious dish that requires no cooking skills.”The company is therefore betting on poor students, with rudimentary kitchen equipment and little time – or desire – to prepare a meal.
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A media outcry
Reactions to the American group’s announcement were swift. The Daily Mail denounced a “lazy generation Z” while the headlines in the English-language press are falling from the clouds: “Heinz insults the whole of Italy”Vice gets annoyed, when the Telegraph points out “the great horror of the Italians” and the Guardian mentions that “The bosses are getting angry”. Asked by the Times, Italian chef Alessandro Pipero describes the product as “dog food”while an Italian restaurateur complains to the Daily Mail: “If a customer came to me and asked for canned carbonara, he would be immediately shown the door”The matter has reached Italian officials: Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè has also attacked the tin can on her X account: “Italian cuisine is serious business. As Alberto Sorti would say in An American in Rome: ‘We’ll feed the canned carbonara to the rats.'”.
The Italian media Cibo Today has added another coin to the drama machine by coming to the aid of Heinz, recalling that the recipe for carbonaras was invented in 1944 in cans to feed the Allied army. Cibo Today defends “a dish prepared in a hurry, quickly, in the absence of great economic resources and in the simplest and most practical way possible. These are precisely the demands of today’s young people that Heinz wants to meet.” Not enough to appease the anger of the Italians, however…
