What is meant by cooking in a broad sense? And more specifically between traditional cuisine and local cuisine? These two terms will become less and less used because they are now in stark contrast to today’s trends.
The traditional term now seems obsolete and considered as such by haute cuisine chefs, who find it increasingly difficult to describe their cuisine as a “local” cuisine.
Some will consider what I am saying a heresy, but it is enough to evaluate with a critical eye the dishes of the great chefs to understand that these terms are now in contrast with what is being proposed. Italy is a very rich gastronomic field, of a variety unique in the world. This variety stems from the fact that our country has always been made up of a maze of independent local realities, and therefore has developed a myriad of different cultures and cuisines.
In Italy it is enough to move 100 km to have a gastronomic panorama that varies substantially.
This wealth, however, determines the lack of a great national cuisine, a reference point for chefs; but from many local kitchens, family-sized, made with few ingredients found in a small area. The two concepts of traditional (linked to recipes) and territory (linked to raw materials) are disappearing, the first, losing importance the second, in favor of something enormously more important: quality.