Cuisine is one of a country’s most distinctive cultural expressions: it grows from its inhabitants’ histories and lifestyles, which differ from region to region, city to city, village to village. Cuisine narrates who we are, rediscovers our roots, evolves with us, and represents us beyond our borders.
The fruit of both tradition and innovation, it should therefore be safeguarded and passed on.
The Academy and its aims
Founded in Milan on the 29th of July 1953 by Orio Vergani with a group of well-qualifi ed representatives of culture, industry and journalism, and recognised as a Cultural Institution of the Italian Republic since 2003, the Italian Academy of Cuisine aims to protect the traditions of Italian cuisine, whose improvement it promotes and favours in Italy and abroad. Through its Study Centre and its Delegations and Legations in Italy and worldwide, the Academy strives to promote initiatives intended to increase familiarity with the values of Italian cuisine, which form the basis for every substantial innovation. Admission to the Academy is precluded to those with links to restaurants and cooking schools.
Article 3 of the Statute
The Academy’s activity is expressed in multiple arenas. Article 3 of the Statute specifies its main foci, inspiring the innumerable projects which the Academy undertakes, coordinates, follows up and promotes not only internally but especially with a 360° perspective. Indeed, the Academy pursues its goals through the following general-interest activities:
a) taking action to promote and make the most of our cultural heritage;
b) organising and overseeing cultural, artistic or recreational activities of social interest, including activities, such as publishing, aimed at promoting and raising awareness about cultural issues and our general-interest projects.
c) studying the difficulties facing Italian cuisine and gastronomy, generating proposals, providing information in response to requests by public officials, entities, associations, and public and private institutions, and facilitating the promotion of initiatives that are conducive to a better understanding of traditional Italian culinary values;
d) promoting and encouraging all those initiatives which, through historical research and its dissemination, may contribute to an appreciation of Italian cuisine in Italy and abroad, also as an expression of customs, culture, civilisation and knowledge;
e) promoting and encouraging public awareness of restaurants, in Italy and abroad, which truly respect and observe the traditional qualities and characteristics of national, regional and local Italian cuisine;
f) recognising and appreciating all those who endeavour to further the Academy’s goals.
A cultural institution
In 2003, the Italian Ministry of Culture recognised the Academy’s amply documented cultural achievements, anointing it as a ‘Cultural Institution’, thereby positioning it among