Survey Finds Most Offensive Crimes Against Italian Food

Italian cuisine is the most popular in the world, however, Italians are famously reactionary to anyone, especially foreigners, changing the way it is prepared. A YouGov survey has found the crimes against Italian food that Italians find most offensive.

The survey was conducted in 17 countries, including Italy and identified 19 different ways that people prepare Italian food that are considered wrong or disrespectful. Of the 19 different food ‘abuses’, participants were asked to say if they thought they were acceptable or unacceptable.

Four of the 19 transgressions were found to be acceptable by Italians – eating pizza for lunch; Bolognese sauce with spaghetti; pizza with a fork rather than your hands; and meatballs with spaghetti.

Four were divisive among Italians: risotto as an appetiser or side; putting oil in the water you are cooking your pasta in; snapping dry spaghetti before boiling, and adding plain pasta to a plate or bowl and then adding the sauce afterwards.

See the Full Results Here

Putting ketchup on pasta is the thing that Italians found most abhorrent, however, in 11 of the countries, people thought that there was nothing wrong with it, with Indonesians and Hong Kongers particularly keen.

Putting pasta in cold water and then boiling it was the second most offensive practice to Italians, and pineapple on pizza was in third place.