QUESTION: CAN ITALIAN AMERICAN RESTAURANTS BE CONSIDERED PART OF THE ITALIAN CUISINE HERITAGE? CARBONE Major Food Group, FOR EXAMPLE
So, it resulted that I was (partially) wrong. Dubai’s Atlantis Resorts The Royal, the world superluxury hotel, changed heart: it will soon have an Italian restaurant. Well, sort of: it will be a branch of Carbone Major Food Group, a concept started in New York City in 2013 and now in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Miami, Dallas, Doha and Riyadh. Yes, Carbone: the brand famous for its heavy creamed spicy rigatoni vodka as well as Caesar salad, linguini (with i and not e) vongole, chicken scarpariello, veal parmesan: but in tuxedo-clad, that is, a “highfalutin versions of classic Italian American comfort food”. Wait a moment, but can restaurants like this be considered Italian? Should Italy include also them in its Unesco bid to protect Italian cuisine as a world intangible heritage? In the end they could be rightly seen as another “regional” Italian cuisine, though out of Italy. A contemporary virtual region, belonging to the world of internet, considering Carbone (social) mediatic global presence. Smart chef Mario Carbone is the founder: born and raised in Queens, with Italian grandparents, “retrograde but forward-thinking, smile inducing, and thoroughly meta-Italian”, his “cathedrals of carbs” lined up at their tables stars as Rihanna, the Olsen twins, Taylor Swift, the Kardashians, Leonardo Di Caprio, the Obamas, Jay-Z, LeBron Jones, Derek Jeter, Jared & Ivanka Trump and many others. Not exactly qualified Michelin guide inspectors but the Instagram and @deuxmoi worlds do not reward competence. But also academics have glorified Carbone: “… it’s the food of the poor immigrants, and it’s fighting against the Northern Italian disdain,” sentenced Krishnendu Ray, professor of food studies at New York University, forgetting though that the poor immigrants indeed created spaghetti and meatballs, and perhaps also veal parmesan, but Cesar salad and spicy rigatoni vodka have nothing to do with them. Italian Italian vs Italian American, the old quarrel. And we are back to the initial question: can an Italian American restaurant be marketed as Italian? Or it’s just a way to mislead customers?
In the picture Mario Carbone with girlfriend Cait Bailey, New York based publicist and brand strategist, for customers as Ms. Earle, Alex Cooper and Zayn Malik.