Food Culture in Italy

              Have you ever noticed the Italian people tend to be conservative about food? The TV program broadcasted the food culture in Italy. The TV program carried out the interview about what foreign cuisine Italian people liked. And the surprising fact was that they answered that they were all satisfied with Italian food, more specifically their local cuisine. Resultantly, this passive attitude toward the "foreign cuisine" causes an issue for some international businesses.

              Because the Italian food is embedded so strongly in the Italian culture, many multinational fast-food chains such as McDonald often face difficulties in entering the market in Italy. In addition, The Japanese owner of the Italian food restaurant encountered some discriminations when he first opened the restaurant in Milan because nobody in Italy would ever think that "Japanese can cook Italian food for Italian people in Italy."

              All of these facts struck me. We see many Italian restaurants wherever we are in the world, but we do not see many foreign cuisine in Italy. However, on the other side, Milan will hold a Milanoexpo-2015 whose main theme is "Feeding the Planet". It will be very interesting to check out how much Italy would accept the other food cultures from all over the world.