Across the five continents, the facsimile of Italian recipes

A study by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina shows that abroad, in 60 percent of cases, the made-in-Italy menu is ''freely reinterpreted'' if not ''clumsily reproduced''.

The survey, carried out through 74 foreign delegations, took a snapshot of the state of Italian gastronomy across the five continents.
Almost half (47%) of the chefs working in Italian restaurants abroad are not Italian, and only a small share (9%) of them have attended schools, internships or training placements in Italy.

To cite a few examples: pizza remains the most reinterpreted dish abroad, followed by tiramisù, lasagne, veal scaloppine and pasta al ragù.

The fusion of traditional tastes and local flavours often gives rise to a hybrid form of cooking and to the creation of dishes that, paradoxically, are successful even though far removed from Italian tradition.
One demonstration of this would be "Italian-style" cooking made in Holland: in The Hague, in Italian restaurants, menus can feature ''oven-baked fish with pesto''.

Tastes evolve over time and are shaped by cultural exchanges: that is how a dish once extremely widespread in the United States, ''spaghetti with meat balls'', has today practically disappeared.

Looking at the macro indicators, according to the survey by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, Italian cuisine remains the most appreciated in the world: 68% of foreign countries, followed by Chinese cuisine (40%) and French cuisine (38%).

Some interesting figures also emerge on the spread of Italian cuisine abroad: Melbourne is the leading city by number of Italian restaurants (+1000), followed by Sydney, New York and Montreal (+500). Paris, with (+400) Italian restaurants, is the cradle of Italian gastronomy in Europe.