Santanchè defends Italian cuisine amid debate over tinned carbonara.

Italy's tourism minister Daniela Santanchè has added her voice to the online furore after the American food giant Heinz released spaghetti carbonara in a can.

"Italian cuisine is a serious thing", Santanchè wrote in a post on X, before paraphrasing the actor Alberto Sordi in the 1954 classic film Un americano a Roma to say that canned carbonara should be fed to rats.

Santanchè's contribution to the debate comes after numerous Italian chefs slammed the new product which is due to hit UK supermarket shelves in September with a price tag of £2.

La cucina italiana è una cosa seria. Come direbbe Alberto Sordi in un Americano a Roma: “La carbonara in lattina la damo al sorcio” pic.twitter.com/5Szi13qhl4— Daniela Santanchè (@DSantanche) August 30, 2024

The celebrated Italian chef Gianfranco Vissani described the canned carbonara as a "disgrace", telling news agency AdnKronos that such products "destroy Italian culture and our cuisine".

Another well-known chef, Cristina Bowerman of the Michelin-starred Glass Hostaria in Rome, also rejected the canned product which is marketed as "Spaghetti Carbonara, pasta in a creamy sauce with pancetta".

Describing it as "a bastardisation of our cuisine", Bowerman told AdnKronos: "I find it a horrible idea and the risk is that consumers will try this canned version before the original", adding: "Carbonara must be prepared and served immediately."

It’s time for fuss-free Carbonara with zero drama

NEW Spaghetti Carbonara, available to buy NOW on Heinz to Home and wider stores from mid September

Tap below to secure yours now https://t.co/rbpryYhY4e pic.twitter.com/qngTw1NqFQ— Heinz (@HeinzUK) August 29, 2024

Speaking to The Times, Alessandro Pipero of Rome's Michelin-starred Pipero restaurant likened the tinned carbonara to “cat food”.

There were no shortage of comments on social media from outraged Italians too, such as "If hell exists, it must look something like this" or "Every time a can is opened, a Roman dies".

Heinz is marketing the product in the pink and yellow can - its first new tinned pasta in more than a decade - as a convenient and "fuss-free" meal aimed at Generation Z.

Carbonara, one of the signature dishes of Roman cuisine, is celebrated in Italy every year with Carbonara Day on 6 April.

Recent attempts by foreign chefs to tweak the traditonal carbonara recipe - pasta, guanciale, pecorino, egg, pepper - have been met with fierce criticism in Italy.

In 2021 The New York Times caused upset with its Smoky Tomato Carbonara recipe while the year before that Romans reeled in horror at Gordon Ramsay's "nightmare carbonara".