Italian politicians need to read their own history more. They seem to have forgotten the roles of travel and trade in shaping what has come to be known as Italian cuisine. Instead, they’re taking protectionism and closed-mindedness to a new peak with new rules and regulations designed to purge Italy of “foreign” culinary influence.

The drive to make Italians eat Italian, which was described by the Left and leading chefs as gastronomic racism, began in the town of Lucca this week, where the council banned any new ethnic food outlets from opening within the ancient city walls.

Yesterday it spread to Lombardy and its regional capital, Milan, which is also run by the centre Right. The antiimmigrant Northern League party brought in the restrictions “to protect local specialities from the growing popularity of ethnic cuisines”.

I particularly enjoy the fact that some Italian regional cuisine might be affected by this:

There is confusion, however, over what is meant by ethnic. Mr Di Grazia said that French restaurants would be allowed. He was unsure, though, about Sicilian cuisine. It is influenced by Arab cooking.

Thankfully, there are voices of reason:

Vittorio Castellani, a celebrity chef, said: “There is no dish on Earth that does not come from mixing techniques, products and tastes from cultures that have met and mingled over time.” He said that many dishes thought of as Italian were, in fact, imported. The San Marzano tomato, a staple ingredient of Italian pasta sauces, was a gift from Peru to the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th century. Even spaghetti, it is thought, was brought back from China by Marco Polo, and oranges and lemons came from the Arab world.

There is no cuisine on earth (excepting perhaps the culinary culture of “lost tribes” of the Amazon, which really aren’t lost), which hasn’t been affected by the exchange of knowledge, experience, goods, and services between cultures. From the Silk Road to modern globalization, national cultures and cuisines have always been affected by others.

Any attempt to purge foreign influence and attempt to restore a “golden age” of “pure” culture has failed in the long run. But even so, that doesn’t mean that complete and utter homogenization results. Quite the contrary. Cultural variety and regionalism still prevail, despite — or perhaps even because of — access to greater variety of influences and experiences.

So screw the idiots who wish to regulate cultural purity. I’m eating Tuscan chips instead. As the label says, it’s “a vacation in a bag” !