ACCADEMIA ITALIANA della CUCINA - EXTRAORDINARY ECUMENICAL DINNER
OFFICIAL CELEBRATION – UNESCO CULTURAL HERITAGE LISTING FOR ITALIAN CUISINE
with the participation of H E Nicola Lener, Ambassador of Italy
Thursday 19 March 2026, 6.30 pm
CREMA ROOM at EAST HOTEL, 69 Canberra Ave, Kingston
$125 pp includes wine
You are invited to our Accademia dinner celebrating the UNESCO cultural heritage listing for Italian cuisine. At this special event, His Excellency Nicola Lener and his wife will be in attendance to celebrate this important occasion.
The recognition is for cuisine originating from family traditions not just culinary but also including the convivial and social aspects handed down through generations.
The Accademia has specified that one dish must follow the family traditions so we have asked the chef to make the first dish, pasta all’amatriciana that way. This should please those who would would like to enjoy pasta the way an Italian mum would cook.
Below is the menu for the evening prepared in collaboration with the chef of “Agostinis", Francesco Balastrieri, at a cost of $125 including a generous donation of wine by the Embassy of Italy. There is a choice for “secondo” (please choose veal or chicken). Please send your selection through with your booking email or message.
Please book by 12 March and include your main (secondo) meal selection by sending an email or message to our Treasurer Enrico Saccardo: Email: enricosaccardo@hotmail.com / Mobile: 0413 517 197
Please pay for your booking by direct transfer into our bank account:
Acct Name: Accademia Italiana della Cucina (Canberra)
Acct No: 487932116
BSB 112-879
Celebrating UNESCO Listing
UNESCO is based in Paris and since 1945 recognises other than physical benefits, even the cultural immaterial treasures of humanity, which includes traditions, social practises, rites, artisan knowledge handed down from generation to generation. In the gastronomical field, Italy has attained three recognitions: The Mediterranean diet in 2010 (however it was shared with other countries such as Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia), the art of the Neopolitan pizzamaker (2017) the search and excavation of truffles (2021).
Now from December 2025, Italy has attained, as the only country in the world, the recognition of immaterial benefit for all of its cuisine, which honours what Italians are and their identity, because the cuisine is not only food or a collection of recipes, but a culture, traditions, work and richness. UNESCO has therefore recognised and certified that Italian cuisine is not just a series of famous recipes, but a true and actual style of life, founded on sharing, respect for the ingredients and on the ability to hand down from generation to generation.
The first request was made in 2023 by the promoting committee formed from three organisations: Accademia Italiana della Cucina (President Paolo Petroni), Fondazione Casa Artusi (President Laila Tentoni) and the magazine “La Cucina Italiana” (Director Maddalena Fossati Dondero, the first to mention the idea).
The content of the application, very difficult and delicate, was progressed by these three organisation with the support of prof. Massimo Montanari, our honorary Accademico, and President of the Scientific Committee set up within the promoting Committee and a determinant contributipn from prof. Pier Luigi Petrillo, professor of Cultural Heritage at Luiss Guido Carli of Rome, a great expert in UNESCO documentation. All of this was coordinated and progressed by the Honourable Gianmarco Mazzi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Cultural benefits and his staff. For these efforts he received the prize Orio Vergani 2025. Other important contributions were made by l’Amb. Liborio Stellino, representing Italy at UNESCO and Dr Annamaria Nastri del Ministry of Agriculture.