When pointing out the systemic racism present in Italy today, you will most likely be met with a response along the lines of “Italy is not the United States.” It’s a blanket statement backed up by debilitating immigration policies and an allergic reaction to the political correctness the U.S. is known and critiqued for. And while the United States and Italy certainly have their differences — the latter having a larger story of food sovereignty that is dramatically different from the plantation and trade colonialisms of other empires, as described in this book — to be of the opinion that Italy does not have a history of segregation can’t be farther from the truth. Why won’t Italians acknowledge their colonial past in Africa?

Gastrofascism and Empire is a page-turner, and not in the traditional sense. There are no plot twists or cliffhangers, just jaw-dropping truths. By bringing to our attention the controversial La Molisana advertisement in the introductory pages, author Simone Cinotto gives no indication of sugarcoating how food has been weaponized and racialized in the chapters to come. In the early days of 2021, the pasta manufacturing company launched a new product that was deliberately named Abissine Rigate, a shell shaped pasta that openly celebrated the memory of the fascist war and invasion of Ethiopia. The product was described as soft and welcoming, cup-like, the outside rough and the inside smooth. An allegory for Abyssinian women as a sexual conquest, a military victory in the invasion of Ethiopia for Italian men, soldiers and settlers. This is just the beginning.

Gastrofascism and Empire is a hard pill to swallow and will leave a bad taste. I know that this is not what people sign up for when ordering Italian food, but it’s best to give it a try.

A must read.