Hands off from the traditional Bolognese "ragu'"

(AGI) Rome, Aug 22 - The counterfeiting of Italian food products is nothing new. But Italian chefs have spoken harshly against a recipe for rigatoni with white Bolognese sauce published by the influential New York Times, stating it has very little in common with the real thing. "The original recipe for the 'Bolognese ragu'' is filed with Bologna's Chamber of Commerce. Restaurants abroad can make it how they like it, but if they change it altogether, they cannot keep the name," said chef Giuseppe Boccuzzi, who heads the Association of Bologna Chefs, a provincial branch of the Federation of Italian Chefs (FIC). "If you wish to cook Italian food abroad, you cannot improvise. Recipes must be respected, and each ingredient must come from Italy. Before serving a dish as something it's not, it would be advisable to consult with the Chambers of Commerce, provinces or municipalities where it is possible to retrieve detailed information on the original recipe. This is the only way a so-called Italian dish can be as close as possible to its Italian original," Mr Boccuzzi said. "While it's true that our regions - from Sicily to Veneto, from Piedmont to Campania - all have their own recipes that aren't always easy to follow or respect, the risk associated with a poorly cooked 'Italian' dish is to mislead those who eat it into believing it is the original recipe. If a recipe can't be recreated perfectly, it should at least be 80 percent faithful to the original, otherwise it makes no sense to call it Italian and it only damages true Italian dishes." (AGI). .