Top Italian chef quits state TV show 'after being told to drop foreign recipes' [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Top Italian chef quits state TV show 'after being told to drop foreign recipes'

Vittorio Castellani says Rai’s version of Ready Steady Cook suspended his show

Angela Giuffrida in Rome and Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo
Tue 30 Oct 2018 16.32 GMT

A food journalist and chef who provided recipes for the Italian version of Ready Steady Cook has quit the show, claiming the public broadcaster, Rai, had told him to drop foreign recipes.

Vittorio Castellani, also known as Chef Kumalé, says Rai told him in a telephone call last week that his role had been temporarily put on hold because producers of the programme, hosted by Elena Isoardi, the girlfriend of Italy’s far-right deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, wanted to give more space to “multi-regional” Italian rather than “multicultural” food.

Castellani had worked on two episodes of the show, called La Prova del Cuoco, or The Chef’s Test, since the new season began on Rai 1 in September, developing recipes for dishes including Mexican tortilla and Keralan curry.

“They told me my episode was being suspended, to be reinstated later, because viewers don’t like foreign food recipes,” Castellani said.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/top-italian-chef-vittorio-castellani-quits-rai-state-tv-show-ready-steady-cook-after-being-told-to-drop-foreign-recipes