A new law requires that all new restaurants and food shops in Florence’s history city center must guarantee within the next three years that at least 70 percent of their products are “made in Tuscany.”
While existing restaurants would not be affected, even their owners are concerned about how this ruling will affect their lives and bottom lines. As one proprietor told The Local, “Sometimes, I like to eat sushi.” Many people worry that innovation will be inhibited by a law restricting origins.
Exceptions can be sought; a five-person commission will hear and perhaps grant them. Authorities vow they are not trying to quash ethnic food production or consumption, rather trying to raise quality of the city’s foodstuffs and awareness of local identity. Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella says “One new restaurant opens every week in the historic centre. Mass-produced foods are replacing our traditional trattorias and historic food shops: we have to put an end to it.”
One editor at La Repubblica calls the new law and its adherents a “junta” led by Nardella—which shows that, as always with Italy and food, emotions are running high.
By Kathy McCabe
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