EVENTS & TALKS
DINNER EVENT - 25th JUNE 2026
Beyond Pasta and Pizza: The UNESCO Decision and Italy’s Gastronomic Heritage
Unpack UNESCO’s decision and celebrate Italy’s gastronomic culture at a dinner event with Dr Tania Cammarano brought to you by The Sicilian Association of Australia
When: Thursday 25th June, 2026 6.30pm for 7pm start
Where: Lucille Bistro, 239 Lower Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe East
Cost: $105 Members; $115 Non-members; Drinks at bar prices
In late 2025, UNESCO announced Italian cooking had earnt a place on its prestigious List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. While much of the media reported this news as a victory for everything from cannoli Siciliani to risotto alla Milanese, the award was not really a recognition of Italian recipes or ingredients, but rather it celebrated Italy’s entire gastronomic culture.
In this presentation, Australia’s leading Italian food historian Dr Tania Cammarano will analyse the Italian government’s application and unpack UNESCO’s decision to better understand the historic and contemporary relationship Italians have with food.
Why is the way ordinary Italians gather, prepare, share, connect with and talk about food considered so remarkable, that it is worthy of safeguarding? And what does protecting Italian gastronomic culture, in a fast-paced and ever-changing world, even look like?
Tania will also discuss the effect the UNESCO decision may have on Italy and Italian identity, both within the country itself and across the broader Italian diaspora.
PUBLIC LECTURE
UPDATE: POSTPONED
Unfortunately this event has been postponed. I will let you know when a new date is scheduled. Fingers crossed it will be in the not-too-distant future!
Move over meat pie: How Italian food conquered Aussie dinner tables, 1960s-70s
A free talk by Dr Tania Cammarano as part of the one-day heritage event at Mount Martha House, Our Stories: Living the 60s & 70s.
When: TBC, this event has been postponed, a new date is coming soon
Where: Mount Martha House, 466 Esplanade, Mount Martha, 3934, view map
Italian cuisine has a long history in Australia but during the 60s and 70s it moved beyond the kitchens of Italian migrants and restaurants to firmly establish itself on the dinner plates of Anglo-Australian households.
But how did the food of a migrant minority win over the mainstream? Against a backdrop of rapid social change and challenges to Australian cultural identity, food historian Dr Tania Cammarano will examine how Italian food conquered Aussie palates.
In particular, the talk will focus on how glamorous ideas of Italy, entrepreneurial migrants, a flourishing food industry and a thriving cookbook culture all combined to give our food's flavour an Italian accent. It will also explore what the Italian revolution on our plates looked like on the Mornington Peninsula, a place where one of the earliest espresso coffee lounges outside a major city was established.
Free but bookings are essential
For more information about the event and to book, go to:
Our Stories: Living the 60s & 70s
“The Italian flavor and feeling are seeping out everywhere. Our urban diet used to be the bottle of Fosters and the meat pie… now, more and more, the urban diet is the bottle of red and a pizza…” So wrote “Batman” (aka Keith Dunstan) in this 1969 cover story for The Bulletin, at a time when the food traditions of Italian migrants were beginning to make a significant impact on the mainstream food culture. Source: Trove