When I was living in (Southern) Italy, something else that worried the local Italian population was any food that wasn&#x27;t Italian. People wrote to their local papers congratulating the local council for refusing to allow a non-Italian restaurant to open.<p>Tradition is fine as a starting point, but I got so sick of (often mediocre through lack of competition) pizza and pasta. Sometimes, Italians take offence at what I&#x27;m saying and then list Italian dishes. Which often turn out to be different kinds of ways of arranging pasta, and different kinds of sauces for pasta. Tradition isn&#x27;t meant to be a prison; it seemed to me that the tradition of the food had become more important than the actual food.