Food is certainly serious business in Italy, as it is part of its national identity, and this is evidenced by the extent to which a controversy has taken over how pasta carbonara sauce is made.

Luca Cesari, a food historian and writer from Bologna, faced a barrage of negative comments and insults after he posted a video on Instagram of what he believed to be the authentic version of carbonara, considered a classic dish of Roman cooking.

Ditching the usual ingredients Italian pecorino, guanciale, which are mixed with eggs to create the pasta’s famous creamy sauce, Cesari’s carbonara was made with Swiss gruyere cheesegarlic, bacon and fried eggs.

The author said he went back to the original recipe published in an Italian cooking magazine almost 70 years ago and tries to show how the recipe has evolved over the decades.

“I just recreated the carbonara from 1954, the first one featured in ‘Cucina Italiana’ magazine. It’s not my fault if this was the carbonara recipe!”, he emphasized in his statements to Reuters.

“Over the years, a number of different carbonara recipes have emerged, including those with prosciutto in the 1950s. In the US you can even find versions with clams or mushrooms.”

Alberto Gradi, another culinary historian who has come under fire for challenging established culinary traditions, was quick to defend Cesari.

In a video he posted on Instagram, he denounced a kind of “of gastro-nationalism that prevents us from thinking rationally about matters in our kitchen.”

Other examples of what Italians consider “culinary heresy” include combining pasta with ketchup or adding pineapple to pizza, along with the express prohibition of ordering cappuccino after lunch.

Cesari declares that he will not be deterred by the reactions and is ready to sharpen any culinary confrontation.

“This was only the first video… I’m preparing a new one for the traditional Neapolitan pizza from the 1800s with shells!”