Alberto Grandi recently published a book that puts into question Italy's food, beverage and recipe classification system. His book, Denominazione di Origine Inventata, puts forth the theory that many foods, and recipes, that Italy claims as its own, or claims are historical products and recipes, aren't in fact so. In his book, he calls the classification of typical Italian products "marketing lies". In this podcast episode, Alberto and I talk about this challenging issue and its implications.  Alberto Grandi is a professor of Economics and Management at the University of Parma. His research on the history of food history has focused on the emergence of typical products and designations of origin, and the notion of typicality in a social context. Although his book is only available in Italian right now, it will be published in English at the end of 2023. In the meantime, have a listen to this fascinating episode right here: