Perhaps if the Fascists had lasted for many generations the old knowledge of food among that group would have faded away. I don't think cooking ideas ever come from the very poorest in any society (who never got enough to eat anywhere) though often from the relatively poor making the best of what they'd got - e.g much French regional cuisine. In Britain that clbutt was mainly working in factories in large conurbations.
Contrast with Britain. After industrialisation and land enclosures, access to wild resources became difficult for much of the population. Indeed, the Game Laws (1816) were pbutted specifically to keep them out. That was the age of man-traps and seven years transportation for poaching. We haven't had the large traditional clbutt of independent peasants that's found in most countries. Even now most farms in southern Europe are tiny - less than 10 ha IIRC. Hence a patchwork of small land holdings and traditions of access across each other's land - the tradition in Britain has generally been large landowners and "Keep Out".
I suspect atbreastudes follow practice rather than vice versa. But judging from the childhood obesity problem, perhaps Italian needs a few more words like "glutton".
I thought I had.
I think you've missed off a zero but the population density is much lower than England - around 200 per km2 compared to 340(ish) (It's about 240ish for the whole UK but very few people now live in the Scottish Highlands) Industrialisation on a large scale came much later to southern Europe and the rural peasantry was maintained - even when some of those peasants also became industrial workers. But, as we've discussed before, food traditions in Italy etc are by no means universally good - nations tend to get known by stereotypes.
There are stronger policies to enable rural access in Britain these days but it's come too late - a culture of gathering wild mushrooms, herbs etc can't be recreated overnight. The sheer size of the population adjacent to many rural areas just wouldn't sustain it - they'd be wrecked. There has been a tradition of cottage gardens and, as in the example of Lincolnshire chine, I suspect we did actually have a more widepread tradition of good regional food to go with it. If so, it seems to have vanished as the rural working clbutt were sucked into the cities. -- Phil C.
