No doubt Heinz meant well, but it has unwittingly opened a can of worms with its latest product – tinned spaghetti carbonara. And if it thinks there’s no such thing as bad publicity, try telling that to Italians, who have likened the dish to cat food. Cooked from scratch, the simple recipe of egg yolks, black pepper, pancetta, pecorino and pasta takes just ten minutes to make.
By contrast, the tinned version can be microwaved in only four. Heinz said the $4 dish was aimed at people looking for “convenient meals that are effortless to prepare” – particularly customers in their 20s. It said research showed a third of Gen Z-ers – those born between 1997 and 2010 – want food to be fast and convenient.
However, the boss of one of London’s top Italian restaurants has condemned it as a “disgrace”. And, when told of Heinz’s latest wheeze Alessandro Pipero, owner of Pipero, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Rome, said: “Do you mean in a tin, like cat food?” Speaking to The Times, he said: “I don’t really know how to respond to this.” “I love modernity, I’ve got nothing against it, but from the point of view of an Italian, shouldn’t we stick to putting things like Coca-Cola in a can? “If it’s horrible and people buy it anyway, there is a problem with the consumer, not with the company that makes it.
But I can’t see too many Italians buying it.” Ciara Tassoni, 31, who manages the upmarket restaurant Bottega Prelibato, in Shoreditch, east Lond.