Every day in Pipero, a Michelin-starred restaurant in the heart of Rome, the city’s “carbonara king” serves up bowls of the classic dish to eager diners. It is creamy, cheesy, speckled with crispy, salty guanciale — salt-cured pork cheek. And it definitely does not come from a can.
“Do you mean in a tin, like cat food?” Alessandro Pipero, the restaurant’s owner and chef, said on hearing that Heinz is releasing a canned version of the classic Italian dish. The company has billed its new product as “no cooking skills required”, and “fail-safe”, allowing home cooks to get a perfect carbonara every time. It cited a survey which found 32 per cent of Gen Z wanted their food to be both fast and convenient, suggesting it would be a hit with younger consumers.
Alessandra de Dreuille, meals director at Kraft Heinz said: “We understand that people are looking for convenient meals that are effortless to prepare, and our new spaghetti carbonara delivers just that.”
However, the new offering is far from a perfect carbonara in the eyes of Italy’s pasta kings. “I don’t really know how to respond to this,” said Pipero, whose eponymous restaurant serves classic Italian dishes as well as modern interpretations that change with the seasons. He said: “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?”
Pipero added: “The truth is that 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.”
The Evolution of Carbonara: From American Soldiers to 'Posh' Dishes
Although now considered a staple Italian dish, spaghetti carbonara was a relatively recent invention, said Paolo Manfredi, an Italian food writer. “It didn’t enter the Italian cookbooks before the 1950s,” he said. “Its origins are debated, but it might well be something that came from US troops in Italy and their daily supplies, which included some sort of cheese, some bacon and eggs.
“But it’s debated, because the original recipe in the 1950s had gruyere cheese, pancetta, garlic and the eggs were more cooked. It is something quite different from what we had now, which is very creamy, very posh. It has been made posh by some interventions in the last few years.”
Eleonora Cozzella, an Italian food author, once described the dish as “a combination of Italian genius and American resources”. She interviewed the grandchildren of innkeepers, who recalled their family feeding American soldiers in the late 1940s. The Americans would request a “spaghetti breakfast” of eggs, bacon and pasta.
The addition of cream is seen as sacrilege to true carbonara lovers. Nigella Lawson was accused of causing the “death of Italian food” by calling for 60ml of double cream to be used in a recipe posted online in 2017. Despite defending the recipe — which she admitted was “inauthentic” — an updated version of the dish posted on her website in 2024 was reassuringly cream-free.
Reading through the ingredients for one such product, he added: “It has nothing to do with [the original] but it is following the path of alfredo sauce. Alfredo sauce for an Italian is almost non-existent. It’s a very specific recipe made in one or two restaurants in the centre of Rome, but in the US it is very popular and their recipe is totally different.”
Today’s carbonara had become “posh”, he added — creamy, luxurious and with plenty of mythology about its origins and perfect recipe. But the dish is open to interpretation, even by Heinz. Even the tradition for using guanciale was a fairly recent convention, he said. “There is no trademark. And maybe people who eat it [canned carbonara] will have a nice surprise when they come to Italy.”
A Joyless Compromise: The Verdict on Heinz's Canned Carbonara
The great selling point of spaghetti carbonara is that it is quick and easy to prepare: just four ingredients — pasta, egg, parmesan and pancetta — and on the table in under ten minutes, (Tony Turnbull, Times Food Editor, writes). So let’s start with the positives. The Heinz version is ready in two minutes and, I suppose you could argue, consists of just one ingredient: a tin.
But goodness, what a joyless compromise it is. Where is the bite of properly cooked pasta, the smoky depth of the pancetta, the silky, cheesy richness of emulsified parmesan and egg yolk? The spaghetti here is the tasteless mush we all recognise from childhood tins of alphabetti spaghetti.
As for the sauce, it’s hard to understand how so many components (the tin lists, among other things, pancetta, cornflour, skimmed milk powder, cheese powder, sugar, garlic flavouring, onion extract and dried parsley) can add up to so little. The mealy pancetta fails to lift a thin, watery, off-puttingly sweet travesty of a great Italian original. A message to my student daughter: stick to the Pot Noodles.
Is Heinz's Canned Carbonara a Culinary Disaster? The Verdict is Out
A harmony of eggs, cured pork, cheese and seasoning, carbonara is famed for its simplicity. It is said a competent cook can whip it up from scratch in just 10 minutes. Heinz, however, has threatened to invoke the fury of Italians by suggesting Gen Z-ers would prefer to microwave it in four.
The American food giant is pandering to lazy Gen Z-ers with the launch of a £2 tinned carbonara - the latest in its line of canned pasta products. Available from September, the Heinz Spaghetti Carbonara is supposed to be a 'fail-proof' dish for those who can't cook. It comes off the back of research revealing 32 per cent of Gen Z want their food to be both fast and convenient.
But the move has led to some slamming the can version as a 'disgrace'. Ciara Tassoni, 31, manages posh Italian restaurant Bottega Prelibato, in Shoreditch, east London. Her establishment banned the dish last year after British customers kept demanding cream, mushrooms and chicken. She told The Sun: 'Now they are putting it in a can? It's a disgrace and it couldn't be any further from authentic carbonara. If somebody came in here and asked for a can of carbonara they would immediately be thrown out.'
Alessandro Pipero, owner of Pipero, a Michelin-starred restaurant in the heart of Rome, agreed. Speaking to The Times, he compared the tinned pasta to 'cat food', adding: 'I don't really know how to respond to this, shouldn't we stick to putting things like Coca-Cola in a can?'
Alessandra de Dreuille, Meals Director at Kraft Heinz said, 'We understand that people are looking for convenient meals that are effortless to prepare, and our new Spaghetti Carbonara delivers just that. It's the perfect solution for a quick and satisfying meal at home. Whether enjoyed as a comforting meal after a long day or shared with friends whilst catching up on the latest TV series, Heinz Spaghetti Carbonara is the perfect fuss-free dinner solution.'
Whether Heinz's canned carbonara will be a success remains to be seen. The dish has certainly sparked controversy, with some praising its convenience and others decrying it as a culinary abomination. However, one thing is certain: the debate over the authenticity of carbonara is likely to continue for years to come.
