A Moment Of Silence For The Televised Death Of Pasta Carbonara
The age-old partnership of of editorial and branding can be a beautiful thing. (Wink, wink.) However, the pairing of boxed pasta brand Barilla and French lifestyle website Demotivateur left a bad taste in the mouths of many pasta puritans. Demotivateur's video recipe for pasta carbonara employs Barilla bowties and the tragically Americain fad of making a one-pot meal in 20 minutes or less. That's right: In order to forgo the approximately four incredibly easy steps it would take you to make traditional carbonara (praised for its deliciousness as well as its ease of preparation), the French site dumped it all together unceremoniously and walked away.
Shortly after the video went live on Facebook last week, furious Italians took to the comments section with a variety of protests citing everything from the nerve of the French to the ire of nonnas from Valle d'Aosta to Calabria. Barilla quickly caved, responding "Mon Dieu! We are open to all creative interpretations of the mythical carbonara, but this goes too far....Désolé!" Yes, boiling lardons with onions and pasta and topping it with crème fraîche and a raw egg yolk is too far. Demotivateur pulled the offending recipe, replacing it with Barilla's real one.