Italian chefs set the record straight

We've all cooked spaghetti bolognese - or have we? In my kitchen I have dozens of cooking books from Raymond Blanc to Jamie Oliver via Delia and all have done a version of the classic 'spag bol'. Leafing through them it now seems few are even half right in their recipes and are in fact just interpretations of the real thing.

Does this matter? Not really you might think but it does if you are from the Bologna Chamber of Commerce where the world famous dish originates. They were so annoyed at ordering a 'spag bol' and getting a pale imitation that they organised a world-wide day of cooking where 450 Italian chefs in 50 countries followed the recipe approved by the Chamber.

I think this is great. Not only did they fight back at the - admittedly inadvertent - attack on their reputation but they also secured significant worldwide media coverage. A taste - sorry - of it can be seen here.

This was back in 2010. I bet if done today you could ask people to share photos or videos of their attempts at a classic - genuine - spag bol through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest and would get tens of thousands of people involved from Rome to Reykjavik.