From overcooked pasta that’s swollen and limp to pizza topped with a slick of cheap oil, chefs have revealed the crimes against Italian food that they can't bear to see. “Pizza, pasta, bread, and salad dressing are Italian foods that are very often ruined abroad,”  says US-based Sylvia Baldini, a Food Network Chopped winner who has trained in Michelin-starred kitchens.

Where most cooks fall down is by making food too complex - either by combining too many flavours or a glut of strange chemicals in the case of manufacturers. It’s these mistakes that give Italian food, from pasta to pizza, a bad reputation when Mediterranean diets are in fact among the healthiest in the world.