VERONA -- Francesco Lollobrigida, Italian Minister for Agriculture, has burnished his reputation as the doziest member of the nation's lacklustre "post-fascist" cabinet by proclaiming that at least one plate of Italian cheese must be on the menu of every restaurant in Italy, a requirement he said would be enforced by legislation.

  Lollobrigida, widely believed to owe his position to his being the brother in law of Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni, made the absurd suggestion during a visit to the Gambero Rosso stand at Vinitaly in Verona. During a conversation with Marco Mensurati Lollobrigida disclosed that he is “reasoning with the catering industry both with Confcommercio and Confesercenti” to introduce the obligatory item in all Italian menus, presumably even in the French-speaking area of the Valle d'Aosta and German.speaking Alto Adige.

   The minister, who previously made headlines for his remarks about the “poor eating better than the rich” evidently failed to consider how the customers at vegan, international, or health-conscious restaurants choose to eat. 

  Inspired by the French, Lollobrigida continued, “I would like to impose a plate dedicated to cheese on the menus of catering establishments. Not cheese that accompanies it, but the cheese that is the dish.”

  The initiative “brings with it an increase in value, grows the supply chain, increases the value of dairy, rather like what took place with Grana and Reggiano.” 

 Despite "following the French model," Lollobrigida remarked that “Italy has more confidence in itself than it had in the past, there is an awareness of our potential.” The minister implied this “optimism” for “a sense of positivity that there is in the Italian system,” was thanks to Meloni’s "post-fascist" government.

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