According to the Guardian, during the match between Albania and Italy on June 16, Albanian fans taunted their Italian opponents by breaking spaghetti in half in front of them. Italy later won the match 2-1 against Albania. In Italian and French culinary culture, breaking spaghetti and baguette in half is considered a taboo. Therefore, this method is often used whenever someone wants to annoy the people of these two countries.
This unique "food battle" continued during the match between Austria and France on June 18. Austrian fans broke baguettes (the iconic French bread) in half in front of French fans.
This unique "food battle" continued in the match between Austria and France with the laughter of other fans.
Breaking spaghetti and baguettes in half is considered a taboo in Italian and French culinary cultures. Therefore, this action is often used to provoke people in these two countries.
One of the first images to emerge at Euro 2024 was of a Swiss fan holding up a cardboard sign reading "fondue is better than goulash" during the match against Hungary.
Fondue is a famous Swiss cheese hotpot. Goulash is a traditional Hungarian meat and vegetable stew. This message was intended to irritate Hungarian fans and players. With just a piece of cardboard, a pen and a short message, the image of the Swiss fan still created a great impact. And it almost ignited a culinary war at Euro this year.
However, culinary jabs can sometimes be a bad omen. Albania lost 2-1 to Italy and Austria were beaten 1-0 by Les Bleus.
The host country Germany can also breathe a sigh of relief because at least the sideline food wars did not cause serious consequences other than broken cakes or noodle packages.
Germany is expected to welcome more than 600,000 international tourists and 1.5 million overnight stays during Euro 2024 this year.
Tourists flocking to Germany are entertaining themselves with “food wars”. Of course, this is just for fun, not wasting much food. However, this war is just as dramatic as the matches.
Besides mocking iconic foods on the streets and in stadiums, many fans also brought banners to the field.
