The baguette becomes (finally?) a UNESCO intangible heritage


PARIS (Reuters) – The making of the baguette, a symbol of the French way of life, was added to UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage on Wednesday, following a vote in Rabat within the UN body.

The faithful companion of the tricolor tables sold around one euro is entering this catalog which already includes the “gastronomic meal of the French”, the art of Neapolitan pizza and that of Belgian beer.

This classification “underlines that a food practice can constitute a heritage in its own right, which helps us to form a society”, declared the director general of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay.

“This inscription honors the know-how of artisan bakers. It also celebrates a whole French art of living: the baguette is a daily ritual, a structuring element of the meal, synonymous with sharing and conviviality. It is important that this craft knowledge and these social practices can continue to exist in the future”, she added, according to a text sent by her services.

The Federation of bakery and pastry companies hailed on Twitter “excellent news for the sector” and a “considerable asset for the attractiveness of our professions”.

The UN organization based in Paris created this category in order to protect traditional cultural practices and know-how, in addition to the list of remarkable sites and monuments for which it guarantees.

In addition to the know-how of the baguette, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee of Unesco chaired by Morocco examines this year, among 56 applications for inscription, Algerian raï music, harissa, a spicy puree typical of Tunisian gastronomy , and chai (tea) culture in Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The baguette is made up of simple products such as flour, water, salt and yeast, brought together according to a special technique guaranteed by the French Bakery Confederation, which wants to protect a know-how threatened by the industrial baguette. The dough must rest between 15 and 20 hours at a temperature between 4 and 6oC.

According to a survey by Fiducial carried out in 2019, more than 16 million baguettes are shaped every day in France and sold at an average unit price of 0.92 euros in some 32,000 bakeries.

Approached this year, the zinc roofers of Parisian roofs hope to be proposed by France for a classification of their know-how by Unesco in 2024, as expressed by their Support Committee on Wednesday.

(Report Elizabeth Pineau, edited by Blandine Hénault and Kate Entringer)



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