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You would be hard pressed to find a country as fiercely proud of its food and culture as the French.
But today, they have every reason to be after its baguette was given a special UNESCO heritage status.
The bread which literally means ‘wand’ and was appropriately dubbed ‘250 grams of magic and perfection’ by Emmanuel Macron, is one of the abiding symbols of the nation.
And experts gathering in Morocco this week decided that the simple French flute – made only from flour, water, salt, and yeast – deserves UN recognition.
Baker David Buelens takes out the baguettes of an oven at a bakery, in Versailles, west of Paris, yesterday ahead of the UNESCO decision
UNESCO voted to include the ‘artisanal know-how and culture of baguette bread’ on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which already includes around 600 traditions from over 130 countries.
It does not afford any special protections to baguettes but is added to the list to ‘help demonstrate the diversity of this heritage and raise awareness about its importance’.
France decided to submit the baguette to the panel after seeing pizza from Naples be granted the special status, with Macron declaring: ‘The baguette is the envy of the whole world.’
He added: ‘Excellence and expertise must be preserved, and that is why it should be heritage-listed.’
UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay said it ‘celebrates the French way of life: the baguette is a daily ritual, a structuring element of the meal, synonymous with sharing and conviviality.
‘It is important that these skills and social habits continue to exist in the future.’
The baguette, a fluffy, elongated loaf of bread with a crunchy crust, has been a central part of the French diet for at least 100 years, although some believe it has been around for longer.
Three Paris city councillors distribute baguettes on Boulevard Diderot after a bakery was closed
The baguette, a fluffy, elongated loaf of bread with a crunchy crust, is a symbol of France around the world
The humble baguette, France’s staple bread, has made it onto the United Nation’s cultural heritage list
One legend has it that the bakers of Napoleon Bonaparte came up with the elongated shape to make it easier for his troops to carry, while another posits that it was actually an Austrian baker named August Zang who invented the baguette.
These days a baguette – which means ‘wand’ or ‘baton’ – is sold for around 1 euro.
Made only with flour, water, salt and yeast, baguette dough must rest 15 to 20 hours at a temperature between 4 and 6 degrees Celsius, according to the French Bakers Confederation, which fights to protect its market from industrial bakeries.
More than six billion are baked every year in France, according to the National Federation of French Bakeries – but the UNESCO status comes at a challenging time for the industry.
France has been losing some 400 artisanal bakeries per year since 1970, from 55,000 (one per 790 residents) to 35,000 today (one per 2,000).
A young boy buys multiple baguettes in 1949 in preparation for the general bakers’ strike in Paris
The UN agency granted ‘intangible cultural heritage status’ to the tradition of making the baguette and the lifestyle that surrounds them.
The decline is due to the spread of industrial bakeries and out-of-town supermarkets in rural areas, while urbanites increasingly opt for sourdough, and swap their ham baguettes for burgers.
Still, it remains an entirely common sight to see people with a couple of sticks under their arm, ritually chewing off the warm end as they leave the bakery, or ‘boulangerie’.
There are national competitions, during which the candidates are sliced down the middle to allow judges to evaluate the regularity of their honeycomb texture as well as the the colour of the interior, which should be cream.
But despite being a seemingly immortal fixture in French life, the baguette only officially got its name in 1920, when a new law specified its minimum weight (80 grams) and maximum length (40 centimetres).
‘Initially, the baguette was considered a luxury product. The working classes ate rustic breads that kept better,’ said Loic Bienassis, of the European Institute of Food History and Cultures, who helped prepare the UNESCO dossier.
France has been losing some 400 artisanal bakeries per year since 1970, from 55,000
Parisians buy bread on August 27, 1944, after years of living of on rations during World War II
‘Then consumption became widespread, and the countryside was won over by baguettes in the 1960s and 70s,’ he said.
Its earlier history is rather uncertain.
Some say long loaves were already common in the 18th century; others that it took the introduction of steam ovens by Austrian baker August Zang in the 1830s for its modern incarnation to take shape.
One popular tale is that Napoleon ordered bread to be made in thin sticks that could be more easily carried by soldiers.
Another links baguettes to the construction of the Paris metro in the late 19th century, and the idea that baguettes were easier to tear up and share, avoiding arguments between the workers and the need for knives.
France submitted its request to UNESCO in early 2021, with baguettes chosen over the zinc roofs of Paris and a wine festival in Arbois.
‘It is a recognition for the community of artisanal bakers and patisserie chefs,’ said Dominique Anract, president of bakeries federation in a statement.
‘The baguette is flour, water, salt and yeast – and the savoir-faire of the artisan.’