The baguette, with its crispy crust and soft crumb, emblem in the world of French daily life, was listed on Wednesday as an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO.
More precisely, it is the craftsmanship and the culture of the baguette that have been distinguished by the organization, which above all honors the traditions to be safeguarded more than the products themselves.
Every day, 12 million French consumers push the door of a bakery and more than six billion baguettes come out of bakeries each year. Going to buy bread is thus a real social and friendly habit that punctuates their lives.
“This is recognition for the community of artisan bakers and pastry chefs. (…) The baguette is flour, water, salt, yeast and the know-how of the craftsman”, welcomed Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of the French bakery in a press release.
Immortalized by films and advertisements, it is however a relatively recent product, appearing at the beginning of the 20th century in Paris.
The choice to present the candidacy of the baguette had been made in 2021 by France, which had preferred it to the zinc roofs of Paris and a Jura wine festival.
This recognition is particularly important given the threats to this know-how, such as industrialization and the decline in the number of their businesses, especially in rural communities. In 1970, there were some 55,000 artisanal bakeries (one bakery for 790 inhabitants) compared to 35,000 today (one for 2,000 inhabitants), ie a disappearance of 400 bakeries per year on average for fifty years.
President Emmanuel Macron had lent his support to the dossier, describing the baguette as “250 grams of magic and perfection”.