Word: unesco
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...note with regret that even United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) committee president Cherif Khaznadar hasn’t given this proposal serious consideration: “There is no category at UNESCO for gastronomy,” he said over the summer at “Gastronomy by the Seine,” an international culinary conference in Paris...
...seriousness, what’s so funny about France’s request to recognize its cuisine as a world treasure? Why does the idea of an organization whose mission is to convince UNESCO that French cuisine deserves a title seem borderline preposterous? Why did last week’s French Mission for Food Heritage and Cultures’ strategizing session seem to lack any grip on reality? Elaine Sciolino, a New York Times reporter covering the event, wrote, “By the time the roasted figs, the wine-macerated prunes, the chocolate mousse and the Earl Grey sorbet...
Unless copious usage of butter can be considered a human rights violation, French cuisine fits each of these categories perfectly. On what grounds, then, could UNESCO shoot down the French proposal? Khaznadar’s dismissal seems trivial; given this definition of the ICH, gastronomy should, by all means, be eligible for consideration. Is the committee simply unwilling to accept the consequences of their definition of the ICH? Or is there a problem with the definition itself, if it allows gastronomy to slip into...
Regardless of the wording of the proposal, though, it seems very unlikely that UNESCO will name French cuisine the first world gastronomic treasure. Given its history of turning down culinary proposals (Mexico’s similar request three years ago was shot down before it even reached committee) and Khaznadar’s reluctance, UNESCO is unlikely to reverse course...
...what should be done in the future if a proposal to, say, preserve the African Civet-roasting techniques of people deep in the forests of Zanzibar reaches committee? UNESCO would be wrong to shoot the proposal down purely because it’s related to gastronomy. Sure, the French can be stubborn and will never be accused of cultural humility, but that doesn’t mean they’re not onto something. We should take this opportunity, outlandish though it may seem, to reconsider our definition of the ICH and to work gastronomy into that definition. We have...