Sunday, March 1, 2009

French gastronomy

"So around a half-dozen French chefs and culinary experts from the ad hoc “French Mission for Food Heritage and Cultures” are preparing for war with weapons they know best. They ate and drank their way through a three-hour strategy session recently to help their country face the daunting task before it: to persuade the United Nations to declare French gastronomy a world treasure.....Today, Unesco recognizes such cultural manifestations as the storytelling of Kyrgyzstan, the sand designs of Vanuatu, the Ugandan craft of making bark cloth, the folk singing known as iso-polyphony in Albania and ox-herding in Costa Rica.
In June, Spain revived its own initiative to win recognition of the health-conscious Mediterranean diet, based on olive oil, fish, grains, fruit, nuts and vegetables; Italy, Greece and Morocco swiftly joined the campaign. In Italy, Coldiretti, the Italian farmers’ association, even argued that Italy’s food heritage is superior to that of France, since the European Union recognizes 166 food specialties from Italy, but only 156 from France..."

No comments: