French president wants baguettes recognized as cultural heritage of humanity
By Elena Casas
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French President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants the humble baguette to be added to UNESCO’s list of the cultural heritage of humanity.
"The baguette is envied in the whole world," Macron said last week. "We need to preserve its excellence. That’s why it needs to be classified as heritage."
Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of French Bakers, explained to CGTN just what is so special about the traditional baguette. 
"It's really an artisanal savoir-faire that's very specific, you know, it’s quality flour, water, salt and yeast, and that's all, the rest is alchemy – good products and an artisanal knowledge that’s transmitted via apprenticeships," he said, pointing out that he has four young apprentices learning the trade in his own bakery.
Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of French Bakers /CGTN Photo

Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of French Bakers /CGTN Photo

"We think this should be part of UNESCO's cultural heritage of humanity because it's very important, especially in these times of industrialization, products made in a factory that could gradually make this artisanal craft disappear," Anract added. 
The French do increasingly buy bread in supermarkets where industrially made baguettes can be a third of the price of a traditional bakery, but they lack the crunch of a traditional crust or the aroma of freshly baked bread. 
The baguette /CGTN Photo

The baguette /CGTN Photo

Anract believes supermarket bread is a disaster, not only because it uses industrial chemicals, but because its growing popularity is forcing some bakeries, especially in smaller towns, to go out of business.
"When a village loses its bakery, it becomes moribund. What you have to bear in mind is that a bakery, like the one you see here, sells bread, but it's also a link between people. People come to meet each other at the bakery, they chat, it’s part of their lives," he said. 
The baguette /CGTN Photo

The baguette /CGTN Photo

France still has 33,000 traditional bakeries – approximately one for every 200 people. But Anract fears that if more is not done to preserve the craft, fewer and fewer apprentice bakers will be trained every year, and some of that artisanal tradition will start to be lost. 
If they make their way onto the list, baguettes wouldn’t be the first culinary tradition to be so honored – Korean kimchi and Belgian beer culture are already recognized, while the Neapolitan way of making a pizza was added in December after two million people signed an online petition calling for more cultural prestige for their pizza.