"In these few centimeters of know-how passed from hand to hand, there is exactly the spirit of French know-how", greeted President Emmanuel Macron, baguette in hand, visiting the French Embassy in Washington this Wednesday, after the announcement of the inclusion of the most consumed bread in France in the intangible heritage of humanity by Unesco.
“We have a product that is inimitable.
Many have tried to do so.
They did an industrial thing that has no taste,” the president continued, sparking laughter in the embassy.
The baguette, now listed as an intangible heritage of humanity by Unesco, is a true emblem in the world of French daily life.
Every day, 12 million French consumers push the door of a bakery and more than six billion baguettes come out of bakeries each year.
This recognition is all the more important as its know-how is threatened in particular by industrialization and the decline in the number of their businesses, especially in rural communities.
Read alsoThe baguette, why it is inimitable
In 1970, there were some 55,000 artisan bakeries compared to 35,000 today, ie a loss of 400 bakeries per year on average for fifty years.
Constantly evolving, the “traditional” baguette is strictly governed by a 1993 decree, which aims to protect artisan bakers and at the same time imposes very strict requirements on them, such as the ban on additives.
It is also the subject of national competitions, during which the candidates are sliced in length to allow the jury to evaluate the honeycomb and the color of the crumb, “cream” in the ideal.
If the word baguette did not appear at the beginning of the 20th century, it was only between the two world wars that it became commonplace.
“Initially, the baguette was considered a luxury product, says Loïc Bienassis, of the European Institute of Food History and Cultures.
The working classes ate rustic breads that keep better.
Then consumption became widespread and the countryside was won over by the baguette in the 1960s and 70s”.
