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It also includes “traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants”,such as social practices,rituals,festive events and the knowledge and skills that produce traditional crafts.
The baguette seems such a humble thing to have acquired UNESCO status. But if you’ve ever tried to bake one,you’d have a lot of respect for it. It involves so many chemical processes,including precise temperatures and humidity,it would make Dr Frankenstein’s hair curl.
Its distinctive baton shape has an uncertain history. I prefer the story,probably apocryphal,that Napoleon I’s bakers made the bread this way to make it more easily transportable in the pockets of his soldiers’ coats. Or that the tearable loaves were created for workers on the Paris Metro to stop them bringing knives,which they’d use in fights.
The French are fiercely protective of the art of baking. The daily visit to the boulangerie for a fresh loaf is a morning ritual over there. The bread rarely makes it home intact – the French don’t like to eat on the street,but they can’t resist a few nibbles of the loaf’s end.
In 1993 they even passed a law that regulates how abaguette de tradition (traditional baguette) is created. The baguettes must be made on the premises of the boulangerie,from start to finish. They can contain only four ingredients — wheat flour,yeast,salt and water.
Don’t mention sourdough to them. French bread is made with a starter culture calledlevain,which is sweet,not sour.
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I love the idea of a bread law. Down in Australia,we are obviously careless about our food icons because we don’t think it necessary to legislate a meat pie or lamington. But I’ve heard of a pina colada lamington,so perhaps we should.
Further in line with the French love of bureaucracy,bakers in France need to be registered. The French National Confederation of Bakery has about 35,000 establishments on its register,which means roughly one bakery for 1800 inhabitants,producing more than six billion baguettes a year.
Paris has run a competition for the best baguette since 1994,with a jury made up of professionals,journalists and six Parisians chosen by lot. The winner gets the opportunity to supply the Elysee Palace for one year.
To be entered in the competition a baguette must measure between 55 and 70 centimetres,weigh from 250 to 300 grams,and have 18 grams salt per kilogram of flour. It’s that precise.
The 2023 winner of the competition is boulangere Tharshan Selvarajah,of “Levain des Pyrenees” in the 20th arrondissement,if you’re there and want to see what the fuss is for yourself.