UNESCO and French Cuisine

by Domenica Di Piazza, Editorial Director, TFCB

With a background in French language and literature, I like to follow Things French. Recently, France applied to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for inclusion of French cuisine as a cultural practice and expression of intangible heritage on UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage Lists (basically a non-material equivalent to the UNESCO World Heritage List and its magnificent World Heritage sites).

And don’t laugh. Every year, UNESCO gets many, many applications from around the world to be part of the IHL. This year, France’s application was among 47 that were accepted and added to the UNESCO list of intangible cultural treasures.

As it turns out, Olivier Chamussy, the husband of my cooking friend in Paris, made the video to accompany the application. Below is his video (French version first, followed by the English version). For those French teachers out there reading this blog, treat your students to a screening of the video (and to Olivier’s other French-language videos via the live link above).

The IHL video is short (10 minutes) and offers a nice opportunity to practice French-language comprehension and to get a small window into the French respect and love for good eating and dining. Bon appetit!