The intangible allure of 'baguettiquette'

Last year, Il-Ftira, the ‘culinary art and culture of flattened sourdough bread’ from Malta, and the ‘knowledge, knowhow and practices pertaining to production and consumption of couscous’ from Algeria made it to the Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Given this precedent, it is just as well that France is making some moves to preserve that quintessential crusty symbol of its nationhood, the baguette, even if it has some competition from Parisian rooftop artisans and a wine festival in Arbois to become the country’s candidate for 2022’s nominees. After all, it is no ordinary bread and definitely has claims to ‘culinary art and culture’, not to mention ‘practices pertaining to production and consumption’ — baguettiquete, if you will.

Besides, even if there is no immediate danger of the French abandoning their sacrosanct daily bread routine in favour of a bagel, pita, pretzel or a doughnut, there are concerns about how long baguettes will remain identifiably French — or even a bread — for the rest of the world. After all, not only is there an iconic handbag of the same name (created by an Italian brand owned a French luxury conglomerate), but a South Korean baking behemoth has a brand called Paris Baguette — a subsidiary of Paris Croissant — with thousands of outlets round the world, including in US and China.