Name: Pretzels.
Age: More than 1,000 years old. One account suggests pretzels were invented in AD610 by an Italian monk as a reward for children learning their prayers, with the folded bits representing praying arms.
Appearance: Soft, brown and twisty.
Yum, soft pretzels, the quintessential New York snack. A street cart, a smear of mustard … Let me stop you there. Whether they have the thin, crispy arms of the Württembergish variation, or the rustic split top of the Bavarian, pretzels are European, and we’re here to talk about Germany’s bid for Unesco to grant them “intangible cultural heritage” status. Cem Özdemir, the German farming minister, recently declared his support for a campaign orchestrated by the (thin and crispy) Bakers’ Guild of Baden-Württemberg. He did some pretty nifty pretzel folding, too.
Imagine working for Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage inspectorate: it must be the dream job. Assessing the merits of Korean tightrope walking, French gastronomic meals and the Mongolian camel coaxing ritual does sound incredible. But the actual meetings – which you can watch on video – seem soul-witheringly dry and bureaucratic.
Disappointing. What other foods have made the cut? Neapolitan pizza, north African couscous, Maltese flattened sourdough and Croatian decorated ginger biscuits are all on the list.
No fans of the keto diet at Unesco, huh? There is probably something fascinating to be written on why so many foods with cultural resonance are high-carb, but this is Pass Notes, so let’s move on.
What about the UK? I guess the West Country lardy cake, Scottish tattie scone and yorkshire pudding must be on the list? No British foods or food cultures have intangible cultural heritage status.
What? A “hopping procession” in Luxembourg makes the cut but the grand British fish and chips ritual (cod or haddock, salt and vinegaring, watching five Deliveroo riders get served before you) doesn’t? If it softens the blow, Belgium’s attempts to have its chip-stand culture added to the list have, to date, come to nothing.
So what’s the next step for the pretzel? The Unesco commission meets annually to assess whether nominations meet its three criteria: “recognition, identity and continuity”.
Surely it’s a shoo-in? Maybe. A sort of sweet pretzel, krakelingen, and the “pretzel toss”, where one lucky catcher wins a golden pretzel, are already on the list as part of the “end-of-winter bread and fire feast” in the Belgian town of Geraardsbergen.
Pretzels at dawn! Now that might get Unesco interested.
Do say: “I refer the committee to agenda sub-item 8.b: the rapporteur’s conclusions on the cultural significance of salt crystal distribution.”
Don’t say: “Do you have a gluten-free, low-sodium, zero-carb version?”
