Summary
19 November 2010
The French dining ritual has been added to Unesco's list of 'intangible heritage of humanity'. The list of 213 cultural traditions from around the world also includes Chinese acupuncture, the Peking Opera and Colombian music.
Reporter:
Christian Fraser
French dining has been recognised by Unesco
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France's submission, which sits alongside Croatian gingerbread and the Azerbaijani carpet, centres mostly around the ritual itself - how wines are paired with dishes, how the table is dressed, the precise placing of glasses for water and wine, knife blade pointing in, fork curved towards the dish, all time-honoured rituals.
One jury member said there was no major reason why France should be rejected, not even President Sarkozy's untimely assertion that when it comes to cooking the French are the best in the world, a statement that enraged the Italians and Spaniards with whom Greece and Mexico are bidding jointly for the honour of Mediterranean diet.
There are no specific French dishes or ingredients in this entry. It centres largely on the fact the French have a tendency to talk endlessly about their food.
Christian Fraser, BBC News, Paris
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Vocabulary
- submission
application or entry to a competition
- centres mostly around
is mainly focussed on
- paired with
matched or grouped together with
- dressed
decorated
- time-honoured rituals
well-established traditions or ways of doing things
- untimely
inappropriate or unfortunate in its timing
- enraged
angered or infuriated
- bidding
requesting or applying (for something)
- have a tendency to
are inclined to
- endlessly
at great length or continually
