Editorial: Foodways as Intangible Cultural Heritage

When I read the definition of Intangible Cultural Heritage I thought, this was written for French gastronomy!" These were the words used by the director of the European Institute for the History and Cultures of Food, the main promoter of what would later be called the "Gastronomic meal of the French," to enthusiastically explain the idea of preparing a nomination to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity during the first "Meeting of Experts," charged with "defining the intellectual and scientific content of the file." 1 This reaction also more generally reflects how foodways are perceived by social actors as part and parcel of what, following the language introduced by the United Nations, we globally call intangible cultural heritage (ICH).