Heritage on a plate

Bian notes that there are already 50 food-related intangible cultural heritage items recognized on the national level, more than 300 on the provincial level and many more at city and county levels.

In October 2003, UNESCO passed a convention to safeguard intangible cultural heritages. Meanwhile, China issued instructions to protect them nationally. Since then, food-related cultural heritage has been one of the most active categories in application.

Two dishes currently seeking recognition at the national level are reganmian, hot dry noodles, a snack food in Wuhan, Hubei province, and Chongqing's hotpot.

"Reganmian is an important part of Wuhan local breakfast. It is what Wuhan people grow up eating," says Liu Wuhan, executive chef with Xiang'Eqing's Dinghuisi branch in Beijing.

Reganmian noodles contain sodium carbonate. They offer a special taste because they are dried and then boiled, and served with fragrant sesame oil and sesame paste. Xiang'Eqing, a restaurant specializing in Hubei and Hunan cuisines, sells more than 200 bowls of the noodles a day during their busy periods.

"Local Wuhan people will miss the taste of reganmian if they don't eat it for two days. It is an eating habit passed down for several generations," says Lu Yongliang, Hubei cuisine master chef. "But people in other areas are likely to find the noodles a bit dry."

Lu says if reganmian succeeds in its bid for national recognition, it could spread throughout the country. The effort of the local government to protect regional culture will help the noodle-making technique pass down to the next generation.

Bian is also a judge on a board to decide which items can make it into a national intangible cultural heritage list. He says a successful applicant must be a technique or custom with a long historical and traditional background, at least 50 years old. Then it must have inheritors, so that the technique or custom can be protected.

Reganmian and Chongqing hotpot are part of the fourth round of applications for national recognition, a process that begins every two years. Among the first three groups of successful applications there are 50 food-related ones.

Many of these are nationally famous baijiu (clear liquor) brewing, such as Moutai and Wuliangye, and tea-making techniques, including green tea, black tea, oolong and Pu'er. Peking roast duck skills, like those of Quanjude and Bianyifang restaurants, are on the list. Luoyang's "water banquet" preparation, Sichuan Fuling's zhacai, and Confucius family cuisine preparation are all listed as national intangible cultural heritage.

In China, an application has to achieve county, city and provincial recognition before getting to the national level.

Bian is convinced that intangible cultural heritage status will help raise the international image of Chinese cuisine, and promote the development of the Chinese food industry. It will help Chinese restaurants to develop overseas.

He says his association has done a lot of work in this aspect. But more remains to be done.

"In order to make the application successful, we need more financial support," he says. "On the other hand, a successful application has to be launched from the national level, as France and South Korea have done. Hopefully we can make a breakthrough with our application in 2015."