Ukraine has submitted an official application for the inclusion of borscht in the UNESCO list of cultural heritage

Borscht, a world-famous beetroot-based soup, may soon be officially recognized as a cultural heritage of Ukraine. This is stated in a press release from Evgeniy Klopotenko.

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On March 30, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine added borscht to the UNESCO list of cultural heritage.

“This is an important procedural step, which is the beginning of the formal promotion of borscht as an intangible cultural heritage of Ukraine,” said Emine Ceppar, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

Ukrainian chef Yevgeny Klopotenko, who initiated the process of recognizing borscht as Ukrainian cultural heritage, said that the idea came to him when he learned that in Russia borscht is called Russian soup.

“They took a lot of things from Ukraine, but they won’t take our borscht,” Klopotenko said.

Traditional Ukrainian beet soup has dozens of recipe variations, as it is prepared all over the country. The classic one consists of such basic ingredients as beets, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes and meat (mostly pork, less often beef).

On the subject: In the USA, Ukrainian borscht was recognized as one of the best first courses on the planet

But for Ukrainians, borscht is more than just a dish. Borscht is part of Ukrainian identity and national value, an influential cultural phenomenon and the answer to the question “What unites Ukrainians?”

To prove this, Eugene created a public organization. The group painstakingly collected evidence for months. The Ukrainian supplement includes 700 pages of evidence that borscht originated in Ukraine, is closely related to Ukrainian culture as part of wedding and funeral traditions, and is widely consumed.

“During my “borscht expedition” I made a truly remarkable discovery. There is no canonical recipe for borscht, just like regional borscht. However, there are as many recipes for this dish as there are families living here. These recipes vary from region to region, from family to family, from house to house, from apartment to apartment. Of course, borscht is in our DNA,” Klopotenko concluded.

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The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expects that UNESCO will approve this decision in two years. By that time, Yevgeny Klopotenko is going to promote borscht not only in Ukraine, but all over the world.

“In the next two years, our task is to demonstrate that borscht is truly valuable for Ukraine. We should organize a borscht festival, rename the streets and name them after borscht, introduce an official borscht day, and so on,” the chef explained.

The UNESCO list already includes the Ukrainian Petrikovskaya decorative painting, the traditions of Kosovo ceramics painting and Cossack songs of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• The "borscht war" began in 2019, when a Russian government Twitter account wrote that borscht is "one of the most famous and beloved dishes and symbols of traditional Russian cuisine."
• The statement sparked outrage on social media. Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine wants to obtain UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status for a dish.
• He added fuel to the fire with the Michelin restaurant guide, which this year begins to evaluate Moscow restaurants. In the company's press release mentioned borscht and called it a Russian dish... The Ukrainian Embassy in France reported that Michelin apologized for this publication.

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