Pavel Latushka proposed adding draniki to the UNESCO cultural heritage list when he was Belarus’ permanent representative to the organization, but the idea was not supported at the time. He spoke about this on the program “Peretryom s Khalezinym” last autumn. Today, however, the government press service said the Ministry of Culture will submit a proposal to UNESCO by the end of March to include dishes made from grated potatoes in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
“I remember that when I was Belarus’ permanent representative to UNESCO, I wrote a letter to the Ministry of Culture with the idea: let’s include our national dish, draniki, in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage,” Latushka said.
According to him, the list already included the French baguette and Italian pizza.
“So why are we Belarusians any worse? And what do you think? I received a reply from Yatsko, there was such a deputy minister of culture who came from the State Control Committee, and he answered me. You know, it took them a very long time to respond. In fact, they said that draniki do not belong only to Belarusians, they also belong to Germans, Swedes, Lithuanians and Poles. We do not consider it appropriate,” Latushka recalled.
He said he was outraged and even considered sending the letter to Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
“To be honest, forgive me viewers, I thought: what if I pass this letter to Lukashenka? How would he evaluate the fact that a deputy minister of culture sits and says that draniki are actually not ours. But, by the way, there is an interesting formula: when you propose something for the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage, experts can call any Belarusian family and ask: are draniki present in your cuisine? Let viewers answer and like this. If draniki regularly appear in your kitchen, UNESCO may call and ask: do you cook draniki? How often do you cook them? What recipes do you use? If this is confirmed, then it is indeed a national dish,” Latushka explained.