Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan announced the launch of a large-scale project on October 31 to document and preserve the country’s traditional culinary recipes as part of its intangible cultural heritage.
“We are gravely mistaken if we think we are not losing intangible values every day. With the passing of our grandparents, may they rest in peace, intangible heritage disappears if it hasn’t been properly documented,” Pashinyan stated during the government meeting.
Following regional visits, the government concluded that Armenia’s national cuisine is a crucial part of the country’s intangible heritage, a sentiment echoed in Armenia’s National Security Strategy.
The Prime Minister introduced a new grant or competition-based program through which specialists will visit various communities to document unique local dishes. The project aims to go beyond archiving by partnering with food industry enterprises to incorporate traditional dishes into their menus, boosting gastronomic tourism.
In addition, the government plans to publish recipe catalogs and further develop existing online resources that not only provide recipes for national dishes but also showcase photos of the preparation process and the finished dishes.
