Traditional Breads from UNESCO Creative Cities

Immerse yourself in the fascinating stories, traditions, and flavors of the unique breads from UNESCO Creative Cities. Click “Discover More” to explore the Creative Knowledge Platform, the project’s heri-telling platform, where farmers, millers, and bakers share their heritage and passion through captivating images, videos, and stories.

Pão de Queijo

Pão de queijo is more than a snack in Minas Gerais; it is a cultural symbol rooted in history. Its origins date to the 16th century with cassava starch (“polvilho”) in Januária, later spreading to Paracatu and Bom Despacho. By the 18th century, as gold declined and trade grew, artisanal Minas cheese flourished.

Pastel de Molho da Covilhã

It has been widely believed that this local pastry became a part of the diet of Covilhã’s inhabitants in the 1920s. It was particularly popular among factory workers who, due to their long work hours from sunrise to sunset, had no time to prepare a full meal. It was often eaten with black tea and had the advantage of being able to be stored and consumed several days after being made.

Piedmontese Breadsticks (Grissini)

Invented in the XVII century in Turin, In the past the grissini were an answer to poverty and a good example of selling techniques: the cost of one small loaf of bread was a cent, a lot for the poor, not enough for the producer. The solution came from stretching the dough at arm’s length in order to have a new type of bread: same cost, lesser weight.

Piggy bun

It’s one of Macao’s most prominent culinary delicacies. Shaped like an oval, it alludes to the image of a piglet’s head, despite not containing any pork or other fillings. During the 1960s and 1970s, the piggy bun gained immense popularity and came in various varieties, with options for “hard” or “soft” textures, and sweet or salty flavors.

Promise Bread

Promise dough holds deep cultural and religious significance along the Santa Catarina coast. It is produced during the Divine Holy Spirit festivities, originating from a promise made by Queen Isabel de Aragão in Portugal during the 13th century. Azorean immigrants brought this tradition to Santa Catarina in the 18th century.

Redentore’s Bread

Pane di Redentore” comes from Francesco Casati’s great-grandfather who, before becoming a baker, founded the Casati bakery in the 1920s. The story tells of a braided bread prepared for the feast days that was stored by the baker to be eaten in the family: after the hard day of work, breaking this bread to distribute it to the whole table, lunch could begin.