Hungary is expected to submit a request to have chimney cake be designated a traditional speciality product within the European Union at the end of the first quarter of next year, the Ministry of Agriculture’s Deputy State Secretary for Origin Protection announced at a press conference in Budapest on Monday.
Péter Gál told the press that negotiations are already underway between professional organisations in Hungary and Transylvania, the aim of which is to enable the application concerning the Hungarian-Sekler pastry to be prepared as soon as possible and with the widest possible professional consensus, so that Hungary can forward it to the European Commission at the earliest opportunity.
The point of the traditional speciality product designation is that it protects a recipe that has existed within the given society for a long time and according to which people make the given product. In addition, we are talking about a living tradition that also adapts changes in technology, he added.
Mr. Gál emphasised that the goal of the Ministry is to find and protect Hungarian treasures and values, in the interests of which Hungary also applies the tools provided by the EU. With relation to this, one of the country’s goals is to increase the number of Hungarian products with geographical indications, as well as the number of products that are related to Hungary via a traditional speciality product designation. There can be no doubt that the chimney cake is suitable for receiving protection as a traditional speciality product, the Deputy State Secretary said.
Minister of State for Environmental Affairs, Agricultural Development and Hungaricums Zsolt V. Németh pointed out that the Hungaricum Committee had decided to make chimney cake the 55th official Hungaricum on 3 December, but if Hungary wishes to place the chimney cake under protection within the EU, it also needs to have the European Union recognise the product within its origin protection system.
Chairman of Kovászna County Council (Romania) Sándor Tamás stressed that “we love chimney cake because it is ours”. The Romanians also call the pastry by the same name, and it is also well known in the United Kingdom and France. The dessert has been traditionally popular within the Carpathian Basin for centuries, and many bake chimney cakes to supplement their income or as their primary source of revenue. More than a thousand people bake chimney cakes professionally around the world every day. The chimney cake has also been put forward to be included in the Transylvanian Hungarian Value Depository, he added.
In reply to a question form Hungarian news agency MTI, International Chimney Cake Council representative Zoltán Albert explained that everybody is free to use the recipe for chimney cake and this is precisely what the traditional specialist product protected designation provides for, because chimney cake isn’t a trademark. What it means is that anyone who bakes chimney cake according to the prescribed recipe can call the product chimney cake.