Heritage comprises two elements: politics and politics. As a (socio)political process aimed at valorizing, selecting, and safeguarding certain cultural traits, heritage serves as a political instrument. Consequently, a cultural trait can be politicized, or even better, culture becomes politicized through the patrimonialization of its expressions. In this context, the patrimonialization of food on the UNESCO ICH Representative List becomes a component of political agency yielding relative benefits, such as the gastrodiplomatic advantage carried by such designations, for example. Serving as a staged site for the production of new cultural (and culinary) representations of nation-states, UNESCO initiates a complex process of state positioning through the use of its Lists. The presentation aims to demonstrate how, by patrimonializing food, states seek not only to safeguard their local particularities to counter the effects of global commercial integration and food circulation but also to regain a sense of identity and belonging. Heritage acts in this regard as an interpreter of our globalized societies, and in its booth where translation occurs, this “cultural mediator” informs us of the ongoing changes within society, as well as the underlying interests of states and organizations.