FROM a tattie scone to bacon and egg, we Scots are fiercely loyal to our morning roll orders. Now, one food historian wants to see the humble ritual of ordering a morning roll recognised on the world stage.
At a lively event at Inn Deep in Glasgow on Tuesday night, Scottish food historian Peter Gilchrist officially announced a campaign to have “the act of ordering a morning roll” recognised by Unesco as part of its Living Heritage project.
The Unesco project allows anyone to nominate cultural traditions they believe should be protected, and Gilchrist confirmed to The National that he will be submitting “the act of ordering a morning roll” to the 2027 intake.
“The act of ordering a morning roll is as Scottish as a ceilidh or the Highland Games,” Gilchrist told The National. “We’ve had morning rolls for more than 500 years, but we don’t talk about them with the pride they deserve.”
Mortons – the company behind the original branded crispy roll in Scotland – have came out in support of the bid, offering Gilchrist any support needed in the process.
To acquire the prestigious recognition, he is seeking what Unesco calls “community consent”.
At the end of his talk, attendees were invited to speak into a recorder, giving their name, where they’re from, and their go-to morning roll order. These testimonies, as well as others he plans to collect throughout the year, will form the basis for the “community consent” required to achieve Unesco status.
He hopes recognition from Unesco could help Scotland celebrate the food people actually eat, rather than relying on a narrower, often mythologised version of national cuisine.
“When you ask people what Scottish food is, they’ll often say Aberdeen Angus beef, haggis, whisky, or even a deep-fried Mars bar,” he said. “But those things aren’t on my plate every day. They’re not on most people’s plates every day.”
“If you ask someone in Italy what their food is, they’ll tell you what they actually eat. They’re connected to their food culture in a way that we aren’t. We’ve been removed from ours.”
Part of that disconnect, he argues, comes from Scotland’s history.
“We have a relationship with poverty in Scotland, more so than down south,” he said. “When food is fulfilling its most basic purpose, just keeping you alive, it’s very difficult to move past that and see excellence, craftsmanship, or heritage.”
Gilchrist believes the morning roll could be a vehicle to a more every-day celebration of Scottish identity.
“It can be difficult to feel Scottish in ordinary life,” he told The National. “Unless you’re waving a flag at a football match or dancing a dashing white sergeant, what can you actually do to feel Scottish?”
“But if you can order a morning roll, and realise in that moment that you’re part of a chain of 500 years of Scots doing exactly the same thing, that’s powerful.”
His go to order is bacon and tattie scone on a well-fired roll, though he says the variety of fillings and rolls is part of what makes the tradition so meaningful.
“The choices are what make it cultural,” he said. “People and their family dynamics and their family orders and their friends' orders, that's what creates that sense of identity. It’s through those choices that we tell ourselves who we are and where we're from.”
“People are desperate to share those memories,” he said. “That’s what tells me this matters.”
Ultimately, Gilchrist hopes Unesco recognition could help Scotland move beyond making itself the punchline when it comes to food.
“Scotland has often been the butt of the joke,” he said. “We make ourselves the butt of the joke, too. But if an authority like Unesco says this matters, maybe it allows us to start taking ourselves more seriously.
Gilchrist plans to spend the next year collecting community consent for the project and he told The National he wants people to become evangelists for the morning roll cause.
“Tell three people in your life about how great morning rolls are, tell them we’ve had the morning roll for 500 years, tell them it’s as good as any baguette” he said. “If even the United Nations can see the value in it, maybe it’s time we did too.”
A Mortons spokesperson said of the bid: "The team at Mortons rolls are delighted to hear the Scottish Morning Roll could potentially be recognised by Unesco.
"Mortons is the original branded Crispy roll in Scotland and we wholeheartedly support Peter Gilchrist in his quest, and of course we would be delighted to be involved in this process in needed."
