They ate and drank their way through a three-hour strategy session recently to help their country face the daunting task before it: to persuade the United Nations to declare French gastronomy a world treasure. The designation gives global promotion and protection to the finest cultural expressions around the world.

So by the time the roasted figs, the wine-macerated prunes, the chocolate mousse and the Earl Grey sorbet arrived in the private dining room of Guy Savoy, a chef with three Michelin stars, the men were in deep discussion about the magic of their country's cuisine.

"It's everything," Savoy said. "France is the only country in the world with such diversity." He has compiled an informal list of regional delicacies that he thinks should be saved, including the textured andouille sausage of Vire, the smoked garlic of Arleux, the dense brioche of St Genis and a minty sweet called "betise" from Cambrai.

Jean-Claude Ribaut, food critic for Le Monde, said: "It's the art of the sauce. A carcass and some vegetables boiled in water for six hours, then strained and reduced for another three, to make all sorts of stocks. Focus on the basics."

Meanwhile, food historian and chairman of the group Jean-Robert Pitte sampled the rice pudding with Tahitian vanilla and turned nostalgic. "It's vanilla," he said. "It's Grandma. It's Gauguin."

They do not talk openly of their enemies – the foreign chefs such as Ferran Adria of Spain who have challenged the pre-eminence of French cuisine, the fast-food chains that have infiltrated the country.

But with the French economy struggling and the cachet of French food and cooking diminishing even in France, this long shot initiative is an effort to capitalise on what has long been a great source of national pride.

It was unveiled by president Nicolas Sarkozy at France's annual Agricultural Fair last February, in an offhand announcement that took his ministers by surprise.

He said he wanted France to be the first country in the world whose gastronomy would be formally recognised by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

Sarkozy is by no means a food connoisseur, and even his close confidants confess that he doesn't much enjoy eating. A teetotaller, he often fakes his way through toasts.

But he has been a relentless booster of France and, for him, the initiative seems to be less about taste and more about the creation of new jobs at home and the projection of power abroad.

"Agriculture and the jobs that produce it every day are the source of our country's gastronomic diversity," he said. "It is an essential element of our heritage. We have the best gastronomy in the world."

In 2003, Unesco, which is based in Paris, adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage to preserve "oral traditions and expressions" and "performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events; knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; traditional craftsmanship".

Today, Unesco recognises such cultural manifestations as the storytelling of Kyrgyzstan, the sand designs of Vanuatu, the Ugandan craft of making bark cloth, the folk singing known as iso-polyphony in Albania and ox-herding in Costa Rica.

"It is not a matter of saying a 'masterpiece is in danger,' or of mummifying our culinary arts," said Catherine Dumas, the head of the Senate committee in charge of the initiative.

"We have to show that eating well and appreciating good food is part of the French identity."

She said that while France wants to be first on the list, others could certainly follow. "We are only the pioneers," she said. "Our move is a humble one."