Based on the methodology of social constructivism, the paper analyzes the specifics of food as an object of intangible cultural heritage. Summarizing the studies of European historians, the author characterizes the main factors in classifying artifacts of gastronomic culture as objects of intangible cultural heritage, paying particular attention to the factors of terroir, tradition, and identity preservation. From the point of view of the practice of expertise, the patrimonization of artifacts is built on the intersection of empirical historical data and the current ideological demand. The revealed regularities and problems are specified on the case of the Russian gastronomic culture. The author concludes that one of the essential problems of expert evaluation of gastronomic culture in Russia is the lack of gastronomic reflection, that is, a stable tradition of restaurant criticism and authoritative cookbooks. Another obstacle to the development of cultural heritage expertise is the coexistence of several conflicting images of the past in contemporary Russian culture.