Culinary Tourism: Hidden Harvest

By JULIETTE ROSSANT What do practically all holidays have in common? Food. Everyone eats on holiday, and some people go on holiday just to eat or cook or find out about food. Culinary Tourism (Kendall/Hunt 2006) covers the growing international culinary tourism field, and calls upon those involved to tourism to focus on culinary aspects as a way of building their local businesses: As the Culinary Tourism niche matures, and as more professionals begin to understand its role within their local tourism industry, we will likely see more food and wine tour routes; more food-oriented travel guidebooks; more focus on travel in food magazines; and more itineraries that celebrate food/drink as an integral part of the travel experience." (p. 47) Breweries, distilleries, wineries as well as restaurants, farmer's markets, farms and cooking schools are all part of culinary tourism. Making experiences at these venues successful is the aim of the author, Erik Wolf, president of the International Culinary Tourism Association association. He points to successful examples in Oregon, Canada and abroad, and some not-so-successful tries (selling fresh vegetables to tourists who don't have kitchens). Super chefs and aspiring super chefs all grapple with how to keep their restaurants alluring to diners (both tourists and locals) and economically viable given the competition from chains (even chains owned by the Super Chefs themselves). What is clear from this book is that there is much more chefs and restaurateurs can do together -- rather than separately -- about marketing themselves to culinary tourists. The book itself is spiral bound and abounds in typos, a low-budget work that screams for a new publisher and expanded content. Nevertheless, it is a fine survey of the culinary globe and merits the attention of any chef whose restaurant attracts more than a local clientele. Book details: Publisher Amazon.com Barnes & Noble Previous articles: [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbooks, tourism --> back to superchefblog