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1 – 10 of over 2000The purpose of this paper is to explore the routine, everyday experiences and attitudes people bring to cooking and eating and aims to compare the significance of such culinary…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the routine, everyday experiences and attitudes people bring to cooking and eating and aims to compare the significance of such culinary cultures to diets in France and Britain.
Design/methodology/approach
The initial phase of this qualitative, comparative research involved in-depth interviews with 13 French and 14 British citizens who were each asked to reflect upon foods eaten in the home, preparation methods and issues surrounding dietary practices and culinary cultures. The next phase of the research asked “experts” working within the field to reflect and elaborate upon the initial findings and in total ten French and nine British “experts” were interviewed.
Findings
The results reveal how to a greater extent French respondents relied upon raw ingredients from which they more regularly prepared “traditional”, structured and commensal meal occasions. Such a food model remains a significant part of everyday life and culinary cultures in France support the consumption of a relatively healthy diet unlike in Britain.
Research limitations/implications
This is a small exploratory study based on a limited number of respondents. Further research would benefit from observing what people actually do rather than relying on what people say they do.
Practical implications
Those responsible for promoting healthier diets need to further prioritise the significance of culinary cultures to cooking practices and diet.
Originality/value
While the influence of domestic cooking practices on food intake has received some scholarly attention, this paper presents a more holistic insight into how culinary cultures can play a significant mediating role on diets more generally.
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– The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework to explain the development of sustainable culinary places and restaurant clusters.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework to explain the development of sustainable culinary places and restaurant clusters.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical approach is based on a multi-level and multi-perspective case study approach toward studying the organization and governance of clusters of culinary activities and firms.
Findings
The main part of findings is based on the comparison of two case studies of the development of restaurant clusters, representing two different forms of knowledge management and governance.
Research limitations/implications
The findings underscore the importance of local entrepreneurs, cluster organization and governance, knowledge exchange and learning and dependence on a local catchment area. The findings also show that several forms of cluster organization can coexist in the same area and support each other, adding to increased sustainability and connectedness in an urban area.
Practical implications
The findings indicate that there is a need for a more realistic approach to the development of culinary places and destinations, and not solely rely on place branding, standard marketing procedures and support from local authorities. To develop a sustainable and connected place, we need an appropriate form of organization and governance. The findings indicate that different types of restaurant clusters require different forms of governance of knowledge management processes to be effective.
Social implications
The paper directs attention to the fact that the food sector constitutes an important sector for employment of immigrants, females and part-time workers, which together constitute the largest group with regard to unemployment in many cities. The paper also shows how the evolution of a culinary culture in Oslo has contributed to solidarity within and between ethnic groups, which is sorely needed today.
Originality/value
This paper shows that sustainable, liveable and connected places can be developed without reliance on standard branding and marketing procedures, and despite opposition from the retail industry and lack of support from local authorities.
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Sandeep Munjal, Sanjay Sharma and Pallavi Menon
The paper aims to research the current understanding of Slow Food in the Indian hospitality sector and to identify how the industry can embrace the concept and its sustainability…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to research the current understanding of Slow Food in the Indian hospitality sector and to identify how the industry can embrace the concept and its sustainability. To begin, underpinnings are considered in relation to traditional, locally produced food for patrons that is actually “farm to fork” in terms of its delivery model as evidenced by backward integration in the supply of key ingredients. The economics of the backward integration is analysed to measure its impact on businesses’ bottom-line in the context of an inflationary economy.
Design/methodology/approach
Existing published literature is reviewed with reference to the “Slow Food movement” from both an international and Indian perspective. Vedatya’s approach to sustainable culinary value chain creation and its applicability for industry adoption with an intent to offer Slow Food on commercial menus is documented and discussed. A round table discussion with key food and beverage leaders is also documented and analysed to establish the current state of awareness and readiness of the sector to offer “Slow Food” through an integrated supply chain in India.
Findings
Slow Food as a concept is new to India; there is a huge shift in many parts of the world towards food that is fresh, traditional and drawn from locally available ingredients. This research shares Vedatya’s experience in developing an integrated value chain that can provide a sustainable Slow Food model for the Indian hospitality and restaurant sector to deploy with a positive impact on profitability too.
Research limitations/implications
There is need for more research to better understand the feasibility of hospitality businesses working on supply chain with backward integration, to offer “Slow Food” to consumers. While there seems to be a demand for traditional food, this paper does not research that aspect; further research is required to ascertain the potential demand for Slow Food in India.
Practical implications
The popularity of Slow Food is global; however, the Indian hospitality sector is yet to warm up to this potential. The customer focus on healthy, traditional, fresh food opens an opportunity to innovate, and businesses that build capacity to offer real farm-to-fork menus can become market leaders and will reap bottom-line benefits through lower input costs because of supply chain integration.
Originality/value
This paper is unique in terms of offering a discussion on the potential of Slow Food as the next realm of culinary innovation in India. It also adds value by sharing the Vedatya experience in terms of developing an integrated supply chain that facilitates the Slow Food offering in a farm-to-fork format. The model can be emulated by commercial hospitality businesses resulting in cost advantages and higher satisfaction levels of customers.
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Allegra Clare Schermuly and Helen Forbes-Mewett
Culturally familiar food is of great importance to migrants. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of food in the lives of South African migrants to Australia. How food…
Abstract
Purpose
Culturally familiar food is of great importance to migrants. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of food in the lives of South African migrants to Australia. How food impacts on notions of identity and belonging for immigrants is framed and discussed within the context of nostalgia, sharing and Bourdieu’s “habitus”.
Design/methodology/approach
Through mixed qualitative methods, including participatory research, document analysis and in-depth interviews, this study examines the everyday experiences of South African-Australians. The study employs an interpretivist approach that aims for greater understanding of the subject through the perspectives of the research participants.
Findings
Culinary rituals and traditions feature large in personal narratives of adjustment that reveal the important role of food in contributing to identity translation in a destination society and, ultimately, the attainment of belonging for migrants.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides a “snapshot” of a topic that would benefit from further exploration.
Practical implications
The importance for migrants to have access to cultural traditions surrounding food is acknowledged in the contemporary world where increasingly mobile populations need to maintain a sense of identity and feel a sense of belonging while integrating into host societies.
Social implications
Traditional cuisines are an integral part of the mechanisms by which migrants can better integrate leading to overall greater social cohesion.
Originality/value
The study contributes a new dimension to the body of literature pertaining to food access and security for culturally diverse groups in multicultural societies.
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The purpose of this paper is to illuminate aspects of the relationship between food and culture with particular emphasis on globalisation and its consequences, the ways in which…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illuminate aspects of the relationship between food and culture with particular emphasis on globalisation and its consequences, the ways in which food can represent people and places, and interest if food heritage. Issues are discussed within the context of Singapore.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study methodology is employed using published information from assorted sources, both online and in conventional print form, supplemented by personal observation.
Findings
A country's food culture is found to be influenced by globalising forces, yet these do not always overwhelm local distinctions and the international and domestic can co-exist and coalesce. Food is also shown to be a critical dimension of ethnic and national identity and to have a heritage worthy of protection. In addition, it is a tourist attraction which affords insights into destination culture. Defining a national cuisine, however, is complicated in multiracial societies and origins and ownership of so-called national dishes may be disputed.
Practical implications
Enhanced knowledge about the wider role of food in established and emerging Asian economies and societies can improve understanding of its significance for residents and tourists, helping in formulating strategies to meet needs.
Originality/value
New insights are offered into the meanings of food in relatively young countries of mixed races and how cuisines evolve and interact.
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Alessandro Gambetti and Qiwei Han
The purpose of this paper is to explore and examine discrepancies of food aesthetics portrayed on social media across different types of restaurants using a large-scale data set…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and examine discrepancies of food aesthetics portrayed on social media across different types of restaurants using a large-scale data set of food images.
Design/methodology/approach
A neural food aesthetic assessment model using computer vision and deep learning techniques is proposed, applied and evaluated on the food images data set. In addition, a set of photographic attributes drawn from food services and cognitive science research, including color, composition and figure–ground relationship attributes is implemented and compared with aesthetic scores for each food image.
Findings
This study finds that restaurants with different rating levels, cuisine types and chain status have different aesthetic scores. Moreover, the authors study the difference in the aesthetic scores between two groups of image posters: customers and restaurant owners, showing that the latter group tends to post more aesthetically appealing food images about the restaurant on social media than the former.
Practical implications
Restaurant owners may consider performing more proactive social media marketing strategies by posting high-quality food images. Likewise, social media platforms should incentivize their users to share high-quality food images.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this paper is to provide a novel methodological framework to assess the aesthetics of food images. Instead of relying on a multitude of standard attributes stemming from food photography, this method yields a unique one-take-all score, which is more straightforward to understand and more accessible to correlate with other target variables.
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This paper aims to describe the way participants in the hobby of gourmet cooking in the USA manage culinary information in their homes.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the way participants in the hobby of gourmet cooking in the USA manage culinary information in their homes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilizes domain analysis and serious leisure as a conceptual framework and employs an ethnographic approach. In total 20 gourmet cooks in the USA were interviewed at home and then their culinary information collections were documented through a guided tour and photographic inventory. The resulting ethnographic record was analyzed using grounded theory and NVivo software.
Findings
The findings introduce the personal culinary library (PCL): a constellation of cooking‐related information resources and information structures in the home of the gourmet cook, and an associated set of upkeep activities that increase with the collection's size. PCLs are shown to vary in content, scale, distribution in space, and their role in the hobby. The personal libraries are characterized as small, medium or large and case studies of each extreme are presented. Larger PCLs are cast as a bibliographic pyramid distributed throughout the home in the form of a mother lode, zone, recipe collection, and binder.
Practical implications
Insights are provided into three areas: scientific ethnography as a methodology; a theory of documents in the hobby; and the changing role of information professionals given the increasing prevalence of home‐based information collections.
Originality/value
This project provides an original conceptual framework and research method for the study of information in personal spaces such as the home, and describes information phenomena in a popular, serious leisure, hobby setting.
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Vaishali Kaushal and Rajan Yadav
This paper attempts to identify emerging themes that focus on customer experience of culinary tourism of international tourists who opted for food tours in Delhi.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper attempts to identify emerging themes that focus on customer experience of culinary tourism of international tourists who opted for food tours in Delhi.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a multi-method approach for data collection. A thorough review of literature was conducted followed by gaining insights from the industry experts for the themes and a tentative thematic table was established. Thereafter, secondary data comprising 1,744 customer reviews from world’s leading travel website – Tripadvisor.com was analysed using thematic analysis. Customer’s real-time feedback and industry insights were paired together to gather meaningful and practical insights on customer experiences of food tours in Delhi.
Findings
Culinary tourism of Delhi is facing challenge in the areas of infrastructure, hygiene and certain preconceived notions related to brand perception of Indian cuisines. The findings of the study allude that the food tour agencies must be professional with all certifications and attention must be paid to location of food tastings, as it become the representation of Indian food worldwide. The findings also indicate customization is the key to positive customer experience, thereby requiring culinary professionals to understand the customer choices and personalize the food tours accordingly. Online reputation management is another key area requiring attention as electronic word of mouth plays a major role in the hospitality industry.
Research limitations/implications
Although this study corroborates valuable academic findings and practical insights, it has few limitations that can be further investigated in the future. A quantitative study can be conducted to provide deeper insights into the factors of a culinary tour resulting in positive customer experience. Secondly, this study focuses on customer experience of food tours which is one of the forms of Culinary tourism, another elaborate study can be conducted incorporating other methods of culinary tourism such as cooking classes, food festivals, events etc. and delving into insights of customer experience and challenges in those practices.
Practical implications
Themes ascertained in this research paper provide deeper and worthy insights to all the stakeholders which would help them use their tourism resources in best optimal manner. Findings of the study would be valuable to culinary organizations, tourism department and other researchers working in the area of culinary tourism. Also, this study can be quite valuable for the academic researchers. Suggestions of the study will help the government, culinary organizations and other stakeholders to enhance culinary tourist experiences of Delhi.
Originality/value
The study is original and highly appropriate to all the stakeholders to formulate suitable strategic framework to improve customer experience in the field of culinary tourism. Using real customer experiences as data and choosing thematic analysis as a method of analysis further enhance the worth of study by opening the area for further exploration.
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Yvonne Irene Wood, Arno Sturny, Lindsay Neill, Alan Brown and Renny Aprea
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the New Zealand Junior Pastry Team negotiated the rigours of international competition at the 2013 Junior Pastry World Cup in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the New Zealand Junior Pastry Team negotiated the rigours of international competition at the 2013 Junior Pastry World Cup in Rimini, Italy and how what was learnt from this experience holds relevance to creative hospitality practice and business application.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses an inductive qualitative enquiry to illuminate the narratives and subjective experiences of the competition team. Structured and semi-structured interview data responses were themed using an open coding system. This data were critically evaluated against both competition data, participant experience and relevant academic literature.
Findings
This paper shows how the team’s desire to highlight its national identity through food in the competition resulted in problematic experiences that were compounded by a tyranny of distance. However, these challenges were overcome through the creative dynamic the team developed and the networking benefits which the competition provided. These experiences added value not only to the team competitors but also the culinary and pastry practitioners in New Zealand’s hospitality community.
Originality/value
The research offers unique insights into how a representative pastry team from the “New World” negotiated international competition set in and heavily influenced by the “Old World” of culinary tradition. The paper’s findings could be of use to other novice competition teams. The work also links the importance of international culinary competition to wider constructs of hospitality, such as business advantage in commercial hospitality.
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Girish Prayag, Martin Joseph Gannon, Birgit Muskat and Babak Taheri
Recognising tourists’ increasing desire for authentic destination-specific experiences, the hospitality industry has responded by increasing provision of innovative culinary…
Abstract
Purpose
Recognising tourists’ increasing desire for authentic destination-specific experiences, the hospitality industry has responded by increasing provision of innovative culinary activities. This study aims to use the concepts of serious leisure and terroir to examine how knowledge, physical environment and service quality influence co-creation within the culinary tourism context.
Design/methodology/approach
Following cooking class participation, 575 domestic Iranian tourists were surveyed. These educational classes provide opportunities to learn about local foods alongside peers in an interactive setting. Consistent with the benefits of serious leisure, this consumption context could prove conducive to stimulating co-creation.
Findings
Prior knowledge strongly influences tourists’ reflective and recreational motives for participation (i.e. the benefits of serious leisure). This shapes how tourists evaluate physical environments and service quality therein; influencing value co-creation and supporting serious leisure as the conceptual lens through which to understand experiential culinary consumption.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed conceptual model was tested on domestic tourists following class participation. However, in suggesting that visually-stimulating, tactile premises with the olfactory appeal can encourage co-created experiences, the findings are relevant to service touch-point management more generally.
Originality/value
Recognizing the influential role played by the physical and social aspects of experiential consumption, the serious leisure framework improves an extant understanding of value co-creation.
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