60(ish) Seconds: Gastronomical Traditions

Tell me where you travel, I will tell you how to eat responsibly.

Did you know that buying certain wines can legitimize occupation and land grabs? Or perhaps that your appetite for expensive Chilean sea bass is fueling an illegal fishing trade? Or perhaps that your beloved Italian olive oil isn’t entirely Italian?

The way we eat has consequences. As a traveller, you have not only the power to create economic opportunity, but also to preserve old-age gastronomical traditions such as the dying art of making cave-aged cheese in Turkey, or stilt-fishing in Sri Lanka or traditional soy sauce making in Japan.

Food extinction is real, and along with it, goes our human heritage. 

I teach gastronomy tourism. And I truly believe in the power of food as a tool for diplomacy and cultural preservation, beyond its use for nourishment and economic sustenance. 

Saving the world’s gastronomical traditions can happen one meal at a time. No one put it better than Brillat-Savarin when he said, “The fate of nations depends on the way they eat.”