Gastronomy and Local Development

The Quality of Products, Places and Experiences

Nicola Bellini, Cécile Clergeau, Olivier Etcheverria, Nicola Bellini, Cécile Clergeau, Olivier Etcheverria

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351743938
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Gastronomy, particularly gourmet tourism, is widely acknowledged as having a powerful impact on local development. Public policies have developed in response to research, highlighting gastronomy as key in a successful tourism economy.

However, research thus far has not fully explored the underlying mechanisms of gastronomic tourism, in particular the marketing and perception of quality, on economic development. This book considers how the quality of products, places, and experiences contributes to the desirability and competitiveness of gourmet touristic destinations. The contributors present theoretical and empirical studies to create an original conceptual framework for regional development based on the quality of products, of places, and of touristic experience. It also examines the ways in which quality is linked to identity, diversity, innovation, and creativity.

With an interdisciplinary approach, this book will be of interest to researchers in tourism and hospitality, regional studies, and human geography, as well as to tourism development professionals and policymakers in the areas of rural and local development.

1 Introduction

Nicola Bellini, Cécile Clergeau, and Olivier Etcheverria

Browsing through our various national dictionaries, gastronomy is defined as “the practice or art of choosing, cooking, and eating good food” (Oxford), “the art or science of good eating” (Webster’s), “the set of rules and customs concerning the preparation of food; the art of cooking” (Il Devoto–Oli: our translation), and “the knowledge of everything related to cooking, the organisation of meals, the art of tasting and enjoying dishes” (Larousse: our translation). Looking back at the Greek origin of the word, gastronomy communicates the appropriateness of giving rules (nomos) to our feeding needs. Even more interestingly, the first appearance of this word in the works of authors such as Archestratus and Atheneus establishes a clear link between gastronomy and lifestyle dimensions, such as philosophy, luxury, and travel (Davidson and Jaine, 2014). Talking about gastronomy is thus not the same as talking about food or even local food as the mere (and conservative) search for some authenticity rooted in history. “Gastronomy adds a search for quality, expression of taste and pleasure in eating” (Vitaux, 2007: our translation).

Gastronomy is neither “good” nor “haute” cuisine. It is the setting in order (nomos) of eating and drinking, thus transformed into the “art de la table”. In this last expression, ambiguity is deliberately maintained between the two meanings, old or modern, of the word “art”: the interests of the cook and the gourmet are united here and, if the former is promoted artist, the latter sees his function elevated to the rank of art critic.

(Ory, 1993: our translation)

Gastronomy is enacted by artisans and artists, producers, chefs, and eaters whose discourses participate in the dynamics of traditions, cultures, and imaginaries. In this book, we propose our own definition of gastronomy as, “A system of discourses and imaginaries constructed upon agricultural food products and their culinary transformations, upon relations to the table, and upon the cultures of the food put into the mouth.” As such, it is a powerful identity marker and definitively contributes to shaping a heritage, developing tourism (Bessières, 1998), attracting tourists with greater resources (Etcheverria, 2014a; Pérez Gálvez et al., 2017), and influencing the way tourists experience a destination (Kivela and Crotts, 2006; Etcheverria, 2014b). And finally, it is a growing component of tourism destination attractiveness (Etcheverria, 2008, 2014c; Sormaz et al., 2016).

This book investigates the relationship between gastronomy and local development. We do not attempt to provide here a summary definition of how we perceive local development, but it is clear to us that among the many facets discussed in the literature, some are especially relevant in a discourse involving gastronomy: the issues of environmental and social sustainability; the relationship between local identities and globalisation; the role of creativity and cultural heritage; the significance of local diversities, facing regional and national centralisation, and so forth.

Nothing illustrates the geographic, sociocultural, and economic impacts of gastronomy better than the cases of those chefs who have made the deliberate and motivated choice to set up their restaurants in isolated territories that would generally be considered unsuitable for the development of an internationally renowned restaurant, and who decisively contribute to activating (or re-activating) these territories by providing an attractor to tourism and leisure mobility (Etcheverria, 2011). The relevance of this relationship has dramatically grown, mostly (although not exclusively) due to the increasing importance of gourmet tourism as a significant component of the overall growth of tourism in the contemporary economy, and as an engine of economic development at the local level. As the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) recently stated, “Gastronomy is a distinctive and strategic element in defining the image and brand” of tourist destinations (UNWTO, 2017). In France, as well as in many other countries, political, socioeconomic, and cultural actors voiced their increased awareness of gastronomy’s potential to boost new dynamics in local development. The attention to food heritage, to the territories’ recipes, products and restaurants, and to gastronomic imaginary has become a common feature of more and more tourism promotion initiatives at the local level. In France, a powerful accelerator was the 2010 inscription of the “Gastronomic meal of the French” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This decision created extraordinary momentum around gastronomy, whose role – as the French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe put it in a speech in January 2018 – is a “State business” (“une affaire d’État”). This prominence is also due to its privileged role in providing access to local diversities.

However, this new relevance raises a number of managerial and policy issues that academic research has started to investigate only recently. This book is part of one of the initiatives undertaken in this context: the international workshop on “Gastronomy and local development” launched in 2012 at the UFR ESTHUA Tourisme et Culture, University of Angers (Clergeau and Etcheverria, 2013a) aimed at instigating an innovative discussion on the scientific foundations of research on the functions of gastronomy with regard to development at the local scale. In the organisers’ perception, fresh, ground-breaking research contributions were needed, notwithstanding the significant advances achieved in recent years (thanks to, amongst others, the studies of Hjalager and Richards (2002), and Corvo (2015)). The research agenda itself needed to be redefined or at least refocused. A second workshop was held at La Rochelle Business School in November 2015 under the scientific direction of the editors of this book. This provided a significant opportunity to outline the present research agenda, thanks to the discussion on a wide range of case studies from several European and non-European countries. Starting from the results of the Angers workshop, which clearly indicated that quality is a key factor in determining these effects, the participants at the La Rochelle event were invited to focus their discussions on the multifaceted role and meaning of quality. Quality – as it emerged from these discussions – is a social construct that interacts and co-evolves with gastronomy as a system of discourses and imaginaries and, while taking place in systems that go far beyond the local framework, are nurtured by local communities, local customs and cultures, and local geographic characteristics.

The quality issue has been, and will always be, closely linked to gastronomy. Quality lies at the heart of the system for at least three aspects of gastronomy: its relation to health; the need for and rigour of product standards; and the relevance of the service dimension, including the staging and “servicescape” of the gastronomic experience. In fact, as management research has repeatedly pointed out, service quality is a complex and multidimensional concept (Gronroos, 1984; Zeithalml et al., 1990). From the provider’s point of view, quality focuses on the “product” and refers to a range of physical and technical (and therefore codifiable and measurable) specifications of the service, and within this approach, attempting to understand and manage the tangible elements that contribute to service quality. These tangible elements can greatly differ in nature: the organoleptic features of food products or their production processes; the quality of tables and chairs, decor and dishes; other infrastructural aspects (accessibility, parking); or the waiting time in the restaurant. Such an approach also allows constructing social conventions about quality that can be certified through “quality labels” (Eymard-Duvernay, 1989). From the consumer’s (and tourist’s) perspective, quality takes on a more subjective character and stems from the gap between perceived benefits and expectations. Quality is recognised when expectations are met or even exceeded in the service experience, thus positively surprising the customer – the so-called “wow effect.”

Models have been proposed to structurally formalise the analysis (and several exercises are available in the literature regarding the most famous, the SERVQUAL model). Yet, in the case of tourism and gastronomy, possibly more than in any other case, both perceptions and expectations are shaped by a complex web of psychological, sociological, and situational factors that define the conditions in which the service is delivered. In gastronomy, perceptions will be heavily influenced by individual factors, such as the personal disposition and level of knowledge that makes the gourmet an “educated customer.” Expectations will be shaped by the same set of factors, reflecting differences among people, times, and cultures. In a gastronomic experience, however, their dynamics may also produce expectations of an implicit or fuzzy nature that are unrealistic or taken for granted (Ojasalo, 2001). In turn, these expectations may negatively influence the final quality perceptions to the extent that they conflict with the chef’s own path to creativity.

Inspired by a user quality approach, and within the context of our research about gastronomy and local development, we suggest that quality depends on the combination of three dimensions: the quality of products, of places, and of experiences. These all contribute to the readability, attractiveness, and competitiveness of gourmet destinations. The joint qualification of product and place helps build reputation and attractiveness through the image and discourse associated with and diffused by the product, and is therefore part of the quality of the tourist experience. The debates held during the workshops about the combination of these dimensions showed that quality is a complex construct, that is gradually been shaped and questions about identity, about diversity, and about innovation and creativity.

Quality is clearly linked to identity, as branding strategies increasingly refer to local taste preferences as a crucial immersion vector for tourism experiences. Research is providing new insights into the way in which local products, know-how, food culture, production landscape, dynamics, and cultural heritage can contribute to the identity of restaurants. The incorporation of these elements transforms the gastronomic experience into a privileged insight for temporary residents (i.e., tourists) of the identity of the place and its permanent residents.

Quality, however, is also linked to diversity, as it cannot be confined within any “rusticity” stereotype. The joint quality of products and places stems not only from the originality of a certain production, but often also from the uniqueness of the underlying socioeconomic relations. Producers, suppliers, transformers, distributors, restaurateurs, chefs, and tourists forge links that, beyond economic relations, shape a staged web of images and imaginaries – i.e., a gastronomic atmosphere (Clergeau and Etcheverria, 2013b). Researchers are increasingly investigating the importance of this socioeconomic dimension of the local management of diversity. This is embodied particularly in proximity dynamics, knowledge and know-how assets, learning mechanisms, vocabularies, or shared representations. Sociologists suggest that different social groups may associate different symbolic meanings with local food quality. Furthermore, through food, local cultures interact with global consumption and open themselves up to the coproduction of a variety of tourist experiences.

Finally, quality is increasingly linked not just to the preservation of identities, local specificities, and preferences, but also to innovation and creativity. As discussed in the workshop, when combined with technical innovation and entrepreneurial creativity, gastronomy has the potential to be a powerful tool to revitalise agro-food economies and cityscapes. Gastronomy may be part of successful luxury and lifestyle hospitality, but it also contributes to alternative ways to experience quality – e.g., through social eating – and therefore to new business models.

The quality-focused research agenda on gastronomy is not without challenges, three of which clearly emerged from the workshop discussions. The first concerns the need to better understand how gastronomy (as distinguished from mere local food and cooking) is an increasingly “democratic” phenomenon, involving more than the traditional, passionate expert elite, and is rather a significant cultural and economic part of the travel experience across a wider range of social groups.

A second challenge derives from the geographic diffusion of gourmet tourism. These days, every country in the world counts on gastronomy to foster tourism development. There is a need to more closely investigate what drives this – i.e., the extent to which we are simply witnessing a creative imitation of the more established European models as opposed to alternative patterns, linked to the creative reinterpretation of very old culinary specialties for the global traveller.

The third and final challenge concerns the potential for collective action and the way in which public policies should be reassessed. What is to be done? Looking beyond standard practices of tourism promotion, a number of partly new issues are emerging, such as the role of selective quality labels, of education, of research, and so forth.

This book is structured around the three aforementioned questions raised by quality. In Part I, the link between quality and identity is first investigated by Clergeau and Etcheverria (Chapter 2), who question the possibly virtuous identity circle between a restaurant and a territory, and the way tourists can learn about the place within the dramaturgy of the gourmet experience that takes place in the restaurant. Férérol (Chapter 3) shows how gourmet tourism can be synergistic with a territorial brand strategy for a French region that is attempting to reinvigorate its own image. Venzal (Chapter 4) discusses how in another French region the quality of local products has become a vector of development through their integration in tourism destination management.

Lopes Cardoso (Chapter 5) looks at the case of Alentejo (Portugal) and shows how the region’s gastronomic identity is reflected in the unique setting of Casa do Alentejo in the country’s capital. Lanquar (Chapter 6) provides a critical view of the identity emerging from the gastronomic dimensions of local festivals in Spain in the era of globalisation. Finally, Salvador (Chapter 7) questions authenticity perceptions; in her view, tourists identify the characteristics of local products as quality signals and attributes, which then become the vectors of an authentic tourism experience.

Part II explores the link between quality and diversity. Etcheverria (Chapter 8) discusses the impact of a visionary entrepreneurial project (a restaurant and school-farm) in the Zhejiang Province of China, showing th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Contributors
• 1. Introduction
• Part I: The link between quality and identity
• Part II: The link between quality and diversity
• Part III: The link between quality, innovation and creativity
• Index