Earlier today I spoke by phone with Mike McCormick, publisher of Homecooked, a unique quarterly magazine that tells the story of a place and its people through recipes they prepare for family and friends. The first issue visited a valley in western Massachusetts, the second took readers to Austin, Texas. Volume three explores the kitchens of Monterey Bay.
“Monterey Bay is a place people want to be,” McCormick tells me. “This gives a different lens.”
Dave Faries here, looking through that lens. Homecooked is a form of food tourism—a travel guide to the tables of a community. Carmel Culinary Week, which wraps up tomorrow, June 7, is another, as are events such as Pebble Beach Food & Wine. According to a World Travel Association report, food is the primary reason to visit a location for 34 percent of all travelers. And in its Global Travel Trends Report, American Express found that 81 percent looked forward to sampling local cuisine.
Culinary tourism is not new. The tire manufacturer Michelin recognized that fact when it came out with its guide in the early years of the last century. But it has become so significant that Boston University includes in its masters of gastronomy program a course on the subject. Its lecturer, Alicia Kennedy, speaks of the conflicting tugs of local vs. global for both the traveler and the destination.
All of this—Carmel Culinary Week, the magazine, the data—led several of us here at the Weekly to ponder the definition of a culinary travel destination, and where Monterey County fits in that account.
Obviously there are foods that identify a place. Cajun and Creole, New Orleans comes to mind. Chicago? Hot dogs and deep dish pizza. But the matter is not an easy one to narrow. That same American Express report found that 37 percent of those surveyed planned trips to try a certain restaurant, perhaps one with Michelin stars. Several studies suggest that younger generations would rather experience local culture.
Writing for The Travel Psychologist blog, Dr. Nicola Cann pinpoints four types of food tourism. Some people look exclusively for fine dining restaurants. Others want to sample unfamiliar flavors or dishes. Naturally there are also those that gravitate to the comfort of familiarity, whether that be a national chain or a restaurant serving foods from the traveler’s home country. Finally, there are ones who immerse themselves in what is local.
And in that outline is the answer to our questions. It seems that just about any place can be a culinary destination for at least one of these types—there is certainly someone out there who wants to try all the truck stops along I-80 in Wyoming, after all (I did run across a rather good Punjabi restaurant in the windswept middle-of-nowhere).
It also seems that Monterey County fits all of the above. There are Michelin-starred restaurants and those that are deserving of notice. Abalone is probably unfamiliar to a lot of people, and if that’s not for them, there’s always Chili’s. Local wines, beers, produce, honey, seafood, Alfredo’s—all tell the story of this area.
And as McCormick also tells me, “recipes with stories just taste better.”