2.3 Gastronomic Case Study: Slovenia

As tour guides developed during the 1900s, they played an essential role in promoting gastronomic tourism. Just as the best early French guidebooks provided historical and culinary context for those traveling by car, some 21^st-century tourism campaigns publish comprehensive culinary guides, complete with recipes and narratives about cultural heritage. For example, in its multipronged transformation of itself into a gastronomic destination, Slovenia worked to codify (create a body of written work about) and to broadcast its culinary importance. According to the scholar Janez Bogataj, Slovenia began to create the conditions needed to become a culinary destination in 2006. The first step the country took was to create a gastronomic pyramid divided into three tiered portions, with the top including four regionally determined types of dishes “that most emphatically represent Slovenia” (Bogataj, 2019, p. 56). This top section represents the four distinct geographical regions that are conjoined in the country and the dishes that have developed due to each region’s unique topography, soil, climate, and growing conditions. Beneath these four key geographic zones, which range from the frigid Alpine mountains to the temperate Mediterranean shores and dry desert-like inland regions, the middle section of the pyramid includes 24 key gastronomic regions with over 330 of their iconic dishes and beverages. The broadest bottom portion of the pyramid represents what Bogataj describes as “all dishes, all periods, and all social groups, and could therefore be described as a kind of ‘gastronomic bank’ of Slovenia” (2019, p. 57).

Once Slovenia had constructed its gastronomic pyramid, the dishes it contained were showcased at Slovenian tourism events. In turn, the budding industry set about defining and writing down gastronomic stories that codified and contextualized—both historically and culturally—the nation’s iconic dishes and food products. This laid the foundation for what Bogataj describes as gastronomic diplomacy through which the tourism sector represented Slovenia as a gastronomic destination. Slovenia likewise turned to education in its creation of itself as a successful gastronomic destination. Finding it difficult to engage food caterers, the Slovenian tourism industry created an annual culinary competition for grade school children and published the winning recipes, creating young gastronomic diplomats who often appeared at tourist events where they recreated their winning dishes. According to Bogataj, such gastronomic diplomacy and education “focuses on food as a cultural heritage, not in a romantic … manner, but rather as an understanding of the causal links between specific dishes and other economic, social, and cultural factors in specific periods and social environments” (2019, p. 57).

In turn, various local entities, ranging from small groups to companies, began to create and sell products that represented and promoted their regional culinary heritage. To award the best products and to publicize them to a broader public, experts began to review the newest culinary goods on the market. As happened with the rise of the gastronomic field in post-revolutionary France, tasting experts publicized the best of these products, writing articles and creating awards. Reviews, articles, and awards, in turn, challenge food producers to continually improve their products. Experts, in effect, publicize the best culinary creations. In this way, those products that provide the most gustatory pleasure and also encapsulate the nation’s culinary heritage receive accolades and awards. Such feedback not only rewards culinary excellence and innovation, but it also serves as a form of gastronomic diplomacy and as a means of promoting Slovenia as a gastronomic tourist destination. Tourists, in turn, purchase these products as souvenirs to share with friends and family. These products and the tourists who purchase them, in effect, become gastronomic ambassadors for Slovenia.

Attributions

1. Figure 2.8: Countryside vineyards #1, by ChrissyJ, is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
2. Figure 2.9: Slovenia’s Gastronomic Pyramid, by Hannah Adams for WA Open ProfTech (© SBCTC), is licensed under CC BY 4.0.