Preserving Local Food Traditions: A Hybrid Participatory Approach for Stimulating Transgenerational Dialogue

Abstract

Local food traditions are an essential part of culture and society, reflecting a community’s history, values, and beliefs. Elders play a major role in passing on local food knowledge to younger generations, ensuring local food traditions and cultural identity do not disappear over time. To preserve these traditions, it is essential to engage older and younger generations of a community in a transgenerational dialogue. From this perspective, the study utilizes a hybrid participatory approach, composed of design thinking and learning-by-doing. Results of the case study underline the effectiveness of the approach in stimulating both the transfer of knowledge, as well as the involvement of younger generations, in the preservation of local food traditions.

Factors affecting restaurant choices for traditional foods among Gen Y and Gen Z: a multigenerational study on Vietnamese “Pho”

“…Our qualitative and quantitative findings suggest that authenticity and nostalgia are not only strategic add-ons to enrich customers’ perceived values as recommended in previous works (Chen et al ., 2020a, b; Verma and Rajendran, 2017) but also the crucial dimensions of service quality that customers expect from and evaluate a restaurant serving traditional foods. However, depending on the knowledge transfer process for local food traditions across generations, young people may have their own definition of authenticity and different triggers of nostalgia (D’Andrea and D’Ulizia, 2023). Therefore, restaurants should base on customers' perspectives and own definitions of “authenticity” in terms of taste, ingredients and presentation to provide an authentic culinary experience as they wish.…”

“…Innovation and commercialization of local food traditions are widely accepted strategies in response to these challenges (Ardiansari et al ., 2020; Wang and Do, 2023). However, unlike modern foods which entail fundamental functional values, the consumption of traditional foods is associated with traditional values of a culture and distinct psychological values attached to customers’ memories (D’Andrea and D’Ulizia, 2023). Specifically, how to commercialize traditional foods among the young generation segments (as part of the local food traditions knowledge transfer) in an innovative way while meetings their distinct wishes when it comes to traditional foods is an interesting question to restaurant managers and social planners.…”

“…Those factors refer to traditional features of foods and nostalgic physical environment that are particularly associated with the dining experience of local food traditions. Given the distinct values that restaurants that serve traditional foods may offer (D’Andrea and D’Ulizia, 2023), there is a need to propose a separate service quality model to indicate a range of prominent stimuli that customers could perceive from a restaurant of local food traditions in which both tangible and intangible aspects are concerned. In fact, some studies mixed traditional features to existing service quality dimensions such as food quality (Chen et al ., 2020b) or staff service (Wang and Mattila, 2015).…”

“…This serves to test the relevant hypotheses regarding the impacts of the explored service quality aspects (as Stimuli) on customers’ perceived value (as Organism) and their restaurant choice (as Response) and the mediating role of customers’ perceived value in such a relationship. Moreover, the distances between the orientations and values of young generations, from those of the older people could influence the acceptance of local food traditions with its original values (D’Andrea and D’Ulizia, 2023). Given that Gen Y customers with their life experiences may be closer to the older generations compared to Gen Z counterparts, this study takes further steps to examine the differences in their restaurant choice decision-making mechanisms.…”

Exploring the Role of Communication in Enhancing the Gastronomic Tourism Experience

“…These policies can also be used to protect the intellectual property of traditional culinary techniques and recipes. By preserving a region's culinary heritage, policymakers can ensure that gastronomy remains an integral component of its cultural identity [23,24]. Promotion of culinary tourism is an additional crucial aspect of gastronomy policymaking.…”