In this episode number 67 of The Business of Food Travel podcast, we speak with Rico Mandel. In 2001, when the dotcom bubble burst and then September 11 hit, Rico's marketing business collapsed. After some soul searching, he decided to enroll in culinary school, an experience that changed

Fall in love with Grenada and everything it has to offer. As you might already know, the island of Grenada was named our first Culinary Capital in 2021. Check out our new video highlighting the best parts of Grenada's culinary culture and visit Grenada's page to

by Parinaz Naji When you hear Sweden, you immediately think of two things: IKEA and meatballs. You are not wrong, but that’s not all there is. In my experience as an international student coming from Iran, there are many differences in the Swedish culinary culture. These facts are both

In this episode 66 of The Business of Food Travel podcast, we speak with Chef Darren MacLean. Chef Darren is one of Canada’s most acclaimed and outspoken chefs, restaurateurs and environmental advocates.  Seeking to showcase Canada’s culinary scene to international audiences, MacLean was Canada’s sole contender and

In this episode number 65, we speak with Jonathan DeLise, a New York City-based writer who focuses on food and travel. He has lived in East Asia and Mexico and explored the food and drink of countless countries. Jonathan is also passionate about foreign languages, a fact that has helped

Recordings from Our 2021 FoodTreX Global Summit Now on YouTube As is customary with our online Summits, which we always record, we make the recordings available to the public 24 months after the Summit has ended. We are pleased to announce that the recordings from our 2021 FoodTreX Global Summit

by Andrea Wintergerst Spoiler alert! If you've been following us on social media (and if you haven't, what are you waiting for?), then you know that in a very funny coincidence, Sweden won our National Food tournament! The dish chosen for the tournament, Köttbullar, consists of

In this episode, we meet Jose Luis Santos.  Jose Luis has a decade of experience in strategy and entrepreneurship focusing on tourism and sustainability. He has worked for multinational companies such as Oliver Wyman and Amadeus, and now he leads Ecostars, a sustainability certification for hotels. Within one short year,

Dr. Tammara Soma is a professor, researcher and teacher at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC, Canada. When she is not teaching, she is busy running the food systems lab, a social innovation research lab tackling complex food issues. As the first hijabi professor at the university, Tammara often finds

Today we are pleased to announce that three members of its Board of Directors have renewed their terms for another two years.     The renewing directors are:       Ioana Hardy     , Managing Director,       Impacters Group     , a London UK-based marketing firm focused on socially conscious, sustainable and responsible businesses.       Maureen Littlejohn     , an award-winning travel

After over a decade spent engaged in humanitarian work with the United Nations, and years of self-teaching in the culinary arts, Selassie Atadika completed her formal culinary course work at the Culinary Institute of America. Chef Selassie uses Ghanaian cocoa and chocolate as a base to feature the flavors and

After a job moved Jacquie Chandler to Incline Village, Nevada on the north-shore of Lake Tahoe in the western USA, she began to notice a major conflict between the impact of tourism and the billion dollar financial designs related to the lake's preservation plans. And so began her

Momentum Gathering in Greece Momentum has been gathering to develop more gastronomy tourism opportunities in Greece.         First, last December 13, our Association hosted a gastronomy tourism roundtable with the Region of Attica in Greece. The  roundtable was held with the participation of the Tourism Department of the Region of Attica

Matricia Bauer is an indigenous herbalist and specializes in Indigenous plant knowledge. She introduces visitors from all over the world to the indigenous flora of the Rocky Mountains. She also serves as a liaison between humans and their plant relatives which provide us nutrition and medicines. She also processes foraged

In this episode, we speak with Theo Cromhout. Theo is a proud South African travel industry professional who has lived and loved a full life of travel, tourism, hospitality, food and wine. With over 30 years of experience, Theo is a respected member of the South African tourism industry. He

Last week I visited the Dutch Caribbean island nation of Bonaire, where I had the pleasure of speaking about food and beverage tourism at two tourism industry events. The timing of the speeches was fortuitous, since Bonaire just received its Culinary Capitals certification from our Association. The local people are

In this episode, we speak with Yasmine Fofana. Yasmine is a well-known force for positive change in the culinary movement in the Ivory Coast. She launched the first food blog in that country, named Afrofoodie. And in doing so, she influenced others to help them understand the value of celebrating