HOME IS GOOD, BUT AWAY IS BETTER

People are always in search. This allows us to look at ordinary things from a different angle. It seems that everything has been invented and made in the world. But the inquisitive human mind craves for new discoveries, experiences and entertainment. Progress is truly driven by human desires. But is there anything new you can come up with in tourism? It seems nothing. Absolutely not. They did and even picked the right word - "gastronomic" - from the word gastronomy - "gastro" - stomach. By the way, gastronomy is a science that studies the relationship between culture and food, and it belongs to arts and social sciences, not to cooking. It is gastronomic tourism and culture that make it possible to study foreign culture and food - the cuisines of other nations.

How does it look? A man who travels the world in the most common way without any frills is called a tourist. A man for whom the main factor that compels him to travel is meals and drinks typical of the selected geographic area is called a gastrotourist. Perhaps, it is somewhat funny and unusual, but it is true. Today, almost every self-respecting tourist company seeks to offers tours for true gourmets. Of course, these tours include not only restaurants with a certain menu. Gastronomic travel offers are compiled so that travellers can enjoy authentic (historically confirmed - author) dishes, picturesque surroundings and local culture. So, for example, picnics are organized by the lake, and you can enjoy a glass of chardonnay, for example, while watching the sun slowly sink somewhere in the thick of the vineyard.

The heads of travel organizations around the world have appreciated the potential of the gastronomic holiday. Now national cuisine helps promote individual cities, regions and even countries on the tourism market. There are plenty of examples of how a product brought worldwide fame to a particular locality. Take, for example, the French province of Champagne or Italian Parma and Tuscany.

Why are we not promoting Baku and Baku villages, regions and distant areas with Azerbaijani dishes? After all, we have more than enough of unique features that could be of interest to foodies. For example, with what gusto you can tell a foreigner, who tries dusbara, a story about how indigenous people of Baku prepare this dish. It's a masterful and almost filigree job to place almost 12 pieces of dusbara in one tablespoon. Or for example, Corat qutabs, which can be enjoyed in the Baku village of Corat. These are small cakes made of fine dough with minced meat. The tradition of Corat qutabs dates back to the pre-Islamic period - the era of Zoroastrianism. Probably it was in the same ancient period that people in Azerbaijan started to cook dusbara which melts in your mouth. Of no less interest to gastrotourists is the cooking of the walnut garnish - the fisincan, which is served for pilaf in Baku. This is a very old dish cooked with an unconventional method. The whole point is not only about taste but also about colour. It should be black. Why? In old times, Baku housewives cooked it in cast-iron pans, and plus to everything, they kept a rusty nail especially for this dish. Due to the reaction of acid, marshmallow and nuts that are available in the recipe of this dish, we get the colour. If the fisincan is light, it was thought that it is not a dinner and the guests will laugh at the hostess!

Azerbaijani cuisine does have dishes that could glorify our cities and regions. Indeed, the fact that from the second half of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century, Azerbaijan broke up into nearly a dozen feudal principalities and khanates helped consolidate some regional features in Azerbaijani cuisine, which manifest themselves today. In Southern Azerbaijan, in Lankaran, the local feature is the cooking of game (primarily pheasants) stuffed with fruit and other poultry in the open fire, and fish baked in the tindir with walnut-fruit filling; in Northern Azerbaijan, close to Dagestan, where Turkic influence is stronger, the main dish is the meat and dough xinkal. In large cities - Baku, Samaxi (the ancient capital of Sirvan), Ganca - meat and dough products are traditionally cooked: dusbara, qutabs and sweets such as sakarbura, kurabye, baklava, halva and sherbet and Turkish delight.

Fish is much more important in Azerbaijani cuisine than in other Caucasian cuisines. It is prepared based on a technology developed for the basic food stuff - meat and vegetables, because the Caspian Sea is nearby. For example, fish is grilled like lamb over an open fire on a barbecue, i.e. it is prepared like kebab with fruits and nuts (almonds), baked in the tindir and smoked. The method of cooking fish with the steam bath method is also special. All this is largely due to the fact that Azerbaijani cuisine uses traditional red fish (sturgeon, kutum), which makes it possible to use this technology due to its advantages.

And we can show and tell all this in the development of gastronomic tourism. After all, this area is an important engine of development, having the potential to inject the "tourist dollar" in local businesses, diversify the local economy and create jobs without significant investment. Gastronomy is exactly the area that is able to overcome the borders and political differences, acting as a factor that promotes cooperation and ultimately, peace.

Azerbaijan is slowly but surely taking this path. An example of this is the fact that Baku recently hosted an international conference on gastronomy, culture and tourism, which was devoted to the demonstration of the huge potential of the Silk Road in these areas in the field of non-material culture. Architectural heritage, specific natural and recreational resources, attractions, etc. are widely recognized here. Aside from this, the Silk Road region is home to a rich variety of culinary and cultural traditions and has enormous potential for the development of public-private cooperation and effective marketing. The conference brought together representatives from ministries of tourism, national tourist offices, officials of the tourism sector, representatives of the private sector, as well as experts and specialists to discuss how they can work together to turn the Silk Road into an advanced network of gastronomic destinations. Experts from the field of tourism, culture and gastronomy who arrived in Baku stressed that gastronomy is an important component of tourism experiences and its weight in total tourism expenditure is constantly growing. The significance of gastronomic tourism was also confirmed in the UNWTO Global Report on Food Tourism presented at the conference. Other recommendations were also put forward, including from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which addresses issues such as the need for cooperation between ministries of tourism and agriculture in order to promote projects in the field of agro-tourism; the importance of saving gastronomic heritage; and the need to increase the micro-financing of small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in the production and development of agricultural food products.

At the same time, this conference became a celebration of the unique culinary heritage of the Silk Road, including the demonstration of culinary art by well-known chefs.

Vittorio Castellani, also known as Chef Kumale, is a catering consultant and journalist. Vittorio writes articles for gastronomic and tourist magazines in Italy. Travelling more than 15 years on five continents, he studies and promotes the traditions and cuisine of different cultures through stories, books, festivals, seminars and his gastronomic show Officine Gastronomiche. Asked by R+ what he would write in his gastronomic reports about Azerbaijan, Castellani said that he was first here for the first time, but judging by the delicious and varied cuisine, it can be concluded that Azerbaijan is a country of rich culture. "A lot of what I saw here could be a good culinary almanac for the foreign reader. But for this, I need to come here often, travel around the regions, study the specificity and diversity of not only food, but also the cuisine of your villages and distant areas. It is a very interesting and contrasting, and most importantly, a hospitable country."

Castellani believes that thematic journalism plays an important role in the promotion of local gastronomy for the development of tourism business. For example, it is possible to organize talks about Azerbaijani food, a project on national drinks - a journey to the roots of the culture of a drink, various TV shows about travel tours studying peoples that represent different cultures, sightseeing and food tasting on local channels aimed at foreign audiences.

Musa Dagdeviren is a manager dedicated to his job and chef of the Ciya Kebap restaurant chain, who devoted 35 years of his life to promoting the heritage of Turkish gastronomy. At the age of five, he took up a job at his uncle's bakery, quickly became a chef, expert at cooking kebabs and opened the first of three Ciya restaurants in 1987. In an interview with R+, Dagdeviren said that flavours play an important role in the cuisines of all the peoples of the world, and if you dedicate your activity to their research, they will tell you a lot about the origin of a national dish. "My research into flavours to restore traditional dishes and old culture played an important role in developing and promoting the true gastronomic heritage of Turkey. Thus, the menu of kebabs became enriched in a list of 100 items. In addition, I was able to offer the first vegetarian lahmacun and kebab." In 1998, Musa opened the Ciya Sofrasi restaurant, where you can get acquainted with the cuisine of different cultures. This restaurant serves a variety of dishes of culturally prosperous peoples who inhabited the vast region from Anatolia to Mesopotamia. They prepare Azerbaijani, Georgian, Turkish, Arab, Ottoman, Syrian, Seljuk and Jewish dishes here in accordance with original customs and beliefs. By the way, according to Musa, this experience can be of benefit in Azerbaijan. He has also created a unique menu that includes all the local dishes, desserts and drinks. Musa Dagdeviren skilfully showed the guests of the conference how to prepare one of the most delicious dishes - Turkish dumplings, which are very similar to the Baku dusbara for their method of preparation. It was one of the most impressive moments of the event.

Gavin Bell is a consultant for the development of tourism related to nature, culture and gastronomy. As an independent specialist, he loves the food and culture of Silk Way countries, though he has come to Azerbaijan for the first time. "I can give you good advice on community tourism and sustainable agricultural development, especially as in your country, as I know, there are small nationalities, studying whose life and cuisine would be very interesting to foreign nationals," Gavin said in an interview with us. Interestingly, Bell organizes his work on a voluntary basis. Experience came to him through more than 20 years of active work in protected areas and rural communities. Gavin was the manager of an innovative and successful complex project to develop agriculture in the Saxon region of Transylvania and assisted the promotion of small producers and "slow food" (a system opposed to fast food, providing more healthy food - author) at the national level. After leaving the UK, Gavin's job moved to countries with transitional economies in South-Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Quite recently, as a consultant and on a voluntary basis, he helped develop and implement activities related to gastronomy, community-based tourism and protected areas in Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and Moldova. "Soon I'm going to focus my activities on Azerbaijan. It will be very interested to work here. By the way, what I like about Azerbaijani cuisine is that in fact, there can be no fast food here. And that's great," Gavin said in conclusion.

Ramon Roteta is the winner of the Michelin star, a Basque chef with over 40 years of experience in the field of gastronomy and one of the founders and chief promoters of Spanish new cuisine. At 25, he created a group of new Basque cuisine and has since enthusiastically promoted Basque and Spanish delicate cuisine and heritage by organizing gastronomic events throughout Europe. In 1991, Ramon began to share his passion and wealth of experience with experts as an advisor, as well as with the general public through numerous cookbooks, television and gastronomic shows. "I do not rule out that the spirit of the times dictated the appearance of new cuisine in Azerbaijan. It can be a mixture of the cuisine of neighbouring countries with local specificity. It's inevitable. There is a kind of junction and clash between different cultures, and this may be a synthesis of something new. I think that local specialists should pay attention to new Azerbaijani cuisine," Mr Roteta said in an interview with R+.

So different are experts and opinions. Keep in mind that the demand for gastronomic tourism is increasing. Studies show growing demand among travellers for tours with impressions associated with authentic and environmentally friendly local food. This creates new opportunities to enhance the competitiveness of destinations by promoting their unique gastronomic heritage and traditions. Gastronomic tourism is divided into three categories: rural, urban, and dedicated to one product. Rural gastronomic tourism includes a trip to the country and to the origins of local cuisine. Here you can find authentic recipes of various dishes, see how the ingredients are gathered for them and personally take part in every stage of the process. Urban gastronomic tours typically include visits to the best restaurants in the country. This may also include a visit to confectioners' shops in countries where confectioners are famous for their skills throughout the world. The map of a gastronomic traveller has virtually no limits, as each country has to offer something different in this kind of tourism. After all, every nation's cuisine is unique just like its character. And I think that in this area, Azerbaijan has much to offer and show.