Globetrotting for Gourmets

We’d booked the seafood restaurant before we booked anything else. Flights, trains, accommodation – all were immaterial, if we could not have that table by the sea wall in that restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Our whole trip revolved around it; that and the tapas joint in Seville recommended to us by acclaimed Spanish chef Jose Pizarro. Only with those two culinary lines drawn did we bother colouring in the rest of the holiday.

This is no longer unusual. When Explore looked into launching a collection of gastronomic tours, 50% of people say local cuisine is influential in their holiday destination booking. We’re travelling for street food: for pad Thai, masala chai and South Korea’s bibimbap. We’re travelling for pastries. We know that croissants and madeleines taste different when enjoyed with strong coffee on a cobbled street outside a Parisian café.

Though Britain – and particularly London – has never had such a diversity of restaurants and street food stalls, these seem only to have whetted our appetite for the real thing. 76% of people say they’re more adventurous when it comes to cuisine on holiday, compared to 66% when at a restaurant. 48% say eating local cuisine helps them better understand their travel destination’s culture. We are fast becoming culinary tourists: the people for whom proximity to the beach, museums or cathedrals all come secondary to the food.