Almost everywhere you travel around the world, you will find a simple Italian restaurant, a trattoria that will invite you to taste the Mediterranean cuisine of our neighbors. What is characteristic of all these establishments is that the food is based exclusively on Italian products, which the restaurateur recommends with patriotic enthusiasm, and some of which he even often sells in the store.

While it is important that every Italian restaurateur advertise San Marcano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, Parma prosciutto, parmesan cheese, Italian olive oil, arborio rice, pasta, Chianti wine, to create an authentic experience of Italian culinary culture; that is, to sell the brand “Italian cuisine”. And surprisingly, he will not be tempted to use cheaper local substitutes.

Historically, the local population of every country has tasted Italian cuisine through Italian restaurants and slowly started reproducing it at home, creating a demand for all Italian primary and secondary food products in the country. It is this simplified model of introducing Italian cuisine to foreigners in their country that gradually creates demand for Italian food on the shelves of supermarkets around the world, thus providing a driver for the growth and extroversion of Italian production. This model is of course also reinforced by tourism in Italy. At the same time, Italian cuisine itself is an important incentive for foreigners to visit Italy. Thus, an important development process of international consumers, which creates demand for food exports, is achieved through gastronomy and tourism in absolute synergy.

This is exactly what we must do correctly and systematically in Hellas. We are a small country with relatively high primary and secondary food production costs, unable to compete in quantity or price with any of our neighbors who have related products. We are doomed to compete only on the level of quality, but we are very lucky because we have a lot of excellent and high-quality food products. We are also fortunate because we have inherited a traditional cuisine that is both delicious and has important nutritional values ​​in line with international trends. In addition, it is relatively easy to “travel” everywhere and breed in houses. So what remains is to systematically approach this daunting task.

I think we need one “Academy of Greek Gastronomy” which, incidentally, will methodically record all traditional cuisine and its local manifestations, not with the academic logic of historiography, but with a purely practical approach. Which will create standards that will become a “compass” for catering, with a focus on tourist-oriented restaurants, as well as those who operate Greek restaurants abroad. An academy that will take advantage of our top chefs and other experts to create digital educational content and find a way to share that content with the kitchen staff of simple tourist restaurants. The main goal is to improve the culinary product in restaurants of this, maybe low level, where the average foreigner comes into contact with the brand “Greek Cuisine”, which is primarily a tourist tavern in Greece and a Greek restaurant internationally, places as a very important strategic role. On the other hand, the country’s top level restaurants and modern Greek cuisine are moving forward and evolving thanks to very talented chefs with new ideas. I think we are doing well with this.

The academy that I represent could even determine the official translations for every Greek dish and for individual ingredients that are so often presented with errors or inaccuracies in catalogs and even in all languages ​​that concern our tourists. He could even provide marketing advice for the tourist-focused gastronomy industry, as well as useful material for Greek restaurants around the world. I remember that I am talking about the level of catering, where managers and chefs do not necessarily have a culinary education or modern technical knowledge, elements necessary in order to play their important strategic role at an ideal level, which, fortunately, is not in the domestic haute cuisine.

25 years ago, when I was the head of international marketing for a large Greek beverage brand with a global presence, I created, as every international brand does, a set of such manuals for each marketing team that needed to create our brand in their country. Therefore, I know firsthand that helping Greek gastronomy as a brand to become a driver for the development of the country’s export activities is not only possible, but quite possible. It is enough to realize its great importance and respond with simple, practical, proven solutions.

* Mr. Dimitris Papazimouris is Head of Strategic Communications and creator of the Cucina Caruso blog.