ABSTRACT
This introduction chapter presents cuisines as cultural heritage and also examines the ways in which cuisines and foodways are preserved or modified by native people, colonial powers and waves of migration. It also speculates on the evolution of peasant food to widespread culinary delights, surveys the role of agriculture and terroir in regional gastronomic specialties and examines the role of tourism as a consumer of heritage cuisines. The culinary heritage associated with indigenous peoples, colonialism and migration, peasant traditions, agricultural practices and terroir have salient implications for tourism, as food is no longer seen only as a tourism side-service but also a key attraction. The crucial issues elucidates important and timely concepts, such as sustainability, authenticity, identity, power relations, nationalism, place branding, indigeneity, colonialism, environmental determinism, fair trade and slow food, human welfare, climate change, leisure and tourism. Together the authors provide valuable insights into the salience of food and culinary traditions as consumable elements of cultural heritage.
