Whale cake making booth at the program "Hue - Culinary Capital" 2025

Long-time dream

It is not now that the story of building a Hue culinary museum has been raised. In 2018, at the international conference on Hue royal and folk cuisine organized by the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue province (now Hue city) and Phu Dat Gia Company Limited (Hue), many opinions agreed to build a living museum on culinary culture, where documents and knowledge about Hue royal and folk cuisine will be preserved and received to preserve and develop Hue cuisine.

Many researchers have also analyzed the competitive advantages as well as the destination brand of Hue, which must mention cuisine. In an article posted on the website of the Hanoi Institute for Socio -Economic Development Studies (2008), a researcher said that tourists increasingly want to have the opportunity to learn and experience more of the cultures of the lands they pass through, learning about culture through cuisine. In addition to directly enjoying the dishes, tourists also need to learn about the history of the dishes, about the sources of ingredients and the quintessence in the art of processing, presenting and enjoying the dishes. Therefore, a culinary museum is a suitable place for tourists to come to satisfy their need to learn and explore the culinary culture of the destination. And, that is also part of the reason why there should be a culinary museum for Hue.

At Hue Culinary Museum, many delicious dishes can be introduced through 3D culinary digitization.

Culinary researcher Le Tan said that among 3,000 Vietnamese dishes, Hue cuisine accounts for 65% with the following culinary lines: folk, royal and vegetarian cuisine. The diversity of raw materials, from rustic to delicacies, along with the hands of artisans and chefs, from common people to upper-class aristocrats, has elevated Hue culinary culture, which is the basis for Hue to build a culinary museum.

Need for cooperation

Director of the Department of Tourism Tran Thi Hoai Tram said that it can be said that the construction of the Hue culinary museum is considered a soul in building and affirming the brand of Hue - the culinary capital. However, to be able to build a culinary museum, not only the efforts of the locality and the tourism industry are needed, but also the cooperation, especially the role of investors and tourism business organizations.

In the set orientation, the People's Committee of Hue City as well as the local tourism industry determined policies and solutions to support development, in which special mechanisms and policies will be built, incentives will be created and favorable conditions will be created for investors with brands and potential to invest in the tourism sector. Support policies to attract tourists to Hue (for travel agencies, airlines, ships, and trains).

Mr. Tan believes that if the Hue culinary museum wants to be attractive, it must not only be a specialized museum for listening and seeing, but must have a multi-sensory impact on visitors, build interesting stories; must let visitors evaluate, appreciate and absorb the value of Hue cuisine. "Visitors to Hue may be familiar with beef noodle soup, but what is necessary is to bring them interesting stories about the origin, the noodle factories, the beef noodle stalls of the past and present, stories about the ingredients and the art of processing... To do that, there needs to be a combination of the Department of Tourism, artisans and related units", Mr. Tan shared.

According to experts, the Hue culinary museum should not exist separately like other museums but can be a stop on a “culinary tourism” tour or a tour to explore Hue. Combining the museum with travel agencies to build tours and routes will help the museum develop more “sustainably” through interesting experiences. It could be a trip to visit the museum, admire the Hue culinary heritage on display, then visitors will continue to experience going to the market, cooking Hue dishes and enjoying the dishes they make themselves.

Huynh Phuc

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/can-mot-bao-tang-am-thuc-cho-hue-156501.html