Building a National Brand for Cuisine

Cuisine is an effective channel to market Vietnamese culture to tourists and friends around the world . Therefore, VCCA Chairman Nguyen Quoc Ky believes that when culinary culture truly becomes a National Brand, this will be the most effective promotional channel to promote tourism development.

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Vietnam has been named the best culinary destination in Asia. (Source: Bun Cha Sinh Tu)

In Vietnam, culinary culture is one of the most vivid and rich characteristics, crystallizing into Vietnamese cultural identity.

The uniqueness of Vietnamese culinary culture is reflected in the use of natural food ingredients, the sophistication and sophistication in the use of spices, the balance between tradition and modernity, Eastern and Western styles and philosophies in the preparation, decoration, arrangement and enjoyment of dishes.

According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of the Vietnam Culinary Culture Association (VCCA), among cultural values, cuisine has the fastest and widest spread.

In many countries around the world, the promotion of culinary culture is carried out very systematically, such as kimchi and instant noodles are promoted in Korean films; dumplings are a dish that often appears in Chinese dishes, Sushi and sashimi, tea ceremony are often featured in Japanese works...

In Vietnam, in recent years, through prestigious international media channels, many Vietnamese dishes have been honored, for example, Vietnamese cuisine was voted by the American television channel CNN as one of the 10 best cuisines in the world.

At the end of 2022, Vietnam was honored as the best culinary destination in Asia. Among the 3 popular Vietnamese words included in the prestigious Oxford English dictionary, there are 2 words: dishes, which are pho and banh mi.

Mr. Ky said: "Many foreigners may have never been to Vietnam but have been able to know Vietnamese cuisine in their own homeland. Cuisine also helps people understand more about Vietnam, creating "soft competition" in building the country's image to the world."

Therefore, the Chairman of VCCA believes that once culinary culture truly becomes a national brand, this will be the most effective promotional and communication channel to promote tourism development, expand the consumption channel of Vietnamese food and foodstuffs to the world market, contributing to the country's economic development.

Advisory Council member, culinary culture artist Ho Dac Thieu Anh also realized that when the living environment is heavily polluted, people are more concerned about the issue of "eating green, drinking clean" for health.

Vietnam is an agricultural country and is considered to have a “natural medicine cabinet” with a variety of vegetables and spices throughout the regions. Therefore, in addition to the diverse culinary lines, Ms. Ho Dac Thieu Anh hopes that the country will have a policy of exploring deeply the traditional values of green cuisine to promote widely in the community, contributing to the development of fresh, green, clean, and nutritious agricultural resources...

"Vietnam has a culinary 'map' with enough quality and quantity to create the country's culinary brand," she emphasized.

Currently, VCCA is making efforts to implement the project "Building and developing Vietnamese culinary culture into a national brand, period 2022-2024".

Accordingly, the project will conduct surveys, discover, introduce and collect data on Vietnamese culinary culture. This is considered a stepping stone to bring Vietnamese brands to the world through culinary culture, promote national competitiveness and develop Vietnam's economy.

Within the framework of the project, some notable contents include: Organizing a Festival of 100 unique Vietnamese culinary dishes, gathering the artisan community of 63 provinces and cities to participate, especially Ho Chi Minh City - the locality converging the quintessence of Vietnamese cuisine; building Vietnamese menus according to each region or traditional cultural themes, serving diplomatic work, cultural exchange and promoting regional tourism in Vietnam...

Currently, the Association is continuing to complete the database of Vietnamese culinary culture with the goal of finding 1,000 typical dishes according to the above criteria in 2023. This data will be used to complete the "Vietnam Cuisine Map" in 2024 and move towards building a "Vietnam Cuisine Museum".

It is expected that the Museum will be built in the direction of 3D virtual reality and a realistic Culinary Museum to serve domestic and foreign tourists in the future, contributing to making Vietnamese cuisine a National Brand.

Source