Throw your napkin on the floor - Authenticity, culinary tourism, and a pedagogy of the senses

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

Explores educational objectives of the University of Calgary short-term travel study program “Food Culture in Spain” (2011), using secondary research, in-depth interviews with former participants, and students’ reflective field essays. Argues that sensory experience with food functions as a key pedagogical tool, while also examining intentionality, sensory learning, and the meaning of authenticity. Analyzes tensions within formal education framed by culinary tourism, showing how three-week study enables students to identify as informed culinary tourists who grasp authenticity’s complexity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Day 5: Cordoba and sensory encounter with olive oil

Program overview and learning approach

Culinary tourism, authenticity, and educational objectives

Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 52, Number 3, November 2012 Throw your napkin on the floor: Authenticity, culinary tourism, and a pedagogy of the senses Lisa Stowe and Dawn Johnston University of Calgary This article explores the educational objectives ofa University of Calgary short-term travel study program (Food Culture in Spain 2011). A combination of secondary research and primary data collected through in-depth interviews with former program participants, as well as student reflective essays written in the field, shows that the sensory experience with food is an important pedagogical tool. Focusing on questions of intentionality, sensory learning, and the meaning of authenticity, we explore the complications inherent in a formal education program built around culinary tourism. We argue that by the end of the three-week program in Spain, students identify as informed culinary tourists who recognize the complexity of authenticity and understand how sensory experiences can inspire and motivate both a bodily and an intellectual understanding of food and their relationship with it. Lisa Stowe and Dawn Johnston 461 Introduction May 13, 2011 . It is Day 5, and our group is in Cordoba, two hours south of Madrid, to visit an old alamazara, an olive oil press in the countryside, and to experience the Arabic and Moorish influenceson the food culture of this region. We are staying in a small hotel in the middle of the old town, across the street from the tourist attraction that makes Cordoba famous, the Mezquita. It’s an early rise this morning and even at this hour we find ourselves weaving in and out of crowds of tourists. We pass souvenir shops filled with t-shirts and cold drinks. Some students stop to peruse the waresand plan for a return visit later that day, only to have us shepherd them back into line, as the bus is waiting and we cannot be late. We make our way across the bridge connecting the old town to the newer section. The streets in the oldtown are too narrow for our tour bus to manoeuvre, but this popular tourist town has accounted for that, establishing a tour bus parking area across the bridge where the many groups of tourists can meet their guides. As we board our bus to the Nuñez de Prado olive oil press, we pass at least five other buses, filled to capacity with tour groups of various nationalities and ages. Within five minutes we pass an industrial park, clear the city and are driving through the rolling hills and orchards of Andalucia. Very few cars come this way and the roads are narrow; at points it feels as if the bus won’t be able to make the curve. Our group is chatting, watching the scenery from their windows, and making plans for the day ahead. And then the smell hits. At first most students aren’t sure what they are smelling--intense, fruity, only vaguely familiar. But then it dawns on them. It’s olive oil. More specifically, it’s the smell of olives growing on trees; something that most of them, born and bred in Canada, have never smelled in the raw state. They are shocked. And curious. Some ask,“Are olives a fruit or a vegetable?” A fruit. They grow on trees.“So olive oil is a fruit oil?” Sort of.“Do people drink it?” Yes. Wait until we get to the olive oil press. We’ll see. And smell. And taste. These students were the third group to visit the Nuñez de Prado alamazara with us. Since 2007, we have been co-teaching the University of Calgary’s “Food Culture in Spain” group study program. 462 Throw your napkin on the floor This three-week travel study program, offered every second year, engages undergraduate students in inquiry-based research, writing, and group presentations on globalisation, culinary tourism, and the popular practices of food production and consumption in Spain. With a group of 27 students and a program assistant, we, the two instructors, travel from western Canada to Spain, where we spend three weeks exploring the country considered by some to be the mod

FAQs

What learning methods does the article use to evaluate the program?

It combines secondary research with primary data from in-depth interviews of former participants, along with reflective essays written by students in the field.

How does the program use sensory experience in learning?

Sensory experience with food is presented as an important pedagogical tool that supports both bodily and intellectual understanding of food and its cultural relationships.

What tensions does the article identify in culinary tourism-based education?

It highlights complications in formal education built around culinary tourism, including how host countries may package food and culture into appealing “experiences,” creating tensions with authenticity.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine