The Flavors of the Danube: Culinary Trail 2024

2024 marked transformative progress for the Culinary Trail project across the Danube region. Our international team achieved major milestones through intensive collaboration in documenting and developing strategic support for our rich culinary heritage.

Mapping Our Culinary Treasures

The heart of our mission is documenting the incredible diversity of culinary traditions within the Danube region. September saw us complete a comprehensive mapping of ethnic groups and demographic data collection. This foundational work positions us to begin our most ambitious phase: documenting traditional recipes, cooking techniques, and food stories from 30 ethnic groups and communities across the region.

Working with the Faculty of Information Studies in Novo Mesto (Slovenia) and Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (Austria), we developed a groundbreaking digital catalogue for culinary heritage preservation. Finalised in December, this tool streamlines data collection while ensuring public accessibility. It's now ready for full deployment in 2025.

Building the Culinary Trail Brand

In August, we initiated crucial brand development work to establish a compelling identity for culinary tourism in the Danube region. The October SCOM in Craiova, Romania, featured two intensive branding workshops led by our Czech team from Edhance Plus. Together, all project partner countries worked to define what sets Culinary Trail apart from typical food tourism initiatives.

The workshops established:

●      What makes our brand unique

●      How we stand out from other food projects

●      Our shared vision for the brand

●      How food connects our cultures

This newly defined identity will be our foundation for modernising and connecting isolated culinary traditions into a unified, transnational cultural heritage product.

Preserving Heritage Through Transnational Strategy

A cornerstone of our project is developing a comprehensive strategy for preserving ethnic and local culinary heritage.

We've created a robust framework for stakeholder engagement and knowledge sharing.

October's Strategic Working Group Workshop in Craiova, guided by the Technical University of Košice experts, brought partners together to analyse preservation challenges and opportunities. These insights directly shaped our stakeholder engagement approach.

We warmly invite experts to participate in our next Strategic Working Group Workshop in 2025. Share your expertise in preserving traditions, crafts, and culinary practices for future generations. Together, we'll strengthen the strategy that ensures our unique culinary heritage endures.

More info about the workshops will follow...

Looking Forward: 2024 to 2025

The dedication and collaborative spirit shown throughout 2024 have positioned us for continued success. We're grateful to all partners for their committed efforts and look forward to deepening our work together in 2025.