Traditional food tourism is dead. Something fascinating is emerging

With global foods now accessible, culinary exploration lies not in destination travelling but in the next wave of third-culture cuisines

- BRIAN LEE

EAGERLY AWAITED my reservation last year at Rekondo in San Sebastian, Spain - another predictable, if excellent, stop on the well-worn food tourist circuit. At my table, I lost myself in a wine list thick as a phone book, each page heavy with forgotten Riojas, until the pristine hake kokotxas arrived.

I was on a two-week family vacation on the Iberian Peninsula. What I didn't expect was that my most memorable meal on the trip would come at Chila, a Hunanese restaurant in Madrid, where I could order chef's specials through WeChat. As I savoured premium Ibérico pork loin with fiery Padrón peppers and fermented black beans, watching Chinese families chat at nearby tables, I realised something fundamental had shifted in how we experience food through travel.

We can now observe food cultures develop in real time, shaped by migration and internet connectivity. The old model of chasing cultural cachet by travelling to specific destinations for "authentic" local cuisine is fading fast, worn down by streaming food documentaries, algorithm-driven Instagram recommendations that expose every hidden gem and the democratisation of travel through budget flights and Airbnbs. With global foods more accessible than ever, the real cutting edge of culinary exploration lies not in destination travelling but in the next wave of third-culture cuisines at the intersections of tradition, immigration and diaspora.