The Ministry of Foreign Relations (Mirex) presented on Friday, 7 December 2018, what it describes as its strategy for culinary diplomacy. The plan is to use Dominican missions abroad to promote Dominican cuisine. A unit has been created as a dependency of the Deputy Ministry for Economic Affairs and International Cooperation at the Ministry. Ines Páez, better known as Chef Tita, is the advisor to the plan.
Minister Miguel Vargas announced in a press release that the country had already been declared the capital of culinary culture for the Caribbean by the
Academia Iberoamericana de Gastronomía and the Real Academia Española de Gastronomía. This creates a stage to share our culinary attributes with the rest of the world, says the Ministry.
Vargas said that a public-private consulting board is backing the effort. Members are the ministries of Agriculture, Tourism, Culture, the Center for Export & Investment of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD), the Dominican Exporters Association (Adoexpo), the National Hotels and Tourism Association (Asonahores), clusters and Dominican culinary associations.
A Culinary Diplomacy Manual will be prepared for use by the embassies, consulates and the Instituto del Dominicano en el Exterior (Index).
The Ministry of Foreign Relations says an ultimate goal is that the Unesco recognize Dominican cooking as intangible heritage of humanity.
Culinary consultant Zaira Rodríguez came for the launching of the Dominican culinary effort. She has been responsible for culinary campaigns for Thailand, Peru and Japan.
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Mirex
11 December 2018
