Thai Culinary Diplomacy
The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs is active in developing strong regional relations as well as economic connections with the world’s largest trading nations. The government of Thailand has been the most active and was the first government to use food as a tool of diplomacy. In 2002, the Thai government launched “Global Thai”, a program to increase the number of Thai restaurants worldwide. This program refers to culinary diplomacy, or also known as gastrodiplomacy.
According to Pujayanti in her journal titled Gastrodiplomacy — Efforts to Strengthen Indonesia’s Diplomacy, stated that gastrodiplomacy is a cultural diplomacy that uses food as a means to increase the nation’s brand awareness. This strategy attempts to export cultural points to the wider world in the form of national dishes, or more broadly, national cuisine. The food and symbols that it represents can be used to communicate ideas, values, identities, attitudes and different social classes. Food is also a powerful non-verbal tool of communication to change the perception of the international society and promote the country on the global stage. For many world citizens who do not travel abroad, the culinary approach can be a powerful attraction to know and visit other parts of the world that they do not know through the taste of food of other countries (Rockower, 2011).
“Global Thai” was intended to expand the number of Thai restaurants around the world from 5,500 to 8000 by 2003. The purpose is not only to introduce delicious spicy Thai food to thousand new tummies and persuade more people to visit Thailand, but also to deepen relations with other countries. This is also an economic program that increasing the number of Thai restaurants abroad while bringing money to Thai chefs, prestige to Thai food, and tourists to Thailand. In addition, it is a diplomatic program as well. Each new Thai restaurant is an unofficial embassy, and an opportunity to established public culinary diplomacy.
A second campaign, “Thailand: Kitchen of the World” was launched to further promote Thai cuisine abroad. Later, an e-book was published in 2003 with the same title Thailand: Kitchen of the World to promote the campaign, discuss the agricultural highlights of Thailand, teach about the diet of Thailand, and share recipes of favourite Thai dishes. The book also talks about partnerships between the government and Thai universities that teaches the culinary arts. To sum up, the point of the e-book is “In the view of the Export Promotion Department, Thai restaurants have a good business potential that can be developed to maintain a high level of international recognition. To achieve that goal, the department is carrying out a campaign to build up a good image of the country through Thai restaurants worldwide.”
It also included an opportunity for Thai restaurants abroad to be awarded a “Thailand’s Brand” certificate, indicating that they satisfy criteria set out by the government. “Thai Select”, a certification and logo to brand an overseas Thai restaurant implying that these restaurants carry out the same or similar cooking methods as in Thailand, and may import ingredients from Thailand. This strategy launched by the Ministry of Commerce in Thailand aims to set presence outside Thailand as a way to reach out to foreign communities, strengthen ties with other countries and to boost their economic condition. In addition, it is not only set a standard for Thai restaurants, but also stimulate the Thai economy through increased consumption, increased quality of Thai restaurants and products, and facilitates consumers, who want to experience authentic Thai food. Visitors merely need to observe the Thai Select logo before selecting a Thai restaurant.
According to other information, since PM Thaksin Shinawatra era, restaurant diplomacy has become a mandatory law for its diplomats. To support the success of the program, Thai Airways are required to bring agricultural produce or produce at a government-subsidized cost everywhere they fly. Thus, if you want to buy Thai mango or durian montong, you will get fresh supplies from Thailand, because Thai Airways can certainly carry the agricultural goods. By 2011, that number had swelled to more than 10,000 Thai restaurants worldwide. About half of them are in the United States, followed by Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and Asia. Because of the popularity of Thai cuisine, Thai restaurants and food can now be found in almost every corner of the world.
