APTECE

APTECE is acronym for the Portuguese Food Travel Association, which aims to promote travel through Portugal through its food.  Unique in the culinary tourism world, it promotes Portugal Travel in a very dynamic and innovative way, through unique experiences enriched with stories and secrets that will definitely feed any travellers mind and pleasure, throughout many tables and many different places, where curiosity leads them.

Since the start of 2014 I have been working as APTECE’s Ambassador to Portuguese Food Travel and influencer with the Travel and Food Blogging community. My goals are to foment the discovery of food as a main precursor for travel, not only in Portugal but all over the world. The identification of the culture of a people by its food, is as important (if not more so) than its cultural identity and history. As a food and travel blogger myself, I fundamentally understand the role which bloggers have in today’s travel industry, and am a firm believer that first-person, unbiased approach to travel makes bloggers the ultimate travel storyteller.

World Food Tourism Summit

Together with other prominent Food Travel experts, I am a member of the scientific committee of the World Food Tourism Summit 201 (WFTS15) – The biggest world gathering of Food Travel stakeholders. The 2015 edition which will took place from the 8-11 of April 2015 in Lisbon.

At the WFTS15 I partnered with Jodi Ettenberg from LegalNomads.com for a presentation on how bloggers impact the food tourism industry and mostly how they influence their community. You can find our presentation here.

 The Portuguese Travel Cookbook

The Portuguese travel Cookbook is going to be launched in July, but you make a pre-order your copy at theportuguesetravelcookbook.com

I have been commissioned by APTECE to write the “Portuguese Travel Cookbook”. During the months of July and August I travelled with Emanuele Siracusa in search of Portuguese Food Stories and Photos. We have been speaking about doing such  a project for a while now and we finally make it happen this summer. We set out to tell the stories behind the people, the places, the villages, the produces and the recipes which make Portuguese Food unbelievably unique. Because we believe the culinary heart of Portugal is away from the big cities, this project focused only on the peripheral Portugal. The Portugal that produces its own vegetables, milk and still cooks the way his grandmother taught him. A Culinary Portugal that finds its origins in the nets of the fisherman, in the wood-fire oven, in the hoe of the farmer and in the local eateries not listed in any guide.

The book is a journey through the Portugal which is Semper Fidelis to its origins. A country proud of its culinary identity and heritage, where stories about the food, the places, the eateries, the villages, the producers, the fishermen, the farmers and the chefs who dedicate their life and their day to make traditional Portuguese cuisine the everyday wonder that it is.

Here I am now, showing a glimpse…a mere fraction of the experiences I had and the food I tasted, with my previous posts of a Foodie Photography Tour of Portugal Part I, Part II and Part III.

Opening keynote at TBEX 2015 Costa Brava

Together with José Borralho (The President of APTECE) we delivered the  opening keynote for TBEX Europe 2015 in the form of an interview conducted by Gary Bembridge. The keynote featured a discussion about the importance of culinary culture and the role it can play it tourism and its promotion.

It is a very big win for me and my blog which is not even two years old. I am very proud to have been able to reach so far and to do so through a case study of culinary tourism. Portuguese Culinary Tourism! It actually comes just in time as I am celebrating one year as Ambassador to the blogging community for APTECE – Portuguese Food Travel Association.

You can see the transcript of the keynote here