Evaluation of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department Curriculums in the Context of the Relationship Between Gastronomy and Tourism

Abstract

Gastronomy and tourism are two concepts that are closely related to each other. In this context, gastronomy and culinary arts (GCA) education include courses related to tourism. This study aims to examine, compare and evaluate the curricula of GCA departments in Turkey in the context of the tourism concept and to make suggestions. Within the scope of the study, the document analysis method was used, and the departments' curriculum on the universities' websites was accessed and examined. The obtained data were analyzed by frequency analysis. Study findings show that GCA departments were built by using the infrastructure of tourism faculties and food and beverage management departments in state universities, while it was opened within the faculties of fine arts in foundation universities. In the curricula of the departments under evaluation, there are 189 courses related to tourism areas. 87.30% of these courses are offered at state universities and 12.70% at foundation universities. Among these courses, which are generally carried out as two (44.44%) and three (52.38%) hours each, the ones primarily included in the GCA department curricula are General Tourism with 11.1% and Gastronomy Tourism with 10.58%.