Eating ants: understanding the terroir restaurant as a form of destination tourism

This paper explores the idea that there is a new form of restaurant that requires definition recognition that it fulfils a significant role in contemporary tourism. The adoption of foraged foods frequently reflects the historical and cultural foundations of place; in this respect, it is possible to adopt the French notion of ‘Terroir’ to conceptualize this new hospitality movement. The paper utilizes Noma in Denmark as a case study of this new gustatory movement and provides an exemplar of the terroir restaurant. The terroir restaurant provides a space in which the diner can consume tangible elements of both culture and landscape; often, this involves entry into a constructed visceral ‘sensescape’ where the dining experience becomes elevated to a higher level. The terroir restaurant provides the tourist with a gustatory concept and philosophy that move far beyond the notion of food as fuel, to one that is underpinned by a geographical and cultural aesthetic that reinforces the consumers ‘being in the world’ and their individual identities.