Marketing strategies in local cuisine: Local products and chef relationship

Efforts to market local products and provide income to the country's economy have gained momentum. Marketing strategies should be created in this way, taking into account the active role of cooks and chefs in the marketing of local products. The aim of this research is to reveal, through chefs, the marketing strategies that can be applied to local products in international markets. For this purpose, interviews were held and questions were asked with sixteen chefs working with local products on different days and hours between 17 April and 17 June 2023. Snowball sampling method was used when determining the participants of the study. In the research designed in the phenomenology pattern, the data was coded by applying the content analysis method and the coded data was collected under certain categories and analyzed. The relationship of chefs with local products was examined under six themes: local product definition, local product, local product supply, local product distribution, marketing of local products and in what compositions local products are used on the plate. As a result of the analysis, it was found that chefs have a significant relationship with local products, chefs use local products in their plates, and government support is needed to market these products. It has been found that in order to market local products, these products must first be promoted. Another finding of the research is that the promotion in question can be provided through chefs or product catalogs created by academics. The study suggests that in order for local products to take part in the international market, the state, producers and chefs should cooperate and the state should provide financial support to these collaborations.