Each person has his own window through which he likes to view a culture.  Some choose cathedrals and museums and others markets and materials.  There is a huge percentage of travelers who, through the full sensory exploration of a cuisine, come to savor the complexity of a people.  Anthony Bourdain captured this nexus of interests in his wonderful television program, No Reservations.  In his program which ranged from Patagonia to Vietnam, Tuscany to Singapore, he explored the destination through the vehicle of foodstuffs and cooking.
It is not only that food is good to eat, but, as Claude Levi- Strauss pointed out, food is good to think.  Food casts a light on the many dimensions of a culture — its history, its ethnic mix, its economic challenges and its belief system among others.  That is why it is interesting to me to find individuals who can help open that window for my travelers.  Anissa Helou, Selin Rozanes, Francis Mallmann and Adlyn Teoh hold the key to cuisines of extraordinarily interesting parts of the world and we can design trips where their knowledge is part of a wide mix of experiences or sits center stage.