Imagined Idylls and Nostalgic Idealization: Gastronomic Tourism in Rural Hungary

As a counterbalance to the speed of movement that dominates the modern era, rural living can offer a less frenetic experience, including slow food, and an imagined (if romanticized) rural "idyll." Urban cosmopolitans and tourists partake of both leisure and tourism activities in the countryside, and in some cases even settle there permanently. The authors explore the impacts of such developments on local culinary "habitus" and the impacts of tourism demand on local gastronomic traditions and identity using a series of in-depth interviews undertaken in several regions of rural Hungary. These interviews reflect the perspectives of local communities, urban migrants, and other stakeholders who have contributed to the diversification and hybridization of the rural environment and its gastronomic traditions. The authors conclude that traditional food production and gastronomy play a central role in the imagined construction of a rural idyll, community identity construction, and the nostalgic idealization of rural living in Hungary.