Cross-cultural representations of gastronomy among consumers in two Latin American countries

Gastronomy is one of the cultural emblems of each region and represents the way each society feeds. The aim of this article was to understand the cross-cultural representations of the concept of gastronomy among consumers in Argentina (ARG) and Mexico (MEX). A survey in which 479 consumers of both countries were recruited (ARG = 249, MEX = 230), who had to complete a word association task, was designed. Words were grouped into categories and the differences in the frequency of mention were analyzed with the Chi Square test. Furthermore, results were analyzed to identify the central core and the peripheral areas of the social representations. Cognitive Salience Index (CSI) was calculated to determine the most important representations. The representations of the gastronomy concept in both countries indicate a strong link to culture, food, pleasure by eating and sensory characteristics of foods and dishes. However, the field of representation, the hierarchy of representations and the cognitive and attitudinal importance were different among Mexican and Argentine consumers, which suggests that gastronomy promotion campaigns for both countries should be oriented according to consumers' perceptions.