City of Gastronomy

UNESCO's City of Gastronomy project is part of the wider Creative Cities Network. The Network was launched in 2004, and organizes member cities into seven creative fields: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts, and Music.

Criteria for Cities of Gastronomy
To be approved as a City of Gastronomy, cities need to meet a number of criteria set by UNESCO:
 * Well-developed gastronomy that is characteristic of the urban centre and/or region;
 * Vibrant gastronomy community with numerous traditional restaurants and/or chefs;
 * Indigenous ingredients used in traditional cooking;
 * Local know-how, traditional culinary practices and methods of cooking that have survived industrial/technological advancement;
 * Traditional food markets and traditional food industry;
 * Tradition of hosting gastronomic festivals, awards, contests and other broadly-targeted means of recognition;
 * Respect for the environment and promotion of sustainable local products;
 * Nurturing of public appreciation, promotion of nutrition in educational institutions and inclusion of biodiversity conservation programmes in cooking schools curricula.

Cities submit bids to UNESCO to be designated, which reviewed every four years.

List of cities
The Cities of Gastronomy are: