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Definition Pioneating refers to the act of learning about a culture by sharing a meal with locals. The concept was first cited by Joel Serra Bevin in his post: Pioneating - The Most Delicious form of Cultural Immersion on his website. It refers to the phenomenon of travelers seeking stronger connections with a place when they travel and choosing food as the basis by which they form these connections.

Premise Food provides the ideal format for learning about a person, a place and a culture and is one of life's most intimate acts that can be shared. When two or more people sit around a table and share a meal together, one gain's an insight into their personality, where they are from and where they are going.

Relationships In his research in relationships, Larry Forthun found that bonds between people were strongest when food was involved. The act of eating is inherently one of life’s pleasures and this familiar setting automatically promotes positive relations between people. Of those surveyed in the study, some 71% said that the happiest moment of the day for them was sitting down to enjoy a meal together.

Food serves as an ideal format for relationships to be formed between people from different cultures. Historically food served as a way of bringing together world leaders, warring nations and has been credited assisting stronger bonds between world leaders around the world. This form of culinary diplomacy is most accurately described by Rebecca Sheir who highlights numerous examples of dinner serving as a tool for diplomacy. In daily life and also at a political level, meal times continue to be a popular format where bonds are made and relationships strengthened.

Traveling Travelers have an even stronger relationship with food and meals serve as an important basis for memories. The term culinary tourism entered popular lexicon over the last decade and was analysed in an article on Huffington Post. This new type of tourism is a form of special interest tourism that combined the best of travel with the enjoyment of discovering new foods and beverages. In some cases, the sole reason for traveling to a specific destination was for the food of the place.

Data The World Food Travel Association is currently updating their research that was conducted five years ago to learn more about the culinary tourist. The 2007 research showed that Deliberate Culinary Tourists account for about 10% of community visitors, (travel focused primarily on food and wine) while another 10% travel because food is important but not the only factor to the traveler. It is predicted that the survey will provide a better understanding of exactly who the culinary tourists are, why they travel, and economic impact of their travel for food.

Popular references Pioneating can be seen in a number of popular media. When xx goes traveling in the movie xx she says, “you only know a place by knowing it’s food” and also by actor xx who asks for xx to show him the food of the city, the true heart of the city.

The reality show MasterChef regularly features challenges that take places overseas and the contestants are asked to really connect with a place by understanding its food.