CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF PROMOTING ROMANIAN TRADITIONAL GASTRONOMY

Romania has a gastronomic mosaic of great tourism potential, resulting from a millennial combination of natural, historical and socio-cultural factors. The Romanian cuisine is unique through the ingenuity of combining old peasant recipes with oriental, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian, and French-Austrian-Hungarian recipes. The Romanian cuisine contains ordinary, everyday food, and also festive dishes or dishes connected with Christian traditions. Romania currently has 558 certified traditional products, registered in NRTP, especially meat, diary and bakery products. The certification of traditional products in the European Union has an important economic role, yet only three Romanian traditional products have received the European Commission certification (DOP and IGP). The purpose of this paper is to highlight the economic and cultural importance of promoting Romanian traditional food. The unquestionable value and quality of Romanian traditional products represent the premises for creating a brand recognized in Europe, by certifying and promoting them at gastronomic festivals and tourism fairs.