The Power of Indonesian Cuisines Across the Globe

Abstract

As one of the ways to diplomatically engage with people abroad, food or gastrodiplomacy serves as an essential representative to elevate a nation’s impression internationally. The diverse and abundant amount of kinds of foods in Indonesia, reflecting a unique standpoint that can attract people across the globe to know about Indonesia through its cuisines. The purpose of this paper is to measure the power and to what extent Indonesian gastro-diplomacy has been developed worldwide by using qualitative data that the author gathered and reviewed from journals and websites. The study analyzes the course of action and efforts that have been performed to develop Indonesia’s gastro-diplomacy. Although there is already a program that supports gastro-diplomacy to introduce Indonesian cuisines, this paper discovers the lack of commitment that the Indonesian government makes to carry out the program. This paper assumes that Indonesian power on gastro-diplomacy is still in the preliminary phase and needs a long way to go to be on par with other countries.