If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation where it’s hard to find your way to local and 100% indigenous specialties on your journey through distant lands, believe me, you’re not alone. Thousands of travellers around the world look for precisely the original cuisine and recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation for centuries.
TasteAtlas was born out of such a need for a modern and practical guide to the gastronomic heritage of the world—an online database containing more than 10,000 traditional dishes, drinks and authentic recommended restaurants. The founder of this unique and globally recognized project that promotes local and indigenous cuisine, Matija Babić, sat down for a 1-on-1 conversation with Croatian celebrity chef Mate Janković (SOL, Zagreb).
“TasteAtlas is a work in progress. This project has not even come close to what, I believe, we can achieve. I noticed on my travels how really difficult it was to find information about local and traditional food. Therefore, our idea was to promote local dishes that have been present for centuries, but also those small family-run restaurants that pass on knowledge and indigenous recipes from generation to generation. Apart from the fact that it is very difficult to find restaurants that prepare indigenous dishes, it is even more difficult to find places where these dishes are prepared with 100% original ingredients. Thus, another one of our ideas is to find top products from local producers, such as cheese and prosciutto, precisely because it is very difficult to get this information,” explained Matija Babić, a successful entrepreneur with extensive experience in digital platforms.
“The functionality of the platform for now, of course, varies from area to area. In Istria, for example, it works fantastically, while not so well in more complex areas, such as Vietnam, because of the types of restaurants, and especially those that provide indigenous cuisine. However, the platform is being worked on continuously and significant funds are being invested in it in order to be as good and as represented as possible in the world. Hundreds of global media outlets write about this platform every year, and between 50,000 and 100,000 people visit it daily. We believe that number can climb up to a million visitors a day. The road to that will be very difficult, but that is our vision and we have an idea how we will do it,” concluded Babić.
Mate Janković, an experienced chef who advocates authenticity and originality in his work, pointed out that TasteAtlas is an excellent and innovative way to represent local and indigenous cuisine that is needed around the world, but especially throughout our country.
