MEDIA

Home to the sprawling University of Arizona campus, modern-day Tucson is a major city that has all of the accompanying amenities. The city was recently named a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, making it a serious foodie destination.

In 2017, Tucson, Arizona became the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the United States, and it’s not hard to see why. With an agricultural history that goes back more than 4,000 years, it’s the longest known cultivated area in North America, which lends to its incredible southwestern and Mexican cuisine influences.

Just 30 minutes from a desert oasis, the city boasts a Googie-style diner, funeral-home-turned-bar, a cafe that doubles as a mezcaleria and more

Quite frankly I was puzzled when UNESCO—not exactly a reliable restaurant guide—declared Tucson a “World City of Gastronomy.”

Shortly after Tucson was named the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the United States in 2015, Jonathan Mabry and his colleagues began to hear from a lot of local restaurants who wanted in.

The non-profit Tucson City of Gastronomy organization, which manages the UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation for metro Tucson and Southern Arizona, announced its list of certified 2020 Tucson City of Gastronomy Restaurants.

In 2015, Tucson was the first “city of gastronomy” to be named in the U.S. by the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

Great food, Old West history and unique experiences meet in a place nestled among mountains

These aren’t just any hot dogs. The Sonoran hot dog is the signature street food of Tucson, America’s first UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.

Sonoran hot dog: There are a lot of foods worth traveling for in Tucson – the food capital of Arizona is America’s first UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.

In 2015, Tucson became the United States’ first city to receive designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. That’s because the area is the longest continually cultivated area on the continent, giving Tucson a culinary heritage that dates back over 4,000 years.

You better like carne asada.

This week, Tucson played host to representatives from Europe, Asia, and Mexico whose home cities each value and prioritize local food and gastronomy. Known as the Delice Network, the group works together to share their different strategies and methods of promoting food culture at the local level.

Tucson recently joined the ranks as the 27th member, with Chicago as the only other U.S. city. 

After securing much-needed water rights, the co-op farm on the Tohono O’odham reservation is honoring thousands of years of the tribe's farming history.

Tucson is well known for its Sonoran-style Mexican food. But since the turn of the century, ethnic restaurants and fine dining choices have proliferated. In 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) designated Tucson a “world city of gastronomy” under the Creative Cities Network programme, becoming thus the first city of gastronomy in the United States. The Sonoran hot dog is very popular in Tucson. This is a hot dog wrapped in bacon and grilled, served on a bolillo-style hot dog bun, and topped with pinto beans, onions, tomatoes, and a variety of additional condiments.

By the time Tucson itself became the first City of Food Cultures in the U.S. to be designated by UNESCO in 2015, hadn’t the National Heritage designation for the Santa Cruz died on the vine, or become like a river suddenly drying up in the sand?

Not really. Like most desert rivers, its energy just went “underground” for a while.

The James Beard Foundation just put out its annual list of semifinalists for the most prestigious award in the food world — and Tucson made the cut. 

Don Guerra of Barrio Bread is one of 20 semifinalists in the Outstanding Baker category. And El Charro Café is up for an Outstanding Restaurant award, which honors restaurants with 10 or more consecutive years in business.

Restored historic theaters bookend Congress Street, and the downtown has become an epicenter for Tucson’s food scene. Mabry said there are more than 60 restaurants downtown, two-thirds of which are locally owned. In 2015 it was designated as the first U.S. “Creative City of Gastronomy” by UNESCO.

If you have ever been on a hike and wondered which plants are edible, this is the culinary tour for you. Dr. Suzanne Fish or Allen Denoyer guide you through Marana’s 4,000 years of agricultural history.

The two tours are the first to be approved by the Tucson City of Gastronomy, which was the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the U.S.

The nation’s first UNESCO City of Gastronomy has beguiled the Travelzoo team thanks to delicious, approachable fare like the bacon-wrapped Sonoran hot dog at El Güero Canelo’s, plus plenty of brunch hotspots, bakeries, and a new bean-to-bar chocolate spot, plus temporary pop-up dinners and other special foodie events.

TUCSON, ARIZONA — A giant “A” looks down on Tucson from high up Sentinel Peak on the west side of the city. University of Arizona students first put it up there in 1910 to show their school spirit. The railway had been rolling through Tucson for a few decades and things were booming for the town nestled between mountain ranges in the Sonoran desert.

“In the years since receiving its designation in December 2015, Tucson has emerged as a powerful force drawing foodies to Southern Arizona, creating food service jobs at a rate eight times greater than its overall economy.

In San Antonio, stakeholders see the designation as significant part of San Antonio’s continued makeover as a great American food city, and there’s hope it will spur even more culinary tourism than our world-famous Tex-Mex cuisine already brings. There are hopes that the designation will mean an expanded food scene for locals, but as yet, there are few concrete plans for that.”

Read More…

As Austin is to Texas, Tucson is to Arizona. In this outspoken university town, artists, intellectuals and athletes share their passions for good food and outdoor fun. In Tucson’s case, its location in the southern Sonoran Desert divides two sections of scenic Saguaro National Park where cactuses reside in multi-limbed groves. Two years ago, Unesco cited Tucson as the nation’s first City of Gastronomy, highlighting its mix of Native American, colonial Spanish and border Mexican influences. That recognition seems only to have lit the fuse on new and adventurous breweries and distilleries as well as restaurants. With challenging urban hikes, other, more remote, trails nearby, and a new bike share system, Tucson makes for a calorically balanced weekend.

They say you are what you eat. If that statement is true, then Tucsonans must be equal parts multifaceted, high quality and above all, thriving. 

Dozens of Tucson eateries have opened this year, including American Eat Co., Cans, Hoki Poki and more. And on the horizon, the Boxyard, a shipping container mall, is being built on Fourth Avenue. Not only are these new options delicious and diverse, as they grow, Tucson grows with them.

“Restaurants here are growing quickly, and we’re starting to see diversity in them as well,” said Travis Reese, co-owner of 47 Scott. “There are new, really unique concepts in these restaurants we haven’t seen before. We’re in a more mature culinary scene now, and it’s growing in cool ways.” 

“There are a lot of people who think food doesn’t grow here,” said Erik Stanford, owner of Pivot Produce.

Along with well-known edibles from greens and herbs to citrus, legumes, and roots, the Sonoran Desert provides a plethora of edible plants as well as some endemic plants that add a unique Sonoran take to local cuisine. Think bright prickly pear and barrel cactus fruit, the potent heat of chiltepin, plump delicate squash blossoms, and honey-sweet figs. Why isn’t there a larger farm-to-table movement in Tucson, then? This is where Pivot Produce comes in.

Stanford had been working as a chef for years in Tucson, within which he started programs to locally source produce, creating contacts, and cultivating relationships with local farmers. It began to shift his ethos from working under the status quo of industrialized food sourcing programs to supporting local farms and farmers. With that shift however, he began to see the issues chefs run into when trying to source locally.

With The Parish executive chef Travis Peters defending the Iron Chef Tucson title, Maynards Market & Kitchen executive chef Brian Smith had a culinary mountain to overcome.

Chef Peters has been on a roll the past couple of years. Just recently, he appeared in an episode of Food Network’s Guy’s Grocery Games. He also traveled to fellow UNESCO City of Gastronomy, Dénia, Spain to represent Tucson.

However, Smith also served as a culinary ambassador for Tucson at another UNESCO City of Gastronomy: Parma, Italy.

Tucson is an attractive destination for wellness-focused travelers because of our spectacular location in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, great climate including more than 330 sunny days per year and easy access to outdoor activities and healthy, local foods.

“The Sonoran Desert is known for its restorative powers, so it’s no surprise two of the top destination spas in the world—Miraval and Canyon Ranch—are located here” exclaimed Mary Rittman, Senior Director of PR & Communications, Visit Tucson.

DOWNTOWN Kitchen + Cocktails is starting its Around the Globe Summer Culinary Tour with a Macau menu from Wednesday, May 23 – Wednesday, July 11.

Representing Tucson as the first city in the US to be named a City of Gastronomy, chef Janos Wilder and others have been invited to other “sister” cities around the world to share the region’s culinary history and unique foods.

The DOWNTOWN Kitchen Around the Globe summer series features menus from all over, focusing on ingredients, technique, and the culinary appreciation of each destination.

This year begins with Macau. A region of the People’s Republic of China, Macau has 400 years of culinary experience. The cuisine highlights a blend of Southern Chinese and Portuguese cuisines, with a hint of Southeast Asia.