Investigation of perceptions regarding the concept of gastronomic experience with word association test

The process of food consumption is not only one of the vital activities but also various gastronomic experiences shaped by motivations, specializations or social perspectives. Gastronomic experiences, especially today, draw attention as one of the most important experience activities of the whole world, and have started to be examined multidimensionally in the relevant literature. Especially in our country, an in-depth examination of the word gastronomic experience conceptually can contribute to the framework of the concept of gastronomic experience. In this direction, the study aims to reveal the cognitive and mental perspectives on the concept of gastronomic experience. Word association test (WAT) was used to examine individuals' cognitive perceptions of the concept of gastronomic experience, how gastronomic experiences create a conceptual perception of individuals, and the relationships between these concepts. The research data were collected from 40 people who participated in various pastry and chocolate workshops at Atölye Deneyim, the first pastry and chocolate workshop offering a gastronomic experience in Nevşehir province. The 385 vocabulary and 40 definition responses were obtained with the WAT form. As a result of word cloud and word frequency analyses, gastronomic experience was mostly associated with the words “new, cuisine, different, culture”, while definitions such as “experiencing new tastes”, “experiencing things I have not eaten before and having information about them”, “learning new tastes by traveling”, “traveling for food tasting”, “eating good and quality food” emerged in the answers given about gastronomic experience.