This study aims to make a general evaluation of the services and cuisine quality of the restaurants listed in the Michelin Guide 2025 Bib Gourmand Turkey Bulletin based on Google reviews. During the data collection phase, a total of 3,649 reviews of 25 restaurants listed on Google Maps were collected using the web scraping technique. The collected textual reviews were analyzed using text mining techniques such as sentiment analysis and topic extraction. The sentiment analysis findings show that the opinions about the restaurants listed in the Michelin Guide 2025 Bulletin Bib Gourmand Türkiye were mostly positive (55.31%). The topic extraction results show that customers frequently refer to food and service quality, staff, and restaurant ambiance. In addition, it was determined that waiting time, cost, and portion size constitute significant negative concerns for customers. This research will improve the private sector and academic literature by explaining how consumers evaluate restaurants rated by an international restaurant rating agency.

Fusion cuisine blends ingredients, cooking techniques, and flavours from different cultures, yet little is known about how it is perceived within the context of gastrodiplomacy. This study explores perceptions of fusion cuisine at a multicultural gastrodiplomacy event held in Kosovo, where the participants first sampled Turkish–Kosovar fusion dishes during tasting sessions and subsequently completed an online questionnaire designed to assess their experience. In this event, participants attended structured tasting activities in Prizren and Pristina, where they sampled dishes combining elements of both culinary traditions, and then completed an online structured questionnaire consisting of 5-point Likert-type items evaluating their fusion cuisine preferences. The study was conducted in Kosovo as part of a unilateral gastrodiplomatic initiative. A total of 451 participants responded to an online questionnaire, which included fusion cuisine preference scores and metaphorical descriptions of their culinary experiences. A key contextual characteristic of this study is that data were collected exclusively during a fusion cuisine event held in Kosovo, with participation from a multinational audience who attended the event. Therefore, the sample reflects diverse cultural backgrounds within a single-location setting. The results indicate that younger, highly educated, and higher-income participants exhibited significantly greater openness to culinary diversity. These findings advance the state of knowledge by demonstrating that public reception of gastrodiplomacy is stratified by socioeconomic factors rather than defined solely by national background. Practically, this implies that effective fusion-based diplomacy requires targeted strategies to bridge demographic gaps and ensure broader social inclusivity, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.

Amaç –Araştırmanın amacı, Tekirdağ'daki restoranlarda misafir deneyimlerini inceleyerek, bu deneyimleri oluşturan temel unsurları belirlemek ve restoran işletmelerinin müşteri memnuniyetini artırmalarına yönelik öneriler sunmaktır. Çalışma, hizmet kalitesi, fiziksel ortam, fiyat-performans dengesi ve duygusal ifadeler gibi müşteri memnuniyetine etki eden unsurları ele almayı hedeflemektedir.Yöntem –Araştırmada, Tripadvisor platformunda yer alan Tekirdağ’daki en yüksek puana sahip 10 restoranın toplam 1461 müşteri yorumu analiz edilmiştir. Veriler, Strauss ve Corbin'in (1990) nitel veri analizi yöntemi çerçevesinde açık, eksen ve seçici kodlama aşamaları kullanılarak sistematik bir şekilde incelenmiştir. Bu süreçte müşteri deneyimlerini etkileyen ana temalar ortaya çıkarılmıştır.Bulgular –Veri analizi sonucunda, misafir deneyimlerinin beş ana temada toplandığı tespit edilmiştir: deneyim, hizmet kalitesi ve çeşitlilik, fiziksel ortam ve konum, fiyat ve memnuniyet, duygusal ifadeler. Bulgular, güler yüzlü personel ve lezzetli yemeklerin olumlu deneyimler oluşturduğunu, ancak fiyat ve tatlı çeşitliliği gibi bazı unsurların geliştirilmesi gerektiğini göstermiştir. Fiziksel ortamda temizliğin ve dekorasyonun müşteri memnuniyetine katkıda bulunduğu, gürültü ve park yeri sorunlarının iseolumsuz etkiler yarattığı belirlenmiştir.Tartışma –Araştırmanın bulguları, restoranların müşteri memnuniyetini artırmak için hizmet kalitesi, fiziksel ortam ve fiyatlandırma stratejilerini iyileştirmesi gerektiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Özellikle duygusal bağ kurmanın, müşterilerin restoran deneyimlerini unutulmaz hale getirdiği vurgulanmıştır. Bu sonuçlar, yerel restoran işletmelerinin müşteri odaklı stratejiler geliştirmesi ve hizmet süreçlerini optimize etmesi için rehber niteliğindedir. Araştırma, Tekirdağ restoranlarında müşteri deneyimlerine odaklanarak literatüre özgün bir katkı sağlamaktadır.

Lavender is a Mediterranean herb that is used relatively infrequently in the kitchen compared to other Mediterranean herbs, despite growing interest in its culinary applications. The question to be addressed in this narrative historical review is why that should be so. Several alternative hypotheses (historical, chemical, perceptual, psychological, physiological, and antimicrobial) are outlined and critically evaluated. Ultimately, it is suggested that lavender’s longstanding use as an anxiolytic (volatile) stimulus and its enduring association with fragrance, relaxation, and sleep may elicit cognitive inconsistency (or dissonance) with the notion of its use in the food and drink we consume (at least when perceptible as lavender, rather than when blending with other ingredients), while differences in antimicrobial activity, availability, and preservation appear insufficient to explain its comparatively limited culinary role. At the same time, lavender’s growing use in contemporary food and drink suggests that this association is neither fixed nor necessarily prohibitive, with culinary acceptance likely depending on context, familiarity, cultivar, concentration, and how its distinctive flavour is incorporated into food and drink.