Negotiating authenticity: Vietnamese chefs as cultural intermediaries in the Vietnam food tourism landscape

Purpose This study examines how Vietnamese chefs conceptualize and negotiate culinary authenticity within rapidly evolving gastronomic and tourism landscapes. It seeks to understand how authenticity is defined, maintained and strategically adapted in the context of Vietnam's socio-economic transformation, particularly across the pre- and post-Đổi Mới periods. The study contributes to discourse on gastronomic tourism and heritage studies by foregrounding producer perspectives and reconceptualizing authenticity as a dynamic and practice-based construct. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts a qualitative approach based on in-depth interviews with Vietnamese chefs whose professional careers span different historical and economic phases. By drawing on tourism studies, gastronomy scholarship and heritage theory, the study analyzes how chefs articulate authenticity through sensory logics, regional identities, historical layering and pragmatic adaptation for domestic and international tourists. Thematic analysis is employed to identify patterns by which authenticity is constructed, negotiated and operationalized in everyday culinary practice. Findings Findings demonstrate that authenticity is not treated by chefs as a fixed or essentialized property of cuisine, but rather as an ongoing and relational practice shaped by cultural traditions, material constraints and market demands. Chefs emerge as cultural intermediaries who actively balance continuity and innovation. While they selectively adapt ingredients, presentation styles and flavor profiles to accommodate tourist expectations and contemporary tastes, they simultaneously safeguard what they perceive as core Vietnamese culinary principles, including balance, freshness and regional distinctiveness. Authenticity is thus framed as dynamic continuity, anchored in foundational culinary logics yet responsive to changing socio-economic and tourism contexts. Originality/value This study contributes to scholarship on gastronomic tourism by centering the voices of culinary producers rather than consumers, offering an empirically grounded account of how authenticity is negotiated in Vietnamese culinary tourism contexts. The study demonstrates how chefs maintain continuity through sensory logics, regional identity and cultural practice while adapting to changing tourism and socio-economic conditions. The findings provide contextual insights into how authenticity is operationalized in emerging gastronomic destinations undergoing rapid transformation.