2022 – Culinary Arts Commission and the Future of Culinary Innovation
In recent years the discussion around food has moved away from mere “fine dining” to encompass culture, sustainability, technology and wellbeing all converging on the plate. 2022 was a landmark year for Saudi Arabia’s Culinary Arts Commission, a body created to protect tradition but also to champion dynamic new expressions of culinary practice. For a studio like Kitchen Theory, that straddles design, gastronomy and the work of the senses, this moment presents an intriguing insight into how policy, education and industry can play their parts in shaping the food of tomorrow.
Who is the Culinary Arts Commission?
The Saudi Arabia Culinary Arts Commission, a part of the Kingdom’s Ministry of Culture, was created to foster a national food culture. By collecting traditional recipes and aiding chefs and businesses to better promote the Kingdom as a dining destination, its strategy is incremental however: it starts from archiving culinary tradition and organising major festivals to incubators and academic programmes focused on cooking and food-related entrepreneurial ventures.
In practical terms, this means opportunities for chefs and restaurateurs and food researchers alike. Incubator programmes, food tourism development and showcasing local cuisine all serve to network local players, global partners and state capability. For the academic study of the culinary arts, this represents a constantly live case study in how a nation can treat food as a site of cultural heritage and an engine of innovation-led growth at once.
2022 as a turning point
By 2022, the Culinary Arts Commission had moved from vision to visible impact. Saudi cuisine was being showcased on the international stage, regional festivals were gaining international attention and partnerships were being forged with organisations across the scopes of gastronomy, hospitality and food science. At the same time, the Commission is laying the groundwork for long-term capacity building: scholarship schemes, licensed training programmes and pathways into careers connected to culinary arts.
This matters for the pooling of culinary innovation and food product development: with a clear pathway from education to industry, chefs and food entrepreneurs are more excited to explore bold ideas – from new ingredients and fermentation techniques to new businesses positions around food tourism or experiential dining. Rather than seeing cooking as a purely vocational skill, the Commission sees culinary arts as a creative discipline of research, linked to design (and great objects), health, sustainability and technology.
From heritage dishes to future food product development
One of the most intriguing aspects of the Culinary Arts Commission’s work is its balance of heritage and futurism. On the one hand it supports the documentation of traditional dishes, stories and techniques from across Saudi Arabia’s regions, ensuring that recipes and practices are carefully recorded for posterity. On the other, it has incubated programmes to support new ideas and startups in the food and beverage space, encouraging experimentation in food product development while still being culturally rooted. Recent editions of the Kawn culinary arts incubator, say, have brought together dozens of early-stage food and beverage projects for mentorship, market testing and business development.
This dual focus matters for anyone involved in product development, whether they are designing a new snack, a retail-ready sauce or a fine-dining menu. Working with heritage as a design constraint helps ensure that every new food product carries a sense of place and narrative. For brands and chefs, this kind of grounded storytelling is increasingly valuable, consumers want to understand where ingredients come from, whose memories they hold and how they connect to broader questions around identity and environment.
Academic pathways and sensory research
Another important strand emerging from 2022 and beyond has been the growth of academic and professional training routes dedicated to culinary arts. With new programmes developed alongside universities and specialist institutes, the Culinary Arts Commission has begun to treat chefs and food professionals as applied researchers as much as craftspeople. The year-long Academic Culinary Arts Programme, designed and taught by chefs and academics from a number of Saudi universities and academies, exemplifies how formal education is being mobilised to develop national capacity in hospitality and gastronomy. Students are encouraged to consider food product development not only in terms of flavour and texture, but also nutrition, sustainability, accessibility and cultural diplomacy.
For Kitchen Theory, this is particularly interesting because it dovetails with our own work on multisensory experience and evidence-based menu design. When culinary arts education integrates psychology, design and data, it becomes far easier to build robust frameworks for culinary innovation and food product development. A chef trained in this manner would be better positioned to partner with food scientists, packaging designers or technologists, and jointly create the next great food product that is both marketable and meaningful.
Innovation ecosystems and regulation
No vision for the future of culinary innovation and food product development is comprehensive without a consideration of the regulation and governance aspects. Here we see the role of a national agency, one where the Culinary Arts Commission establishes norms and issues licences and works with those focusing on food safety, research and public health. The signing of a memorandum of understanding with the national Food and Drug Authority reveals how the world of culinary policy is now inextricably intertwined with research into nutrition, consumer behaviour and new food technologies. When the actors gather together, they create an ecosystem where experimentation is welcome but necessarily framed within visions of quality and safety.
If you are a startup using some traditional ingredients, but maybe more novel methods, then you’ve got to struggling with cultural implications, and also regulatory things. With a commission mediating, the culture of product development is more visible and less scary, whilst still letting the designer be a designer. Over time this might lead to faster innovation across retail, hospitality and even institutional catering, school meals to healthcare.
Global stages and soft power
2022 also marked an important moment for Saudi culinary arts on the world stage, with greater participation in international festivals, competitions and collaborations. Strategic partnerships – including work with global organisations such as Sirha Food and involvement in events like the Bocuse d’Or and World Pastry Cup, have helped position Saudi chefs and dishes within the wider international conversation about gastronomy. Showcasing local talent in these contexts is not only about prestige; it also shapes how global audiences perceive the country’s culture, values and ambitions. Food becomes a form of soft power, a sensorial way of telling a story about place, people and progress.
For the global culinary arts community, this raises interesting questions. How might future collaborations between Saudi chefs and international counterparts influence flavour trends, dining formats or even new categories of food product? What can other nations learn from the Commission’s approach to structured support for chefs, incubators and education? And how can we ensure that culinary innovation remains inclusive, reflecting the voices of home cooks and small producers as well as headline-grabbing restaurants?
What this means for the future of culinary arts
Looking ahead, what started around 2022 suggests a model where culinary arts are treated not as an aside but as a fully fledged cultural and economic sector. Training, incubators, documentation and regulation make the conditions for sustainable culinary innovation. For Kitchen Theory, the potential for this to connect with sensory science, inclusive design and systems thinking, exploring how food experiences might support wellbeing, education and cross-cultural dialogue, is exciting.
Ultimately, what the story of the Culinary Arts Commission suggests is a world in which food policy, education and creative practice are intertwined; where every new food product or restaurant concept is understood as part of a wider ecosystem of stories, resources and responsibilities. For practitioners in culinary arts around the world, it represents an invitation to think bigger: approaching product development not just as a commercial exercise, but as a realm of creative expression and positive change.