This study examines how restaurants in Thailand’s southern border provinces communicate local food culture and fusion cuisine within a multicultural context shaped by the interaction of Malay-Muslim and Thai culinary traditions and international culinary influences. Drawing on cultural identity theory and glocalization theory, it analyses how restaurants construct and negotiate multiple cultural identities and reinterpret global culinary influences through communication practices. A qualitative multiple-case study was conducted involving 15 purposively selected restaurants in Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 31 restaurant owners and staff, complemented by systematic content analysis of food-related communication on the restaurants’ Facebook, Instagram, and LINE platforms. Interview transcripts and digital content were analyzed using thematic coding across visual, linguistic, and interactional dimensions. The findings show that restaurants communicate cultural identity by attaching cultural meanings to ingredients, recipes, and culinary narratives that express local heritage while engaging contemporary consumers. Rather than merely promoting food, restaurants use culinary communication to represent community identity, cultural memory, and a sense of place. Cultural identity theory reveals that local, national, and commercial identities are continuously constructed and negotiated through menu design, branding, and digital storytelling in response to diverse audience expectations. Glocalization theory demonstrates that local food traditions are selectively maintained, adapted, and reinterpreted by integrating international culinary influences while preserving culturally meaningful values and practices, enabling restaurants to balance authenticity with innovation.

Authors:
Sakiroh Yaena Benharoon, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand
Hamdia Mudor, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand

About the Presenter(s)
Sakiroh Yaena Benharoon is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus, Thailand. Her research interests lie in communication and cultural identity, and intercultural communication.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Thursday Schedule

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