culinario

Culinario is an adjective used in several Romance languages, notably Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, with a sense related to cooking and cuisine. It describes foods, techniques, dishes, and fields within gastronomy, and is often synonymous with culinary or gastronomic in everyday usage. The term appears in expressions such as artes culinarias, cocina culinaria, and turismo culinario, and can also function in some contexts as a noun phrase referring to culinary matters, though more common nouns are cocina, gastronomía, or artes culinarias.

Etymology and scope: the word comes from Latin culina, meaning kitchen, with the suffix -arius to form an adjective meaning “pertaining to the kitchen.” Through the Romance languages it acquired a specialized sense tied to the practice and study of food preparation, cooking techniques, and culinary traditions.

Usage and examples: common collocations include experiencia culinaria (culinary experience), tendencias culinarias (culinary trends), literatura culinaria (culinary literature), and escuela culinaria (culinary school). In contemporary media, education, and industry, culinario terms help distinguish practical cooking from broader food studies or gastronomy.

Relation to related terms: gastronomy denotes the broader field of food culture, science, and systems. Gastronómico or gastronómica are related adjectives referring to gastronomy in general. The term culinario often emphasizes hands-on cooking and the arts of preparation, and intersects with nutrition, food science, and culinary tourism.