Shayan Lallani, PhD

Shayan is a member of the Destination Development team at the Culinary Tourism Alliance. His work focuses on developing culinary tourism trails and experiences rooted in local foodways, cultural assets and community storytelling. He has led and supported projects across Canada, including the Richmond Dumpling Trail, Waterloo Region Fields & Flavours Trail, Windsor-Essex Follow the Flavours Multicultural Food Trail and a Cider Trail for the Ontario Craft Cider Association. He also leads the Alliance’s academic engagements, liaising with post-secondary institutions and sharing research through conferences and publications. In addition, he spearheads curriculum development for post-secondary institutions, and led the creation of training programs such as Culinary & Agritourism READI and the Taste of Place Leadership Program.

Shayan has long been interested in the connection between food, identity and place. Raised in multicultural cities like Miami, Orlando and Toronto, this early curiosity deepened during a family cruise in 2011 where he became fascinated by how cruise lines represent global cultures through cuisine.

After completing a BA in History at the University of Toronto, Shayan pursued an MA in Food History focusing on the evolution of cruise ship dining. He later earned a PhD from the University of Ottawa, studying how mass-market cruise lines transformed their vacations into curated cultural experiences by using themed environments to produce commercialized interactions with global cultures.

Research for these projects has taken Shayan throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. His work appears in journals including Globalizations, Food Culture & Society and Journal of Tourism History. He also guest-edited a special issue of Food, Culture & Society on culinary tourism, highlighting how food and drink serve as powerful vehicles for cultural exchange. His forthcoming book on the mass-marketization of Caribbean cruise vacations is under contract with the University of Illinois Press.

Outside of work, Shayan enjoys wildlife photography, paleontology, baking and travelling.