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Advances in Tourism, Technology and Systems pp 449–458Cite as

The “Francesinha” a Tourist Icon of the City of Porto

Part of the Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies book series (SIST,volume 284)

Abstract

When we talk about typical gastronomy in Portugal, “francesinha”, a typical Porto delicacy, is an undeniable reference. A delicacy created in the 1950s, which is part of the trio tradition, but as time went by the recipe was recreated a little everywhere in Portugal, having over the years introduced novelties in this typical dish. Nowadays, there is not, therefore, a single recipe, making Porto’s francesinha a sandwich that is amongst the ten most famous in the world. Besides being an important tourist-cultural attraction of the city, it represents a high turnover value for the regional economy. Porto represents 15 million units and a business value of 152 million euros in 2019. There are around 1500 places that sell francesinhas. The origin of the name, is a memory of its creator, Daniel Silva, who had a French “girlfriend”, who considered her “strong and spicy like no other woman in the world”. The name is a tribute to French women, which ended up becoming an icon of the invicta city, and then, in the north of Portugal, until it reached a national dimension as the original recipe proliferated in different versions. The methodology adopted in this study focussed on a case study, with restaurants, snack bars, cafés and pastry shops in Porto, and also, in industrial companies, which manufacture deep-frozen francesinhas for restaurants and supermarkets, using a qualitative exploratory work, with a qualitative approach and using semi-structured interviews.

Keywords

  • Typical gastronomy
  • Typical Porto icon
  • Francesinha
  • Sandwich

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigação, Desenvolvimento e Inovação do Instituto de Estudos Superiores de Fafe (CIDI-IESF)—Instituto de Estudos Superiores de Fafe, Rua Universitária—Medelo, Apartado 178, 4824-909, Fafe, Portugal

    Miguel Magalhães

  2. REMIT, Porto, Portugal

    Miguel Magalhães

  3. CEFAFE-UBI, Sineiro, Covilhã, Portugal

    Margarida Rodrigues

  4. IPCA-Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, Barcelos, Portugal

    Joana Pereira

  5. Centro de Investigação, Desenvolvimento e Inovação do Instituto de Estudos Superiores de Fafe (CIDI-IESF)—Instituto de Estudos Superiores de Fafe, Rua Universitária—Medelo, Apartado 178, CEGOT; REMIT, 4824-909, Fafe, Portugal

    Isabel Borges

  6. Centro de Investigação, Desenvolvimento E Inovação Do Instituto de Estudos Superiores de Fafe (CIDI-IESF)—Instituto de Estudos Superiores de Fafe, Rua Universitária—Medelo, Apartado 178, 4824-909, Fafe, Portugal

    Américo Silva

Authors
  1. Miguel Magalhães
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  2. Margarida Rodrigues
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  3. Joana Pereira
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  4. Isabel Borges
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  5. Américo Silva
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Miguel Magalhães .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Porto Accounting and Business School/CEOS, Polytechnic of Porto, São Mamede de Infesta, Portugal

    Dr. João Vidal de Carvalho

  2. School of Hospitality and Tourism, Polytechnic of Porto, Vila do Conde, Portugal

    Dr. Pedro Liberato

  3. Accounting Department, EAFIT University, Envigado, Colombia

    Dr. Alejandro Peña

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Magalhães, M., Rodrigues, M., Pereira, J., Borges, I., Silva, A. (2022). The “Francesinha” a Tourist Icon of the City of Porto. In: Carvalho, J.V.d., Liberato, P., Peña, A. (eds) Advances in Tourism, Technology and Systems. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 284. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9701-2_36

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