Tourists gain emotional pleasure and excitement through local specialties in a destination and they can learn about local culture through consuming local food in a destination. Despite the importance of analyzing acognitive structure of tourists in their local food consumption in a destination, surprisingly, there is few study that attempts to do so. Therefore, this study aims to examine a hierarchy of perceptions--attributes, consequences, and values —by tourists who are motivated to understand a culture through tasting local food. Means-end chain theory was selected as a foundation to explore tourists’ food values. This study also compared tourists’ hierarchical value maps of Hong Kong local food according to their different cultural backgrounds. The study setting is Hong Kong, which is known as the culinary capital of Asia. To collect data this study employed a pencil-and-paper hard laddering technique using a questionnaire called ‘Association Pattern Technique (APT). This study adopted a laddering interview technique that one page includes all items and is designed to connect attributes-consequences and consequences and values easily. The main questionnaire was in English and then was translated into five languages. As results, Chinese and Taiwanese groups, considered “delicious food” as the most important concreate attribute that enables them to reach “personal happiness,” “self-satisfaction and achievement,” and “fun and enjoyment.” With respect to US, UK, and other Europeans, psychological consequence, “discovering something new” and functional consequence “learn what this cuisine tastes like” are the most frequently mentioned benefits.Japanese tourist group emphasizes “excitement in original food place” as their important benefits, whereas Thai tourist group forms a ladder linking “local people and foreign tourists” with “boast others about Hong Kong local food” and the fact that it provides “love for friends and/or family.” These factors are worth taking intoconsideration when it comes to designing marketing strategies aimed at boosting local food consumption among tourists according to their different cultural backgrounds.