The Art of Culinary Diplomacy

July 25 is National Culinarian's Day...and July is National Culinary Arts Month. To be a "culinarian" is to be a cook or a chef, while "the culinary arts" refer to the practice or manner of preparing food. Many take the preparation of food for granted, but for cooks and chefs, the culinary arts are not a task, but a way of life.  In my work, I credit my maternal grandmother, Nonna Angela, for teaching me that "food is the foundation upon which our families, communities, cultures, and lives are built". With that sentiment in mind, preparing food opens the doorway to both giving and receiving an enormous amount of pleasure.

  In my opinion, there are few things more important than nourishing people and adding pleasure to their lives with a powerful meal. Today however, being a chef means being a lot more than just a great cook capable of running a kitchen. There is an Italian saying that states that a chef must "think like a scientist, organize themselves like an accountant, inspire and motivate others like a warrior, move like athlete, plate dishes like an artist, and cook like an artist." Truth be told, that's just the beginning, because these days, good chefs must also be media savvy, concerned about the environment, be committed to the environment, and have excellent interpersonal and management skills. In addition to all of this, many modern chefs are passionate about special causes which fuel their inspiration.

One of the advantages of being a chef today is the voice and reach that it gives you. Fortunately for us,  being a chef is fashionable, and people care about our philosophies and techniques. Even when that wasn't the case, however, their were chefs like Escoffier doing their best to promote better working conditions and rights in kitchens, create retirement programs for chefs, chronicle recipes for future generations, promote their own culture through cuisine, and doing their best to speak out for peace and promote diplomacy.  To me, one of the responsibilities that comes with our modern day popularity, is the need to assist in as many humanitarian efforts as possible.

Part of what I believe to be my personal mission in life is doing my best to bridge cultures through food.  "Culinary diplomacy" - a term which  refers to the age old idea of using food to promote cultural relations. Food, just like all of the other daily living arts - fashion, music, sports, art, etc can be used to unite or to divide - it's all in the eyes of the beholder. In my classes and lectures I like to explain that it is very hard to claim ethnic rights to recipes because food preparation evolves over time. Here is a podcast on The Culinary Citizen which explains how I got started. Chef Luigi Diotaiuti shares my passion for the topic. Click here to read about some of our efforts.

One of the keys in promoting cultural pluralism through food is by considering its history and celebrating how various cultures use similar foods. Many countries share foods and stories because modern nationalistic borders, in all parts of the world, are not the same as they once were. We can look at maps from all different periods to see how countries were divided - by empires, caliphates, kingdoms, etc. Countries which might now be experiencing conflict with one another were once considered to be part of the same territory - which is why they enjoy the same dishes - like hummus, shakshouka, falafel, nougat, sesame candy, similar pastas, kabobs, and the list goes on and on. To try to tell someone who grew up with a specific comfort food that it "belongs" to another nation can be cruel. Watch my podcast for the Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy to learn more:

In addition to the benefits of increased positive international relations that culinary diplomacy can cause, trade, as I mentioned in a talk for Global Ties last January, can also be greatly impacted. I am proud to chair the Global Culinary Initiative for the Washington, DC Chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier. If anyone in the area would like to team up to promote their culture's cuisine as a means "to embrace our global communities through culinary connections that will provide educational programming, training programs and cultural exchange," please contact me here: To all the chefs and cooks out there, let's keep doing our best to change the world!