Gastrodiplomacy: Food as an Instrument of Cross-Cultural Understanding

April 7, 2021 Chef Nasser Jaber (Co-Founder of The Migrant Kitchen) and Johanna Mendelson Forman '69 (Adjunct Professor at American University’s School of International Service) provide an interesting and informative discussion on the way food has become a central utensil in diplomatic toolkits across the world. Gastrodiplomacy is the practice of sharing a country’s cultural heritage through food, and is a type of cultural diplomacy, based on the premise that the easiest way to win hearts and minds is through the stomach. Gastrodiplomacy is today in the academic world what we call “soft power”—a tool of persuasion. During this event, we discussed how countries are branding their cuisines or their unique foods to track business and tourism. SPEAKER BIOS Chef Nasser Jaber, Co-Founder of The Migrant Kitchen has focused his career on the intersection of immigration and food. Since 2012, he has worked with the U.S. State Department in Turkey, Sweden and Morocco to provide solutions to the refugee crisis through food, hospitality and sustainable farming. In 2015, Nasser opened the critically acclaimed Middle Eastern restaurant, Mazeish in Manhattan's Lower East Side, which birthed Displaced Kitchens; a project devoted to showcasing the diverse communities that are the backbone of the NYC food industry. Johanna Mendelson Forman '69 is an Adjunct Professor at American University’s School of International Service. She is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center, where she heads the Food Security Program. Her frontline experience as a policy maker on conflict and stabilization efforts drove her interest in connecting the role of food in conflict, resulting in the creation of Conflict Cuisine®: An Introduction to War and Peace Around the Dinner Table, an interdisciplinary course she teaches at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC.