Culinary Diplomacy
Cooking up a better world[edit]
Culinary Diplomacy, sometimes also called Gastrodiplomacy, is defined as the use of food as an instrument to create cross-cultural understanding in the hopes of improving interactions and cooperation. Culinary Diplomacy is a relatively recent innovation in the field of Culture Diplomacy, making its official introduction at the beginning of this century with several governments such as South Korea and Thailand sponsoring culinary initiatives. It was mentioned in a 2002 Economist article on The Thai Kitchen of the World program, the world's first government-led culinary diplomacy initiative that really coined the term and inspired other governments to follow suit. In 2012 the US government took note and launched its very own Culinary Diplomacy Partnership Initiative with more than 80 American Chefs being named to its American Chef Corps and being sent abroad on a public diplomacy mission to educate foreign audiences on American cuisine'.
