Gastrodiplomacy: The Yummiest Politics
Moi + Baguette + Cheese (Place des Voges, Paris, 2008)
Food is kind of a big deal. Whether you have it or you don’t. Whether you rock at it or you fall under the radar. For some nations, food a defining factor.
I say Italy, you say pizza, pasta and cannoli (and may only be after The Godfather)
I say Japan, you say sushi.
I say China, you think about your college diet.
As I said before, food is kind of a big deal. After all, it’s our lifeline and what better to use to define a nation than the way it manages this essential and sometimes even oh so satisfying lifeline.
Wikipedia even has an entry titled “national dish.” Sadly, though, most of the dishes mentioned on it are virtually unknown foreign words to the world’s population unless they are the expected and mainstreamed bratwurst, pizza, pasta, sushi, tapas, etc. Some of the entries will surprise you as well and some of them may no longer be true. Through globalization, we are all changing our national identities and that most certainly involves a culinary aspect as well.
In college, I took a course on Modern Britain. I loved the course and it is one of the first times I started to think about national identity. One of the most memorable readings was “Robin cook’s tikka masala speech.”
Cook starts, “Tonight I want to celebrate Britishness.” In the speech, he discusses how many people are arguing that British identity is under siege, whether it is due to the large influx of immigrants, membership in the European Union or the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and North Ireland. Cook, however, disagrees.
“In this city tonight, over 300 languages will be spoken by families over their evening meal at home,” he says. “This pluralism is not a burden we must reluctantly accept. It is an immense asset that contributes to the cultural and economic vitality of our nation.”
As Cook discusses British identity, he mentions the Chicken Tikka Massala dish, from which the speech earns its name.
“Chicken Tikka Massala is now a true British national dish,” he says, “not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences. Chicken Tikka is an Indian dish. The Massala sauce was added to satisfy the desire of British people to have their meat served in gravy.”
Melting pot, salad, whatever. You can slice it, dice it and cover it in whatever sauce or dressing you choose, but food has been and always will be a defining factor in national identity. It can change and adjust, as it has in Britain. It can go from fish and chips to chicken tikka masala, but it will most definitely define who you are to your people and the rest of the world.
Think about your last vacation. What is the most memorable part of your trip? Do you remember where you ate if and when you traveled abroad? To this day, I remember the pubs I frequented at Oxford and the seafood risotto I tried in Scotland. I remember the tapas I had in Spain and the gnocchi I had in the south of France. It may have seemed like just another meal at the time, but those moments and that cuisine have stayed with me and have changed the way I view each and every place I visit.
Paul Rockower, a recent graduate of the Master’s of Public Diplomacy program at the University of Southern California wrote an article about Gastronomy and the re-branding of Korea. “Gastrodiplomacy,” he writes “most plainly put, is the act of winning hearts and minds through stomachs.”
He also notes that the technique was perfected by Thailand, where the “Global Thai Program” in 2003 was a means for the government to increase the number of Thai restaurants globally and as a result, create a tourism boom and, according to an article in The Economist., “deepen relations with other countries.”
Rockower continues in his article to describe the rice of Korean Taco trucks, including Kogi, SeoulBBQ, Kimchi23, BullKogi and Calbi in the Los Angeles area. He recommends that these kinds of taco trucks can, in a sense, serve as embassies of culture.
While, personally, I haven’t exactly fallen in love with the taco truck, I have to agree that, as Rockower puts it, “For the wide swathes of Americans who don’t travel abroad, it is through culinary experiences that Americans often discover other parts of the world.”
The people of the world, in general, can be pretty bright, but we can also be just plain old ignorant. One thing everyone has in common, though, is food. It has a mass appeal and a mass understanding and therefore creates a large market for cultural diplomacy.
Perhaps I feel especially tied to this idea as an avid foodie, but most of my memories of my life, the world and important moments, involve food. Whether it is a lunch I shared with a friend, a dinner I cooked for someone important to me or a foreign cuisine I discovered, those memories are both prominent and permanent.
As someone who wasn’t born in America, I am often asked to share my culture. While the first question directed at me is usually to share my limited knowledge of Russki profanities, the second request is usually related to food. By sharing Russian cuisine with friends, I am opening the door for a cross-cultural exchange. Maybe the best you can do is say “Merci” for your street crepes or nod with gratitude for your sushi, but food allows for an unspoken universal language.
When I was in Jordan, every meeting I had with an ambassador or NGO head involved tea. The hospitality of sharing a cup of tea with your guests is prevalent in the Middle East. Similarly, the Italian custom to just let you sit around for hours without asking for a bill is characteristic of the laid-back culture of Italy. In Israel, I ordered a slice of pizza at a roadside stop. The owner at the register refused to let me pay for my meal until I tried it and approved. Russian grandmothers will always make you eat more than your stomach can handle. It’s a fact of life.
While the actual food may be changing as a result of globalization, the way in which it is presented will never change. It is a testament to whichever culture you step into and it will always be the tastiest diplomacy out there.