Culinary Diplomacy Quotes

You bring people together with food. You connect them and tie the fabric of society together through food.

The culture of chefs is a melting pot, and I always say this - if we could put all the heads of state around a table, each representing their food culture, and then each take one bite of the other's and pass it to the right, and then explain the ideals and culture around those bites, our world problems would be easier to solve.

As a chef and avid traveler, meeting new people and sharing a meal with the intent to learn more about their culture is important to me.

What is patriotism but love of the good things we ate in our childhood? I have said elsewhere that the loyalty to Uncle Sam is the loyalty to doughnuts and ham and sweet potatoes and the loyalty to the German Vaterland is the loyalty to Pfannkuchen and Christmas Stollen. As for international understanding, I feel that macaroni has done more for our appreciation of Italy than Mussolini... in food, as in death, we feel the essential brotherhood of mankind.

Gastronomy has done more to bring together people of the world than any guns ever could.

Food is strength, and food is peace, and food is freedom, and food is a helping hand to people around the world whose good will and friendship we want.

People are generally proud of their food. A willingness to eat and drink with people without fear and prejudice... they open up to you in ways that somebody visiting who is driven by a story may not get.

Using food as a way of understanding empire is highly effective. Food knows no barriers of race, gender or even time.

So how as a nation can we sit around and eat Mexican food, and drink beer and make friends? That's the question. If we can do that on a broader scale, I think we'll come out of it all right.

Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it's a start.

I think any man can be won over by being fed my Chicken with Roasted Garlic, Pancetta, and Rosemary.

Food is kind of my entry card into everything. Food kind of opens the doors... because food is peace. It's good; it's positive.