Twenty-five food professionals from chefs, restaurant owners to food writers and critics from different countries, traveled together throughout the United States as participants in the International Visitor Leadership Program, IVLP.
It was a Culinary Diplomacy Program arranged and sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs under International Visitor Leadership Program. The program aimed to provide the participants with the opportunity to explore the role of food in bringing people from different backgrounds together.
I was one of the lucky ones chosen to represent Saudi Arabia and Arab News as a food writer and critic. The program was a three-week whirlwind experience that saw us traveling from the East to the West Coast of the United States. The participants were from different countries such as Lebanon, Czech Republic, Brazil, Poland, Madagascar, Sudan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, China, Cambodia, Palestine, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Thailand, Burma, Libya, Cote D’Ivoire, Colombia, Peru, Vietnam, Georgia, Canada, France, Namibia and Saudi Arabia.
The program kicked off in Washington DC, with dynamic sessions on the importance of culinary diplomacy, agriculture, and the federal system of government in the United States.
One of the interesting activities we participated in, while in Washington DC, was volunteering at the DC Central Kitchen. The Kitchen delivers 5,000 meals everyday to homeless shelters, transitional homes and nonprofit organizations.
We also visited chef Art Smith and discussed youth programs, promoting culture through food. Smith is co-founder of Common Threads, a Chicago-based non-profit organization that teaches low-income children how to cook wholesome and affordable meals through hands-on cooking classes. The aim is to help prevent childhood obesity and reverse the trend of generations of non-cookers, whilst celebrating cultural differences and common features that bond us together as humans.
Visiting the Washington Post was one of the great highlights of this leg of the trip, as we got the chance to experience and learn first-hand about food journalism, and culinary media coverage from Bonnie Benwich, deputy food editor at the Washington Post.
After spending an interesting week in Washington DC, we traveled to New York City to explore the role of the urban initiative for food development and to learn about the collaboration among chefs, schools and farmers to bring healthier food products and eating habits to the city.
Our food journey in the Big Apple began with the ultimate foodie tour of the city, with stops at Chelsea Market, Greenmarket at Union Square, Eataly, Foods of India, Kalustyans, Dean & Deluca’s, the New Kam Man Food Store, and China Town. The tour was an incredible taste of the vast variety of international cuisines and food products available in NYC.
We were invited to watch the live taping of the ABC television show “The Chew”, which focuses on food from every angle, and gives viewers the dish on anything and everything related to the world of food and beyond. Watching the live show was made complete when we met the memorable hosts Mario Batali, Carla Hall, Michael Symon, nutrition host Daphne Oz and entertaining expert Clinton Kelly.
We were also introduced to the founders of the New York Restaurant Week and had the chance to discuss with the organizers the current program of the week, how the idea came to reality and the role of social media in promoting this annual event.
From the East to the West Coast, our next stop was in San Francisco and Napa Valley, where we learned more about culinary education in the United States and the farm-to-table movement.
We were then split into four groups to study rural farming communities and sustainable farming practices in different cities. We all visited public high schools in the areas we were assigned to, to educate students about our national dishes. I don’t cook, so I decided to make our national Arabic coffee and present Saudi dates with it. The students were delightfully surprised by the color of our coffee and loved its aroma and unique taste.
Two days later we reunited again in Des Moines and had the chance to catch up and share our different experiences. We also attended the World Food Festival and interacted with different cooks, sampling different cuisines from all around the world. We spent four memorable nights, enjoying the local cuisine and the interesting local spots.
Our last stop was New Orleans, where we were all introduced to the authentic and unique New Orleans’ cuisine, food tourism, industry volunteerism and the Culinary Youth Initiative. We spent another four nights there and I must say, the city had a lot to offer. We visited Liberty Café, which is a non-profit restaurant that works with at risk-youth in New Orleans, teaching them culinary and life skills, with the hopes that they can confer these skills into the New Orleans entertainment and tourism industry in the future.
We also toured the Second Harvest Food Bank and attended the Annual Harvest and Music concert, which is an event that merges between local musicians and cooks, to raise money for the food bank every Wednesday throughout the months of September and October.
According to Vjekoslav Karmer, editor, chef, producer and host of “Lonci I Poklopci” Tv show in Bosnia-Herzegovina, working and meeting the participants, taught him a lot about different cultures and different backgrounds. “I honestly think it would be great to do this again with the same group of people but in another country, the experience would be quite different if it had all happened in Saudi Arabia or France or even China,” he said. “I also believe that my country needs diplomatic initiatives, such as this one, between different nationalities and religions,” he added.
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