Culinary Diplomacy

If I had a desire for sweat tea as a child, I had to go to my best friend’s house across the street to drink this presumed cultural staple made by her grandmother; we only had unsweetened in our house, and most often unsweetened green tea.

(you'll see in mere moments why I chose the word presumed )

Yet as a Southerner, I am often asked questions regarding sweet tea and fried chicken – “do you have a good fried chicken recipe”, or even recently at a conference, “would you say this is ‘good’ sweet tea?” I take pause after assumptions such as these are made or questions like that asked...

The perception of Southern culture and the foods most often associated with being from the South are automatically rooted in assumptions made by others; in the instances highlighted above, their assessment of my cultural identity.

These questions and assumptions regarding people, culture, and food is one of the primary reasons I was drawn to the topic of studying food and culture. The perception is just because you are “from” a place, then you must enjoy, eat cook, and be knowledgeable of the cuisine.

Therefore in my work through analyzing the intersections between food and culture, incongruencies, inaccuracies, and injustices can be absolved, providing for enriched domestic and international community understanding and development - a culinary diplomacy.