History

The terms “Culinary Diplomacy” and “Gastro Diplomacy” have been in use since the early 2000, and have been popularized by the work of Public Diplomacy Scholars Paul Rockower and Sam Chapple-Sokol.

An early mention of the concept was in a 2002 Economist article about the Thai Kitchen of the World program. In a 2011 article published in the Taiwanese journal Issues & Studies, Rockower wrote that “Gastro Diplomacy” is predicated on the notion that the easiest way to win hearts and minds is through the stomach. Chapple-Sokol wrote in a 2013 article in the journal The Hague Journal of Diplomacy that Culinary Diplomacy is “the use of food and cuisine as an instrument to create cross-cultural understanding in the hopes of improving interactions and cooperation amongst various International Diplomats, World Politicians, Governments & finally Nations.