After decades of trying to solve some of the world’s most intractable conflicts, I’ve come to believe that bringing people together around a common table may be a better way to build peace than other forms of intervention. In fact, I believe the kitchen is the new venue of foreign policy.
– Johanna Mendelson Forman
Johanna Mendelson Forman is a premier expert on gastrodiplomacy, social gastronomy and how food is central to survival and resilience in the world’s most active conflict zones. Her lifelong career working with some of the leading organizations in this space led her to create Conflict Cuisine®: An Introduction to War and Peace Around the Dinner Table – a course and curriculum designed to educate about food security, culinary and gastrodiplomacy and the issues she about which she is so passionate.
Utilizing the Conflict Cuisine® curriculum, Johanna challenges others to explore new ways of looking at diplomacy, conflict resolution, civic engagement and how food can drive these issues in the 21st Century. In establishing this link between food and conflict, Johanna has developed a new interdisciplinary platform examining why food is central to survival and resilience in conflict zones. Read more about the Conflict Cuisine® curriculum, or check out the Conflict Cuisine® resources page.
LEADING THE DIALOGUE ON FOOD AND CONFLICT
Johanna Mendelson Forman is a highly regarded expert in international relations and peacebuilding. She has focused on specific regions of Latin America and the Caribbean, with extensive field experience in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Central America Colombia and Brazil. Her extensive list of professional credentials includes her ongoing roles as an adjunct professor at American University’s School of International Service and Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center, where she also heads the Food Security Program. She is a founding member of the Social Gastronomy Movement, a global organization that uses the power of food to create social change.
In her long and distinguished career, Johanna has worked with a multitude of top-tier agencies and groups, including the United Nations, USAID and the World Bank. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Les Dames d’Escoffier and also serves on the Smithsonian Museum Food Program’s Kitchen Cabinet. She is a board member of Creative Learning and Earthspark International. She is a frequent lecturer for the Department of State’s Arts Envoy programs on food and entrepreneurship. She has taught at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University.
She holds a PhD in Latin American History from Washington University, St. Louis, a J.D. from Washington College of Law at American University, and a Master’s of International Affairs from Columbia University. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College.
AUTHOR, DISTINGUISHED GUEST & MODERATOR
Johanna is an experienced subject matter expert who is frequently featured by national media including the Wall Street Journal, NPR, UNIVISION,s and CNN. She has also authored a number of opinion pieces in prominent publications, most recently The Hill (February 2021). In addition, in 2019 she co-edited The Cuisines of Life: Stories and Recipes of the New Food Entrepreneurs of Turkey, adding “book editor” to her ever-growing list of accomplishments.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
- Training for Ukrainian Diplomatic Academy, Culinary Diplomacy Course, October 4-8, 2021, Arts Envoy Program, American-Ukrainian Council.
- Global Minnesota, World Food Day Conference, October 15, 2021
- Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Food through Peace, Podcast, October 1, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK2o75oomaw
- Institute for Food Technology, Gastronomy, Crisis and Food Systems, June 18, 2021, panel at annual meeting,
- Kitchen Table Dialogues, Oxford Food Symposium, Is the Kitchen the New Venue of Foreign Policy, April 22, 2021
- World Food Tourism Association, Gastrodiplomacy 101, A Guide for the Hospitality Industry, April 22, 2021.
- Terroir Mediterranean: Gastrodiplomacy, Food Culture and Politics, Nov. 22, 2020
- Arts Envoy Program with Angela Garbacz: Meeting with women In Lebanon and Emirates on food and community, Nov. 10, 2020
- Adana Food Festival: Talk on Conflict Cuisine: Building Communities Around the Table, Oct. 10, 2020
- Izmir Gastrofest: Nothing is Lost in Translation: The Universal Language of Food, Oct. 25, 2020
- CrisisIbility podcast: CrisisIbility and the Need for Leadership July 14, 2020
- Les Dames d’Escoffier: Let them eat Zoom! The Future of Culinary Tourism panel discussion, July 7, 2020
- Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, Lima, Peru: Gastrodiplomacia and Gastronomía Social, June 17, 2020
- CrisisIbility podcast: The Power of Food, June 11, 2020
- Schwarzman Scholars, Tsinghua University, Beijing: Food and Power in the 21st Century: The International Relations of Cuisine, May 12, 2020
- CrisisIbility podcast: Food Security, March 19, 2020
- University of Maryland: Food and Power in the 21st Century: The International Relations of Cuisine, March 11, 2020
- NYU Abu Dhabi, Cooking the Nation: Global Perspectives and Local Insights on Culinary Nationalism and Diplomacy Conference, From Culinary Diplomacy to Gastrodiplomacy: The Democratization of Food Culture in the 21st Century, Dec. 8-10, 2019
- Add Passion and Stir podcast: Johanna Mendelson Forman and Noobtsaa Philip Vang on Conflict Cuisine, Dec. 3, 2019
- Social Gastronomy project: The Clink, Oct. 14, 2019
- YEDI Istanbul: War and Peace and the Dinner Table, Sept. 23, 2019
CONTACT If you’d like to learn more about the power of food in zones of conflict or book Johanna as a guest or speaker, please email johanna@conflictcuisine.com.
