It takes a diplomat to orchestrate harmonious holiday meals. Seat argumentative guests together and insults could be served up before the first course is cleared. Favor one person's side dish over another's or let wine snobs critique the Pinot, and there may be more push back than just with the chairs.
A gracious host knows how to tactfully avoid politic pitfalls among friends and family. Imagine, however, if your job was to unite people from all over the world through food?
When Portland Chef Naomi Pomeroy is not creating menu items for her critically praised Beast restaurant and Expatriate bar, she accepts assignments from the U.S. State Department to speak about American cuisine to foreigners.
She talked up Alaska salmon, Idaho potatoes and Oregon's hazelnuts to a rapt audience in Thailand in 2013. She waxed lyrical about different cuts of U.S. beef to the culinary curious in Hong Kong in 2015. In October, she visited Milan to demonstrate her style of cooking using other Pacific Northwest products.
Food is the universal language that connects everyone, says Pomeroy, who was named Best Chef in the Northwest at the 2014 James Beard Awards and appeared on Season 3 of the Bravo series, "Top Chef Masters."
"Everyone has to eat," she says. "We also connect by learning about products and food traditions and by shopping, visiting farms and eating together. It's a layered experience."
Calling on chefs to whip up goodwill is effective, says Lauren Bernstein, the director of the State Department's Diplomatic Culinary Partnership program.
The federal government sees culinary diplomacy as a way to promote home-grown food and encourage trade and investment, says Bernstein, adding that the U.S exported more than $140 billion worth of goods in 2013.
More than acting as product pitchmen, chefs form relationships through their diplomatic give and take. They work alongside star chefs in each country, which influences their menus, and by speaking to large groups, they attract tourists, increase foreign attendance at food and wine festivals and squelch food stereotypes, says Bernstein.
Members of the American Chef Corps - who have included Jose Andres, Mary Sue Milliken, Portland's Cathy Whims and Seattle's Maria Hines - also show that there's more here than hot dogs and ketchup. "American products are not as expensive or mysterious as some people might believe," says Pomeroy.
In September, Pomeroy invited a TV crew from Bogata, Colombia, to her Northeast Portland home. Inside her just remodeled kitchen, she showed Chef Alejandro Canedo, the Spanish-speaking star of the Colombian cooking show "Plan Chef," how to make a smoked salmon souffle, the American way.
"I don't speak Spanish," says Pomeroy, "but there's not much you have to say when you're cooking."
The foreign film crew toured Oregon, Washington and California, using an itinerary set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and partners from the Pear Bureau Northwest, Washington Apple Commission, California Wine Institute and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
Lynsey Kennedy of Pear Bureau Northwest say her organization has promotion programs in 33 countries and hosts media groups from China and Russia as well as retailers and importers from growing regions in Mexico, China, Brazil, India and the Middle East.
On Sept. 21, the Colombian TV crew visited Full Sail Brewing Co. in Hood River where they learned - and filmed - about craft beer. The crew also visited Stumptown Coffee Roasters to interview the coffee chain's Colombian vendor.
The top agriculture products imported to the U.S. from Colombia are flowers, coffee and bananas, according to the USDA.
Escorting the Colombian crew was Anthony Gilbert, a Portland resident who now lives in Colombia and works for the USDA as the Agricultural Attache in Bogota. Part of his job through the Sabor USA campaign is to promote U.S. gastronomy and change perceptions of Colombian and American culture.
He says Americans' view of Colombia "is changing from the negative narrative of the '90s and we are trying to let Americans know that Colombia is a wonderful place to visit."
Colombians' stereotypes of food in the U.S. is that it's fast, fattening and mass produced. "This trip was to demonstrate to our Colombian audience that there are different kinds of consumers, and many people living here want to know where their food comes from," Gilbert says.
The TV crew's first road trip was timed so the group could attend a Portland Feast dinner, where food providers were identified on the menu. "They were blown away by the higher consciousness of U.S. consumers and their desire for information about farmers and what they buy," says Gilbert.
Just like at your holiday table, conversations about food spill over into honest talk about lifestyles. Pomeroy, who has been called a "cooking-world star" by the New Yorker, lives with her daughter, August, and husband Kyle Linden Webster, who co-owns Expatriate with Pomeroy.
When Pomeroy was in Hong Kong on the U.S. State Department's behalf, she was interviewed for a story to appear in Asia's Elle magazine's Mother's Day issue.
The subject turned from wild salmon to raising children. "They wanted to know more about me being a mother and professional," Pomeroy says, "and how that works in the U.S."
Pomeroy sees culinary diplomacy as a way to share cross culturally about food, hospitality and the dining experience.
"It's not about the flavor of the food, but relationships," she says. "I now have new friends in Colombia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Italy. It makes the world a closer place."
-- Janet Eastman
jeastman@oregonian.com
503-799-8739
@janeteastman