I love the scene in the movie Ratatouille where the food critic takes a bite of the Ratatouille and is immediately transported back to his childhood. It beautifully illustrates the power that food has to affect us.
The New York Times ran an interesting article today about how food is used in diplomacy. Apparently Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sees the food that is served to foreign dignitaries as an opportunity to both show-off American cuisine and culinary talent, while demonstrating understanding of the visitor's traditions. Mrs Clinton uses food as part of the process of diplomacy.
The article goes on to describe the soy-marinated black cod and eight treasured rice packet with dried fruit and pork sausage served to Chinese vice president Xi Jinping. That meal was cooked by non-other than Ming Tsai, a friend of mine from high school who has managed to become a celebrity chef. Its pretty fun to think of that guy on my soccer team now influencing international relations. Well done Ming!
My question to you is if you could influence someone with a meal, who would it be, what would you cook, and what affect would you like it to have? (please no poisonings)
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