COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
Why It Matters Live!: Food Diplomacy
State dinners as foreign policy. Yes really.
what it is.
A live taping of CFR's Why It Matters podcast, hosted by Gabrielle Sierra. This episode dives into food diplomacy with two guests, Johanna Mendelson Forman of the Stimson Center and Matthew Costello of the White House Historical Association. They unpack how state dinners, menus, and what's served at the table have shaped real partnerships and quietly delivered messages between governments. Why It Matters in general is CFR's attempt at a podcast for non-policy people: it picks one underexplained issue per episode and asks the smartest people in the room to make it make sense.
why i liked it.
Because of course the menu at a state dinner is foreign policy. Of course it is. The fact that nobody talks about this is exactly the kind of gap I want this site to fill. They talk about specific dinners where the food was deliberate, like what country got served what and why, and the whole thing made me want to read every White House menu in the historical archive. It's also a great example of CFR getting out of its own way. Most of their content is institutionally stiff. This one's actually fun.
what to take from it.
The "what they ate" question is never just dinner. Diplomacy happens in details that the news skips. The next time you see a state dinner photo, look at what's on the table. There's a reason for everything from the wine to the centerpieces. Also: CFR makes good podcasts, you just have to know where to look. This series is a good way in.
— xx, m