Everyone understands the power of a feast to banish bad feelings and bring people together, but how far can the uniting power of shared meal go? A pop-up café created last year is returning, to show that good food can help to resolve international conflicts.
The Conflict Café, organised by the NGO International Alert, will serve food from the areas where it runs peace-building projects, including Syria, Nepal, Colombia, Armenia and Turkey. Appropriately, the month-long series of events starts with Syrian cuisine.
Charlotte Onslow, who works for International Alert, has adapted the tools used by the charity’s work overseas to operate in the café, which is near Waterloo station in London: “We want to make sure you don’t talk only to the person you came with, so we have long tables and materials on them that generate questions; there will be specialists who explain a bit about the conflicts,” she said.
Later in the month, Natalie Griffith, who runs a supper club, Natalie’s Armenian Kitchen, from her home in Herne Hill, south London, will be cooking. She was inspired to start the club after a trip to Iran early this year: “I lived with a host family. The mother had spent time in Lebanon and there was a Russian influence in the food.” Griffith is teaming up with a Turkish chef on 30 September, 1 and 3 October.
Relations between Turkey and Armenia have been tense ever since the Armenian genocide of 1915. “I hope to facilitate that dialogue and put Armenia on the map,” Ms Griffith said.
International Alert has recently sent ethnographic researchers to Gyumri, the capital of Shirak province in Armenia, and to Kars in Turkey to interview women about their favourite recipes. They found that many of the recipes were similar to those across the border and certain ingredients had the same name, such as un, meaning flour. They then swapped recipes between the women.
“This is why food is so fascinating for peacebuilding, because it bypasses politics,” Ms Onslow said. “Once you have gone through the portal of something more human, you can then get to the politics later.”
Chef Rajiv Kc, who runs the only Nepalese supper club in London, will be cooking from 17 to 19 September.
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“Many people are unaware of the civil and political unrest that has been ongoing for over more than a decade in Nepal,” he said.
“We will tell our story and raise awareness through food.
“And for a country still recovering from a catastrophic earthquake, dinner-party conversation that includes attention and understanding can make a big difference.
The Conflict Café, House of VANS, London SE1. For more information visit grubclub.com/conflict-cafe
