Culinary Diplomacy + Cultural Exchange
Food · Culture · Exchange · Connection
Food can communicate before we ever speak the same language.
Across the Table
Adrian Lipscombe's international culinary work uses food as a point of connection, bringing together chefs, farmers, artisans, students, and communities to exchange knowledge about ingredients, techniques, agriculture, preservation, history, and culture.
Through culinary diplomacy, research, teaching, and cultural exchange, Adrian approaches the table as a place where people can share not only food, but knowledge, identity, memory, and understanding.
Culinary Diplomacy
Adrian is a member of the U.S. Department of State's American Culinary Corps, an initiative created through the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership to use food, hospitality, and the expertise of American chefs as tools for cultural diplomacy.
Her work extends beyond representing American cuisine abroad.
It is rooted in exchange and understanding how food can create conversations between people whose histories, languages, and traditions may be different, while recognizing the agricultural and cultural knowledge each person brings to the table.
Adrian has done cultural exchange in Korea, Dominican Republic, Kuwait, and many more countries.
Representing Through Food
Culinary diplomacy is also an act of representation. When Adrian cooks internationally, she brings more than a collection of American dishes to the table. She brings the foodways of Texas, the American South, and the African American experience, traditions shaped by land, migration, agriculture, ingenuity, and generations of knowledge.
Through live-fire cooking, regional ingredients, storytelling, and shared meals, Adrian uses food to introduce audiences to the complexity of American cuisine and the many cultures that have shaped it.
These exchanges also create space to challenge the idea that American food has a single story. Instead, the table becomes an opportunity to talk about the people, communities, and histories that have contributed to what America eats today.