Secretary Antony J. Blinken At Diplomatic Culinary Partnership Memorandum of Comprehension Signing Ceremony

AMBASSADOR GIFFORD:  Superior evening, good night.  You by no means want a speaking program to get in the way of the food items, specially on a evening like tonight.  But really, what a treat to see every person in this article tonight.  Your Excellencies, distinguished attendees, women and gentlemen, welcome to the U.S. Office of Condition.

For those people of you who I really don’t – who I really don’t know, I am Rufus Gifford.  I am main of Protocol of the United States, and I’m just so, so thrilled to see this team here tonight to relaunch the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership.  At the – sure.  (Applause.)  At the Point out Section, we know that the coronary heart of diplomacy is so considerably much more than words and phrases, meetings, and moments by yourself.  It is about making the natural environment that brings us with each other to conquer boundaries and sharing a little bit of the finest of your culture, which develop foundations for dialogue and dialogue.

There is a purpose why so considerably of our diplomatic operate takes place all around a lunch or a evening meal table.  Food items serves as a person of our most essential equipment to establish bridges, make connections, and deepen relationships.  This is a particular passion of mine.  When serving as an ambassador abroad and yet again through this system, I have sought to explain to a tale about the U.S. in aspect by means of the richness and variety of our culinary traditions – a richness and variety that the cooks ideal here in this place characterize.  And via the culinary – Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, we will find to do just this.

We are honored to be joined in this endeavor by the James Beard Foundation, America’s preeminent culinary arts business.  Firsthand, we in the Business of Protocol and the broader Point out Division have viewed the organization’s commitment to producing America’s food items culture much more numerous and sustainable for everybody, and there is no group that has a greater finger on the pulse of American cuisine.

By this initiative, we will seek to locate ground breaking means of embracing food items, hospitality, and neighborhood as diplomatic resources to engage globe leaders, additional cross-cultural dialogue, and bolster our bilateral interactions, all the even though acquiring a little bit of pleasurable and building a very little bit of pleasure.  And we’re fortunate to be supported by so numerous of you in this space.  Thank you to our Kitchen Cupboard tonight who are here in attendance.  (Applause.)  Also thank you to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Lotions and the American Learn Chefs’ Purchase for supporting this evening’s festivities.  (Applause.)

And tonight, as you can see by their awesome jackets, which I really like, associates of the American Culinary Corps will be on the front traces of impacting and reinvigorating the Condition Department’s culinary diplomacies.  So please join me in welcoming and thanking the American Culinary Corps.  (Applause.)

Now, José Andrés, a member of the American Culinary Corps and the Kitchen area Cupboard, was not able to be current in this room tonight as he is on the floor in Türkiye supporting the humanitarian efforts next the devastating earthquake.  On the other hand, he has a several words and phrases he’d like to share by online video.  Pull that up.

(The online video was performed.)

(Applause.)

AMBASSADOR GIFFORD:  We are so grateful for José’s international contributions to making the entire world a better put and so thrilled to have him sign up for the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership.  And in closing, allow me thank you again all so substantially for being below tonight.  We’re certainly thrilled to see you.  And as 1 of the most outstanding of American icons, as also a bit of an American foodstuff diplomat, Julia Little one stated, estimate, “People who love to take in are usually the best men and women.”  (Laughter.)  So thank you, and without having further more hold off it is my honor to introduce the CEO of the James Beard Basis, Clare Reichenbach.  (Applause.)

MS REICHENBACH:  Thank you so substantially, Ambassador Gifford.  Here’s to the excellent individuals.  (Laughter.)  It is these a excellent honor – the best people.  It’s this kind of a wonderful honor for the James Beard Basis to be embarking on this Diplomatic Culinary Partnership with the U.S. Department of Condition and be launching the new American Culinary Corps now.

Our mantra at the James Beard Foundation is Fantastic Food stuff for Excellent, and this application feels like a excellent expression of that.  Together we have developed a remarkable team of chefs and culinary professionals who depict the rich culinary tapestry and panoply of foodways in this region.  These folks are sector leaders and the embodiment of the foundation’s mission and values, quite a few of whom are with us this night donning their finely – their newly minted official blue jackets.  And they seem terribly wise, I have to say.  (Laughter.)

Together we realize the ability of food items in cultivating human link, and as a compelling expression of heritage and society.  A shared food and the story behind the plate can foster authentic empathy, can engender cross-cultural knowing and recognition of exactly where we have been and wherever we are heading as a society.  As José Andrés quoted, James Beard himself stated, “Food is our widespread ground.  It is a universal working experience.”  And we are so energized to harness that theory as a result of this method in help of the Condition Department’s crucial culinary diplomacy attempts, and indeed to give this network of chefs a special possibility to showcase their delicacies and craft on behalf of this terrific nation.

So a profound thank you to the U.S. Department of Point out for this inspiring option.  We are so proud and honored to function with you as we embark on this new culinary corps.  And we thank you – we thank the remarkable cooks and culinary experts who continue to notify their story and that of their communities via foodstuff.

And now it is my fantastic privilege to introduce the U.S. Secretary of Condition Antony Blinken.  (Applause.)

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you.  Fantastic night, every person.

Individuals:  Fantastic evening.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It is wonderful to have you here at the Condition Department, to have you here in the Ben Franklin Space, and to launch – or relaunch – what is for us a certainly excellent initiative.

Now, I have to tell you anything.  Most evenings in this setting up do not commence with servings of salty caramel ice product or frosé sorbet.  (Laughter.)  But we’re quite happy that tonight does, and I do want to thank the James Beard-winning Jeni Britton for providing for us tonight.  Jeni, thank you.  (Applause.)

And we are right here with an certainly remarkable team of completed cooks:  Marjorie Meek-Bradley, Tanya Holland, Edward Lee, Gregory Gourdet, Karen Akunowicz, Kwame Onwuachi, Carl Dooley, others that I can not start off to name because time would not permit it.  But let me basically say this:  If this ended up a quickfire challenge, it would finish with Padma Lakshmi telling me to “please pack my knives and go.”  (Laughter.)

We are grateful to everyone who organized the wonderful meals that we have liked tonight.  A specific many thanks to our college student cooks.  Where are you?  (Applause.)  Student cooks from the American Culinary Federation – Isaiah, Sirius, Alexis, Barbara – you represent the future era of the culinary job, and the variety, creativeness, and sheer expertise that you provide clearly show us that it’s a shiny future without a doubt – and a scrumptious a single, so thank you.

Thank you also, Clare, to you, to the James Beard Basis, our companion in the Diplomatic Culinary System and to Ambassador Gifford and our Protocol staff, whose care and whose interest to element are indispensable to the do the job that we do every day.

And, of course, a extremely heat welcome to users of the diplomatic corps below these days.  Now, I never know why they chose this particular occasion to sign up for us – (laughter) – but I’m enormously appreciative of their presence below today.

So we are, as I stated, in the Ben Franklin Area.  You can see Ben Franklin hunting down on us over there, America’s initially diplomat.  He was known for aphorisms like, “Wine is evidence that God loves us and wishes us to be content.”  (Laughter.)  When it arrived to food items, he was actually a tiny little bit more restrained, stating items like, “Eat to reside, not reside to try to eat.”  But I assume we can forgive him, for the reason that he lived in Philadelphia prior to Michael Solomonov bought there.  (Laughter.)  Then it would have been “live to eat,” or “a Federal Donut a day retains the doctor away.”  (Laughter.)

I occur to have knowledgeable that firsthand.  In actuality, I was truly telling Michael when we visited Federal Donuts there was a person awful point that happened.  We arrived absent with a excellent box of donuts in some way, between the time that we bought back again to the aircraft and I was all set to dig into just one of the donuts – somehow in that time the donuts were being no for a longer period there.  (Laughter.)  So I need to have a repeat stop by.

But you all know this:  Meals has been an integral portion of the American story.  Our culinary traditions demonstrate who we are, where we arrived from, and what we cherish.  Several of our most iconic chefs are beloved as much for their meals as they are for their braveness, enabling foreseeable future generations to provide their total selves to the kitchen area.

Discrimination prevented James Beard from undertaking that in his life span, but nowadays, his basis operates to be certain that cooks are judged on the food items they prepare – not who they are, what they glimpse like, who they adore.  That is a mission that so numerous cooks in this article tonight are carrying forth.

In the range of America’s cuisine and our best chefs, we see a reflection of our identification as a nation of immigrants – a land enriched by a stunning fusion of thoughts, of traditions, and tastes.

As the Frenchman Brillat-Savarin put it, “Tell me what you eat…I’ll notify you who you are.”  An additional terrific thinker of our moments, who some of you would have seen on the show Ted Lasso – (laughter) – would say that football is everyday living.   Well, food stuff is everyday living.

It is also, as you heard from Ambassador Gifford, just one of the oldest resources of our diplomacy.  When we break bread with persons, we understand a little something about each individual other in techniques that transcend divisions of geography or language.  In my very own time as a diplomat, I have observed that sitting down down for a food with my counterparts has typically led to discussions, candor, exchanges that merely do not take place when you’re in a conference space, a board area, in an official formal environment.  Set yet another way, occasionally diplomacy gets a lot more accomplished successfully at the dining place table than at the convention table, and I’ve witnessed that, seasoned that myself.

In this article at the State Office, cultural diplomacy has extended been a pillar of our perform.  We run systems to harness the electrical power of artwork, music, athletics, instruction, and – of course – delicacies, and that assists us join with other communities and other countries.

So now, alongside the James Beard Basis – and with a unique thanks to the advisory team that you’ve previously read reference to, the “Kitchen Cabinet” – we are thrilled to be launching the up coming generation of the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership.  This method is likely to carry American chefs into our diplomatic gatherings, from embassy receptions to condition dinners.  It will give overseas site visitors and dignitaries a chance to study about the history of American cuisine and quite actually get a taste of our tradition.  And it will advertise American food items overseas, introducing our solutions, our eating places, flavorful innovations to men and women all around the earth.

At the heart of this initiative is the new American Culinary Corps.  We have enlisted a lot more than 80 of our nation’s most proficient cooks, reflecting the prosperous variety of our nation and our food items.  Numerous of them already operate restaurants or kitchens that serve as ambassadors for their personal communities and a slice of American cuisine.  Now, what we’re asking them to do is to do the job on a world wide scale, to use their unbelievable gifts to act as citizen diplomats – touring, cooking, sharing our traditions 1 meal at a time.

The Culinary Corps represent the finest of the American food items scene, and we are thrilled to husband or wife with some definitely incredible cooks.  I imagine some 50 or additional of our colleagues are below with us tonight at the Point out Department.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  (Applause.)

Now again, I can’t solitary out all people tonight, but permit me just mention a several individuals – cooks like Christine Ha, who is breaking barriers as a blind chef, a woman of color, an advocate for other chefs with disabilities, and a mastermind powering two award-profitable Vietnamese restaurants.

Sean Sherman, who is preserving and revitalizing indigenous components and methods by producing dishes like compote built with wild manzanita berries and acorns.  Indicator me up for that.  (Laughter.)

Kevin Tien, government chef at D.C.’s Moon Rabbit – which he calls a love-letter to his heritage as a first generation Asian American – and a co-founder of Cooks Stopping AAPI Loathe.  I know that many associates of the American Culinary Corps are concerned with this program and lately hosted a profit dinner to guidance family members that had been influenced by the horrific mass capturing that we skilled in Monterey Park.

Final month in Chicago, I experienced the prospect to take a look at Eli’s Cheesecake Corporation.  Now, some of you might have expert Eli’s cheesecake in the previous.  In truth, the full trip to Chicago was an justification to go to Eli’s.  (Laughter.)  But real to its title, Eli’s helps make remarkable cheesecake.  But what is even much more exceptional is the team earning people cheesecakes – a 3rd of whom are refugees.  And I acquired a prospect to visit the production line and meet some of these outstanding people today.

Supporting the following technology of American citizens is a value which is as basically American as cheesecake alone.  And Eli’s reminds us that great foods is as a lot about what is in our hearts as what’s in our stomachs.

So I am self-assured that the chefs of the American Culinary Corps will carry on in that spirit as they share their techniques, boost our values, and forge new bonds among our nation and communities all-around the world.

To each individual and each one of you who’s participating as just one of our new ambassadors, thank you.  To all of you here tonight, thank you for joining us.  We have a little little bit of organization to get treatment of in the signing of this Memorandum of Knowledge, and then we’ll get out of the way so that persons can keep ingesting and eating.  (Laughter.)

Thank you incredibly a lot.  (Applause.)

MODERATOR:  The Memorandum of Knowing getting signed right now formalizes the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership involving the United States Section of Point out and the James Beard Foundation.  This partnership will endeavor to progress community diplomacy by meals and hospitality and bridge cultures as a result of the culinary arts.

(The Memorandum of Knowing was signed.)

(Applause.)

MODERATOR:  This concludes today’s MOU signing ceremony.  Remember to carry on to enjoy the reception.  Thank you.