A panel of culinary experts from around the world will present “Diplomatic Tables: Food, Wine, Politics and Culture” at The 2nd Paris Conference on Education (PCE2023) and The 2nd Paris Conference on Arts & Humanities (PCAH2023).
Jeannie Cho Lee, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Jasper Morris, Inside Burgundy, United Kingdom
Daisuke Utagawa, Daikaya, United States
To participate in the event as an audience member, please register for the conference.
This plenary will also be available for IAFOR Members to view online. To find out more, please visit the IAFOR Membership page.
Abstract
Diplomatic Tables: Food, Wine, Politics and Culture
Food and wine are boundary-traversing languages that shape our understanding of and relationship with the world. In the world of culinary diplomacy, France is a superpower, and exercises outsized influence, and in this panel, we will look at how France has played and continues to play an important role in educating, training and quality assurance, and how other countries engage around food, sometimes contentiously.
Like other forms of cultural diplomacy, culinary diplomacy requires skill and knowledge of chefs and food experts who communicate their own country’s history and culture through gastronomy. However, it is also at the level of “ordinary” people engaging around the food and drink that they love, and the personal vulnerability that exists in sharing their own “soul food”.
Food and drink are conduits that connect people and societies in ways conventional diplomacy between countries cannot. Whether as an ordinary tourist, or as a leader of a country, individuals taste and digest, both literally and metaphorically, the culture, history, and politics of other countries.
In this panel, three different professionals from three different nationalities, but with a shared love and professional interest in French cuisine and wine, talk about their relationship with food and wine, in this exciting international, intercultural and interdisciplinary space.
Speaker Biography
Jeannie Cho Lee
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Jeannie Cho Lee is the first Asian Master of Wine, an award-winning author of 3 books, wine judge, educator and consultant. She was awarded the Legion of Honor for her contributions to French gastronomy and wine in 2021 by the President of France. In 2015, Jeannie was selected as one of the top 100 most influential people in Hong Kong by the South China Morning Post and Debrett’s, and voted the 25th most powerful person in wine by Decanter magazine (UK). She is currently a professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Hotel and Tourism Management where she received a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in marketing and branding. Jeannie also holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University, a Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in Political Science/International Relations, and a Certificat de Cuisine from Cordon Bleu. She consults for several hospitality groups such as Resorts World Singapore and has been the wine consultant for Singapore Airlines since 2009.
Jasper Morris
Inside Burgundy, United Kingdom
Jasper, a native of Hampshire, United Kingdom, preferred to immerse himself in the field of wine rather than follow the family occupation of law.
Having created his own importing company in 1981, Morris & Verdin Ltd, he became a specialist in the wines of Burgundy. He became a Master of Wine in 1985, bought a house near Beaune in 1991, and published his book Inside Burgundy in 2010 (second edition 2021). Both editions were awarded the André Simon prize.
Having sold his company to Berry Bros & Rudd in 2003, with whom he stayed until 2017, Jasper decided to leave the world of commerce so as to better understand what was going on in his favourite region and to find further ways to transmit this knowledge – hence the website Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy, www.insideburgundy.com.
Jasper, elected Chevalier de l’Ordre de Mérite Agricole in 2005, is also a consultant for the Hospices de Beaune wine auction since 2016, first with Christie’s and now with Sotheby’s.
Daisuke Utagawa
Daikaya, United States
Born in Tokyo, Daisuke Utagawa first came to Washington, D.C. with his father in 1969 where he attended school in Bethesda, Maryland. Utagawa returned to Japan in 1972 to finish his education, and began an apprenticeship in 1980 where he learned the art of traditional Japanese culinary technique from a master chef. In 1983, Utagawa returned to D.C. and started working as a sushi chef at the original Sushiko before purchasing the restaurant in 1988. Utagawa has since spent many years studying the “Cuisine of Subtraction” and, as the Creative Director, applies what he’s learned to Sushiko’s entire experience. Now a US citizen, Utagawa lives in D.C. with his wife and children and continues his work as a renowned restaurateur with Sushiko and his ramen shop and izakaya, Daikaya.
Joseph Haldane (Moderator)
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.
Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).
Dr Haldane’s research and teaching is on history, politics, international affairs and international education, as well as governance and decision making. Since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and is Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.
A Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance, Dr Haldane is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade (Serbia), a Visiting Professor at the School of Business at Doshisha University (Japan), where he teaches Ethics and Governance on the MBA programme, and a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Education (USA), collaborating on the development of the Global PhD programme.
Dr Haldane has given invited lectures and presentations to universities and conferences around the world, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and advised universities, NGOs and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Office in collaboration with IAFOR.
From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.
