Culinary Diplomacy, Politics and Gastronomy: An Irish State Banquet Fit For A Queen

Description

In early 2011, Ross Lewis, Chef Patron of the Michelin-starred Restaurant Chapter One in Dublin, Ireland, was asked by the Irish Food Board to create a menu for a high -profile banquet. The name of the guest of honour would only be divulged several weeks la ter after vetting by the protocol and security divisions of the Irish Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and their British counterparts. Lewis was informed that the menu was for the state banquet to be hosted by President Mary McAleese at Dublin Castle in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Ireland the following May. He was given the following brief: the menu had to be Irish, the main course had to be beef, and the meal was to represent the very best of Irish ingredients, all of which had to be sourced on the island of Ireland. It was less than fifteen years since the signature of the Good Friday agreement, prior to which the state visit of a reigning British monarch to Ireland would have not been considered possible. The visit was therefore highly symbolic, and the state banquet in particular, was a highly orchestrated and formalised process, carefully curated to represent Ireland’s diplomatic, cultural, and culinary identity.

Combining archival research and interviews with key stakeholders, this paper discusses the semiotics of culinary diplomacy within the context of the state banquet for Queen Elizabeth, how the event provided an exceptional showcase of Irish culture and design, and how the menu, which would later be described as ‘Ireland on a Plate’, was created.

Period	2023
Event title	Stockholm Gastronomy Conference: “Taste diplomacies”: Gastrodiplomacy and Culinary Diplomacy as robust intersections between policy, politics and gastronomy
Event type	Conference
Location	Stockholm, SwedenShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International