American Foodies on Cultural Mission in Beijing

If you happened to be tucking into mutton hot pot at a certain branch of Dong Lai Shun on Sunday, you might have bumped into Alice Waters, American chef, organic crusader, author, and all-round foodie royalty. Her role as part of a US cultural mission taking place this week is to win the hearts of Chinese officials … through their stomachs.

Dubbed the U.S.-China Forum on Arts and Culture, it kicks off tomorrow night with a big feast cooked by Waters at the US Embassy. According to this blog post from the NYTimes, Waters spent her first day in China at an organic farm outside Beijing, seeking out seasonal ingredients for the dinner. Well, if that doesn’t work out she could always pop down to Lohao City.

The four-day event has been organised by Orville Schell, Director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations in an attempt to bridge the cultural gap and build relationships between the two nations outside of the political arena. Other foodie attendees include Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, who will be talking about organic food with Chinese food activists.

An odd mix of notable cultural figures will be in town too, from musicians to actors and directors, including one half of the Coen brothers Joel Coen, and Meryl Streep who has pretty much the funniest sounding Chinese-translated name ever. What this means of course, is the potential for international A-list celebrity spotting in Sanlitun's nightspots this week is off the scale.

Image: NYTimes.com