By Annemarie Tompsen
Get your forks and discussion cards ready as Conflict Café returns to London for a second year. Named the most inspiring pop-up restaurant of 2014, Conflict Café is coming to Waterloo in honor of International Peace Day from September 8th until October 3rd. The restaurant will offer a dining experience that brings the power of international cuisine coupled with conversation about creating peace in countries affected by conflict.
Partnered with Grub Club and Cult Events, Conflict Café is part of International Alert’s annual Talking Peace Festival. Currently, the growing organization is involved in 25 countries and holds a place as one of the world’s leading peace-building organizations.
International Alert’s first Conflict Café event in Hoxton Square was a delicious success, causing a booming response from the public. Now, a year later, they hope to provide the same results with a second event, which will be held at The House of Vans, an underground site popular to the area. Each week the venue will transform to reflect a region under conflict, focusing on areas that suffered during 2015.
“Following the tremendous success of last year, we’re very excited that Conflict Café will be returning to celebrate the food and culture of even more countries affected by conflict,” said Ilaria Bianchi, Head of Communications at International Alert. “The restaurant provides an interesting and unique platform for breaking down barriers and getting people talking about peace and conflict issues around the world.”
In response to international conflicts in 2015, Part One will focus on the events in Syria by featuring a Middle Eastern brunch cooked up by Honey & Co chefs Sarit Packer and Itmar Srulovich as well as events in Nepal, Turkey, Syria and Armenia. Chef Rajiv KC, of Rajiv’s Kitchen, will also cook up some of his best Nepalese dishes. “It’s a known fact that food brings people together, and when people come together with ideas and solutions, extraordinary things can happen.” Chef KC said. Food is also the best way to educate people about other cultures. We can learn a lot about a nation from its food, and once you understand, you can build bridges.”
About the writer
Annemarie Tompsen currently studies Publishing and Writing at Emerson College, where she also works part time at the Lacerte Family Writing & Academic Resource Center. A New Englander at heart, she’s recently moved to the Boston area from the small coastal town of Milford, CT. In her spare time she frequents local Boston coffee shops and has taken an interest in finding the diviest diners around. With the summer approaching she looks forward to exploring Boston and traveling along the coast any chance she can. Annemarie hopes to use her love for the written word to pursue a profession in the publishing industry and to further develop her writing career. Follow her on twitter.
Feature image of a man’s hand painted as the globe for World Peace Day via Shutterstock
