[Music]
I’m gonna put up a photo of my all-time
favorite food now if you agree with me
that this food is also your favorite all
I want is for you to cheer give it a big
clap give it a big whoop whoop whatever
if you don’t like it you are allowed to
boo it’s the only booing you’ll be doing
today so if you like that type of thing
then this is your opportunity okay so
here we go yes there’s a few people who
are not having any form of food today
anyway this this one fruit has the
ability to show us how powerful the act
of eating can be some of you I know
you’re looking at this photo and you’re
probably wondering if I bought any for
lunch today I wasn’t allowed so I didn’t
some of you are probably wondering is he
being serious and you probably feel a
bit nauseous but that’s how emotional
food can make us there’s love and hate
and there’s everything in between and
this combination of eating and emotions
it affects the way we perceive one
another so you are more likely to strike
a relationship with a stranger in this
crowd who reacted the same way you did
today as Burma or Myanmar is rejoining
the global community we have this exact
problem the world’s opinion about us is
divided but what I want to do is to show
you my idea today of a food revolution
because I think we can shape these
opinions using the love of our nation’s
cuisine now in case you don’t know who I
am or you haven’t figured it out yet I’m
infatuated by eating I have a bit of a
problem I’m a little obsessed okay to me
food is constantly evolving you can have
the exact same dish in two completely
different environments and your
experience is completely transformed
for example have any of you ever had a
coffee in the morning before the toilet
anyone well I’m sure there’s some of you
who have it helps the bowels okay it’s
quite life-changing for some of us my my
life changed when I was full when I left
Burma and I moved to the UK and it was
just the four of us it was my parents my
brother and just me there you are and
home was first where I fell in love with
our cuisine but to tell you the truth
until I moved back to Burma about five
years ago this cuisine was my only real
connection to the this country
growing up at home my mom’s signature
dish was her mo hanga and this mohinga
was very special because she would make
this for breakfast for dinner for
birthdays I know you’re getting hungry
okay just a minute for all sorts of
special occasions but for those of you
who don’t know who may be watching what
a manga is it’s the dish we all grew up
with it’s a hot steaming fish base broth
and in this country we have it in the
morning
in 35 degree heat which I’m feeling
right now at home or on the street but
if you can picture for a second this is
where I grew up so in winter in zero
degree weather can you picture having
that exact same dish while the snow is
falling outside it’s it’s a
transformative experience right so this
dish started off life as a breakfast
dish intended to fill you up in the
morning but now it has the power to keep
a whole family together and warm at
night and about two and a half years ago
I wanted to channel that experience I
wanted to challenge the way our local
cuisine was seen and experienced so I
was one of those
crazy nutjob that decided that opening a
restaurant would be a good idea now if
people care about you no one will ever
tell you that it is a good idea but we
did it anyway and we’ve been very lucky
over the last two and a half years our
representation of local cuisine has been
featured in over 50 international
publications but the amazing thing about
that is that most of these publications
are writing about Burmese cuisine for
the very first time for me if I was to
describe our country through a dish it
would be that manga because both the
country and the dish are humble in
nature I think both are slightly
misunderstood by those who don’t know it
but I think both have the potential to
go global but you see the problem we
have in this country right now is that
we put so much emphasis on developing it
purely with the things we can measure so
we measure the currency we measure the
economy we measure the weather sometimes
we measure the traffic and we tell each
other how horrible the traffic has
become but let me ask you what about the
things we can’t measure how do we
measure the way our taste buds will
change over the next generation we can’t
how could we measure the impact that our
cuisine could have on somebody eating it
for the very first time we can’t but
these things are just as important in
the evolution of our country so if I put
this photo in front of you which is a
cheeseburger right
what is the first country that would
come to mind presumably for the majority
of you would be America yes but what if
I told you that the bar
began with the Mongol Empire would you
believe me the legend goes that as
Genghis Khan and his army were
conquering the world they had a problem
they would often live on vast areas of
land with no vegetation so what they did
was they would get meat back then it was
horse meat and they would put it under
their saddle so they could eat as they
ride and if you look at a map of this
great Empire you will find that a lot of
this area is in a part of the world we
now call Eastern Europe and it’s in
Eastern Europe that we would see the
first version of this burger which is
the Tata which is diced up raw meat many
many many years later that this dish the
Tata would make its way to Germany to a
city called Hamburg that’s where it
would become the Hamburg and not because
it has Haman it
okay so I’ve just broken an urban myth
there what this story tells us is that
in the evolution of a country or a
cuisine we shouldn’t be talking about
weeks or months or years we should be
talking about decades or centuries or
potentially even longer if you allow me
to ask you some questions I just want
you to think about it for a second if we
hadn’t been isolated for more than the
last 50 years do you think that there
would be more Burmese restaurants around
the world perhaps do you think that
Burmese cuisine would have evolved in
any way perhaps but do you think there
would be more tourists coming into Burma
I definitely think so but these are all
great questions in hindsight maybe
they’re not so relevant anymore but a
relevant question would be something a
friend asked me a couple of weeks ago
which is Ted would you travel for food
so let me ask you would you travel for
food yeah because I only travel for food
okay that’s the only reason I get free
lunch today so that’s why I did this
and I think more and more people every
year are travelling to the places like
the Coliseum in the Eiffel Tower not
just to see these historical landmarks
but they’re travelling to sample the
cuisines of their country food is a big
reason why we go back to these countries
time and time again so so this is me and
a food coma in Paris
I didn’t write all right you can see
that I didn’t quite make it to the
Eiffel Tower but you can see why
last year the UN released a survey that
showed that eighty eight point two
percent of people considered gastronomy
so let’s picture that no one here was
Burmese or you’ve never been to visit
Burma before if we were researching
whether we wanted to come to this
beautiful country on holiday and we were
part of that eighty eight point two
percent what do you think that we would
see written about our cuisine because
when I moved here five years ago this is
what I saw it’s too oily
Ted Burmese food is so oily right it has
too much MSG in it
I like msg but that’s that’s a that’s
for another talk but the truth of the
matter is that this is just the opinions
of a few and these are certainly not
facts but if we did look at some facts
what we would find is that there are
over a hundred and thirty-five ethnic
minorities in the country that’s a fact
so that’s a lot of different ways of
consuming food Rangoon the city that
we’re standing in right now in the late
1920s had taken over New York as the
migration capital of the world that’s
also a fact and that’s a lot of
influence coming in from other countries
so let me ask you again in that eighty
eight point two percent what do you
think we should be seeing written about
our cuisine if you look at this which is
our coconut noodles you should see our
general
prosody our richness as a country if you
look at this our products traditionally
from India so you should see our
cultural diversity and our history if
you look at this which is our Mohan gah
it has 28 ingredients so you should see
the complexity of the people that we are
the great news is that promoting our
country through our cuisine is now a
reality with the right mix of passion
and planning
it’s called culinary diplomacy and if
you google it which I’ve shown you how
to do in case your and any of you are
not aware what you will find is a
Wikipedia article which states that
culinary diplomacy is based on the
premise that the easiest way to win
hearts and minds is through the stomach
but as as you can tell and what you will
have now is a number of government led
initiatives around the world
practicing culinary diplomacy programs
like in Thailand like in Korea like in
the US if we took Thailand as an example
because they are the closest country to
us they released or they started a
culinary diplomacy program in 2002
called global Thai what the government
aimed to do was to subsidize and certify
as many Thai restaurants around the
world as the government could afford
they had three main targets number one
was they wanted to create as many jobs
for Thai hospitality migrants around the
world
secondly they wanted to increase exports
out of Thailand and they thought more
Thai restaurants more exports and the
third thing which is very difficult to
measure is that they wanted to increase
the global understanding and
appreciation of Thai cuisine
if you ask whether you think they’ve
been successful or not you just have to
look at this in 2002 there were five and
a half thousand tyrants outside of
Thailand around the world by 2012 there
were fifteen thousand there were ten
million visitors going into Thailand in
2002 and there were 32 million in 2016
of course this culinary diplomacy
program is not the only reason why these
numbers have gone up but it shows that a
national initiative to do something like
this has an effect in the long term the
truth is that if the world had more of
an affinity towards our country we would
be less likely to be discriminated
against right because we have an
identity people know who we are but more
important than that is in this
generation and the next there would be
more opportunity for all of us but what
we need to do as Burmese people is
realize that our pride is our strength
but it can also be our weakness it’s not
enough just to believe in what you do
and believe in yourself in the 21st
century you need to convince others of
it too my dream is to see Burmese food
in every major city in the world mohinga
and Paris tea leaf salad in New York can
you picture that yeah if our country was
a train we have just left the station
we’ve only just left it culture health
education technology all of these things
are all aboard this train we as a
country need to put our cuisine on there
as well it’s really important
the greatest thing about food is that
there is no such thing as a culinary
dictator because we don’t we don’t want
one of those right there is no such
thing as a culinary coup so it doesn’t
matter the economy the politics no one
will be able to take away a global
Burmese cuisine please please enjoy
lunch everyone thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
I’m gonna put up a photo of my all-time
favorite food now if you agree with me
that this food is also your favorite all
I want is for you to cheer give it a big
clap give it a big whoop whoop whatever
if you don’t like it you are allowed to
boo it’s the only booing you’ll be doing
today so if you like that type of thing
then this is your opportunity okay so
here we go yes there’s a few people who
are not having any form of food today
anyway this this one fruit has the
ability to show us how powerful the act
of eating can be some of you I know
you’re looking at this photo and you’re
probably wondering if I bought any for
lunch today I wasn’t allowed so I didn’t
some of you are probably wondering is he
being serious and you probably feel a
bit nauseous but that’s how emotional
food can make us there’s love and hate
and there’s everything in between and
this combination of eating and emotions
it affects the way we perceive one
another so you are more likely to strike
a relationship with a stranger in this
crowd who reacted the same way you did
today as Burma or Myanmar is rejoining
the global community we have this exact
problem the world’s opinion about us is
divided but what I want to do is to show
you my idea today of a food revolution
because I think we can shape these
opinions using the love of our nation’s
cuisine now in case you don’t know who I
am or you haven’t figured it out yet I’m
infatuated by eating I have a bit of a
problem I’m a little obsessed okay to me
food is constantly evolving you can have
the exact same dish in two completely
different environments and your
experience is completely transformed
for example have any of you ever had a
coffee in the morning before the toilet
anyone well I’m sure there’s some of you
who have it helps the bowels okay it’s
quite life-changing for some of us my my
life changed when I was full when I left
Burma and I moved to the UK and it was
just the four of us it was my parents my
brother and just me there you are and
home was first where I fell in love with
our cuisine but to tell you the truth
until I moved back to Burma about five
years ago this cuisine was my only real
connection to the this country
growing up at home my mom’s signature
dish was her mo hanga and this mohinga
was very special because she would make
this for breakfast for dinner for
birthdays I know you’re getting hungry
okay just a minute for all sorts of
special occasions but for those of you
who don’t know who may be watching what
a manga is it’s the dish we all grew up
with it’s a hot steaming fish base broth
and in this country we have it in the
morning
in 35 degree heat which I’m feeling
right now at home or on the street but
if you can picture for a second this is
where I grew up so in winter in zero
degree weather can you picture having
that exact same dish while the snow is
falling outside it’s it’s a
transformative experience right so this
dish started off life as a breakfast
dish intended to fill you up in the
morning but now it has the power to keep
a whole family together and warm at
night and about two and a half years ago
I wanted to channel that experience I
wanted to challenge the way our local
cuisine was seen and experienced so I
was one of those
crazy nutjob that decided that opening a
restaurant would be a good idea now if
people care about you no one will ever
tell you that it is a good idea but we
did it anyway and we’ve been very lucky
over the last two and a half years our
representation of local cuisine has been
featured in over 50 international
publications but the amazing thing about
that is that most of these publications
are writing about Burmese cuisine for
the very first time for me if I was to
describe our country through a dish it
would be that manga because both the
country and the dish are humble in
nature I think both are slightly
misunderstood by those who don’t know it
but I think both have the potential to
go global but you see the problem we
have in this country right now is that
we put so much emphasis on developing it
purely with the things we can measure so
we measure the currency we measure the
economy we measure the weather sometimes
we measure the traffic and we tell each
other how horrible the traffic has
become but let me ask you what about the
things we can’t measure how do we
measure the way our taste buds will
change over the next generation we can’t
how could we measure the impact that our
cuisine could have on somebody eating it
for the very first time we can’t but
these things are just as important in
the evolution of our country so if I put
this photo in front of you which is a
cheeseburger right
what is the first country that would
come to mind presumably for the majority
of you would be America yes but what if
I told you that the bar
began with the Mongol Empire would you
believe me the legend goes that as
Genghis Khan and his army were
conquering the world they had a problem
they would often live on vast areas of
land with no vegetation so what they did
was they would get meat back then it was
horse meat and they would put it under
their saddle so they could eat as they
ride and if you look at a map of this
great Empire you will find that a lot of
this area is in a part of the world we
now call Eastern Europe and it’s in
Eastern Europe that we would see the
first version of this burger which is
the Tata which is diced up raw meat many
many many years later that this dish the
Tata would make its way to Germany to a
city called Hamburg that’s where it
would become the Hamburg and not because
it has Haman it
okay so I’ve just broken an urban myth
there what this story tells us is that
in the evolution of a country or a
cuisine we shouldn’t be talking about
weeks or months or years we should be
talking about decades or centuries or
potentially even longer if you allow me
to ask you some questions I just want
you to think about it for a second if we
hadn’t been isolated for more than the
last 50 years do you think that there
would be more Burmese restaurants around
the world perhaps do you think that
Burmese cuisine would have evolved in
any way perhaps but do you think there
would be more tourists coming into Burma
I definitely think so but these are all
great questions in hindsight maybe
they’re not so relevant anymore but a
relevant question would be something a
friend asked me a couple of weeks ago
which is Ted would you travel for food
so let me ask you would you travel for
food yeah because I only travel for food
okay that’s the only reason I get free
lunch today so that’s why I did this
and I think more and more people every
year are travelling to the places like
the Coliseum in the Eiffel Tower not
just to see these historical landmarks
but they’re travelling to sample the
cuisines of their country food is a big
reason why we go back to these countries
time and time again so so this is me and
a food coma in Paris
I didn’t write all right you can see
that I didn’t quite make it to the
Eiffel Tower but you can see why
last year the UN released a survey that
showed that eighty eight point two
percent of people considered gastronomy
so let’s picture that no one here was
Burmese or you’ve never been to visit
Burma before if we were researching
whether we wanted to come to this
beautiful country on holiday and we were
part of that eighty eight point two
percent what do you think that we would
see written about our cuisine because
when I moved here five years ago this is
what I saw it’s too oily
Ted Burmese food is so oily right it has
too much MSG in it
I like msg but that’s that’s a that’s
for another talk but the truth of the
matter is that this is just the opinions
of a few and these are certainly not
facts but if we did look at some facts
what we would find is that there are
over a hundred and thirty-five ethnic
minorities in the country that’s a fact
so that’s a lot of different ways of
consuming food Rangoon the city that
we’re standing in right now in the late
1920s had taken over New York as the
migration capital of the world that’s
also a fact and that’s a lot of
influence coming in from other countries
so let me ask you again in that eighty
eight point two percent what do you
think we should be seeing written about
our cuisine if you look at this which is
our coconut noodles you should see our
general
prosody our richness as a country if you
look at this our products traditionally
from India so you should see our
cultural diversity and our history if
you look at this which is our Mohan gah
it has 28 ingredients so you should see
the complexity of the people that we are
the great news is that promoting our
country through our cuisine is now a
reality with the right mix of passion
and planning
it’s called culinary diplomacy and if
you google it which I’ve shown you how
to do in case your and any of you are
not aware what you will find is a
Wikipedia article which states that
culinary diplomacy is based on the
premise that the easiest way to win
hearts and minds is through the stomach
but as as you can tell and what you will
have now is a number of government led
initiatives around the world
practicing culinary diplomacy programs
like in Thailand like in Korea like in
the US if we took Thailand as an example
because they are the closest country to
us they released or they started a
culinary diplomacy program in 2002
called global Thai what the government
aimed to do was to subsidize and certify
as many Thai restaurants around the
world as the government could afford
they had three main targets number one
was they wanted to create as many jobs
for Thai hospitality migrants around the
world
secondly they wanted to increase exports
out of Thailand and they thought more
Thai restaurants more exports and the
third thing which is very difficult to
measure is that they wanted to increase
the global understanding and
appreciation of Thai cuisine
if you ask whether you think they’ve
been successful or not you just have to
look at this in 2002 there were five and
a half thousand tyrants outside of
Thailand around the world by 2012 there
were fifteen thousand there were ten
million visitors going into Thailand in
2002 and there were 32 million in 2016
of course this culinary diplomacy
program is not the only reason why these
numbers have gone up but it shows that a
national initiative to do something like
this has an effect in the long term the
truth is that if the world had more of
an affinity towards our country we would
be less likely to be discriminated
against right because we have an
identity people know who we are but more
important than that is in this
generation and the next there would be
more opportunity for all of us but what
we need to do as Burmese people is
realize that our pride is our strength
but it can also be our weakness it’s not
enough just to believe in what you do
and believe in yourself in the 21st
century you need to convince others of
it too my dream is to see Burmese food
in every major city in the world mohinga
and Paris tea leaf salad in New York can
you picture that yeah if our country was
a train we have just left the station
we’ve only just left it culture health
education technology all of these things
are all aboard this train we as a
country need to put our cuisine on there
as well it’s really important
the greatest thing about food is that
there is no such thing as a culinary
dictator because we don’t we don’t want
one of those right there is no such
thing as a culinary coup so it doesn’t
matter the economy the politics no one
will be able to take away a global
Burmese cuisine please please enjoy
lunch everyone thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
Please follow and like us: