100 years of menus show how food can be used as a diplomatic tool to make and break political alliances

Food brings people together. It serves as a tool to communicate political stances, to cultivate cross-cultural comprehension or, if necessary, create tensions. Menus can reflect these intentions by using food to create specific psychological effects and convey symbolic messages. But how exactly is it done?

Now, researchers in Portugal have examined menus from diplomatic dinners, state banquets, and receptions hosted over the 20th and 21st centuries to find out how meals reflected and shaped Portuguese foreign policy and geopolitics.

“Those meals play a significant role as diplomatic institutions in the execution and continuity of Portuguese foreign policy,” said Óscar Cabral, the first author of the Frontiers in Political Sciences article, who is a gastronomic sciences researcher at the Basque Culinary Center. “They demonstrate how culinary and gastronomic practices have facilitated diplomatic negotiations and provided opportunities for cultural exchange, political messaging, and the conveyance of Portuguese culture.”

Food from Portugal

“Menus can be intentionally designed to convey political messages and communicate non-gastronomic aspects,” Cabral explained. “For example, the COP25 meal in Madrid used dish names like ‘Warm seas. Eating imbalance’ and ‘Urgent. Minimize animal protein’ to draw attention to climate issues.”

But using food in this way is not a new idea. For the present study, the researchers analyzed menus from 457 diplomatic meals dating between 1910 and 2023. While a clearly structured culinary diplomatic strategy or public policy could not be identified, certain historical periods showed distinct characteristics.

During the first half of the 20th century, lavish nine or 10-course meals featuring French cuisine were the norm. The introduction of Portuguese products happened gradually over the second half of the 20th century. A turning point occurred during the dictatorial Estado Novo period, which lasted from 1950 to 1961/62.

“We see a fundamental shift towards the inclusion and promotion of Portuguese products, territory, and culinary regionalism,” said Cabral. During this time, meals were designed to reflect an emerging gastronationalism, that is the use of food to promote national identity.  “This crystallized in the 1957 ‘regional lunch’ for Queen Elizabeth II, which was designed to convey a sense of territory and ‘Portugality.’” Dishes included lobster and fruit tarts from the Portuguese cities of Peniche and Alcobaça.

During the 1960s and 70s, diplomatic meals increasingly featured rare ingredients, like the turtle soup served to Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh in 1973, or trout from the Azores served to the American and French presidents in 1971. Yet, around the same time, typically Portuguese products may have been included because sourcing more exclusive alternatives was difficult during times of economic and energy crises, which in Portugal lasted beyond the 1970s.

Another shift on menus occurred when Portugal’s former colonies gained their independence. The understanding of what Portuguese cuisine was shifted – for example, coffee was simply referred to as such, without an indication of its country of origin – and colonial language was removed.

To make, foster, and break alliances

The team identified five functions of diplomatic meals. Tactical meals often relate to territory transfers; geopolitical meals aim at renewing and confirming alliances. Economic diplomacy meals intend to foster commercial and financial relations. Scientific, cultural, and developmental cooperation meals may be hosted to show common interests. Cultural proximity meals can be a tool to strengthen cultural ties to specific countries, for example, Portuguese-speaking countries across the world. “When strengthening these ties, menus intentionally feature products closely tied to a shared national gastronomy, like Cozido à Portuguesa (Portuguese stew) or codfish recipes,” Cabral said.

Integrating gastronomy – alongside Portuguese language, values, and traditions – into national institution’s strategic work is necessary to shape the world’s understanding of Portuguese culture, the team said. “Our study illustrates how national cuisines can be strategically used to strengthen a country’s global standing,” said Cabral. It is limited, however, by the availability of archival materials from specific historical periods. Further study should also aim to understand seemingly contradictory menu choices, such as roast beef being served to the Indian president in 1990, the team said.

“Another dish that stands out is the Consommé de presunto de Barrancos, a thin soup made of cured ham from Barrancos, served to King Felipe VI of Spain in 2016. It presents a cultural and gastronomic identity challenge,” Cabral pointed out. It’s a hybrid dish – a French-style soup using a classic French cut but featuring a key Portuguese product (Barrancos ham) – one that was served to the monarch of a nation famously known as the country of cured ham. “One can read it as a gastronomic funny challenge,” concluded Cabral.