The Conflict Café, a peace-promoting pop-up restaurant, is to return for 2016, from Thursday 22 September.
Organised by International Alert, the idea of the café is to bring strangers together, starting conversations and building alliances through food.
The café will be at House of Vans in Waterloo, an event space which makes use of disused tunnels.
There will be various themes, kicking off with Lebanon, a country which ended its civil war just 10 years ago and is now hosting more than 1 million refugees displaced by the conflict in Syria.
Lebanon week will be led by chef Imad Ghossain and conclude with a special brunch by Lazeez Lebanese Tapas.
The focus will then shift to the flavours of Sri Lanka, which has experienced more than 30 years of conflict. The week will start with chef Mini of ZG Events taking over the Café and finish with a special brunch by Ruby Kughanathan of Papi’s Pickles.
Rebecca Crozier, International Alert’s Head of Emerging Programmes, said,
“Across different cultures and continents, food has the power to bring people together and encourage the act of sharing. In some Middle Eastern countries, it is custom for the perpetrator of a crime to cook a meal for the victim and their family as a way of fixing broken bonds. In Europe, too, we find ways of using food to calm domestic storms, to unite communities and bring neighbourhoods together.”
"We hope that Conflict Café will give diners a glimpse into the diverse cuisines and complex histories of some of the countries where we work, highlighting the positive role that food can play in peace building.”
The Conflict Café will run for two weeks from 22 September at House of VANS, Arches 228-232 Station Approach Road, SE1 8SW. See the website for tickets and event dates. Tickets are £35 for dinners and £20 for brunch.
