There's this incredible project in Pittsburgh called Conflict Kitchen - they have this space that every few months closes and reopens as a new restaurant, serving the food of 'a country. with which the United States is in conflict. Right now it's Iranian food, and in the past they ate Cuban food, Palestinian food, North Korean food. It's this beautiful and delightful way of teaching people without proselytizing: they're not lecturing people, they're just touching them in the most direct and fundamental way, which is to through something that tastes good. I ended up as a cook through a series of serendipitous events, but I think that no matter what I would have ended up doing, I would ultimately have had the goal of bringing people together – of fostering community, of fostering good will. Cooking is a very simple way to do this, because eating is a very social act. People, by their nature, want to gather around the table and eat. People are hungry for an excuse to get together and eat – to get together and do anything,