This week Briana Kurtz is back in the studio for this weeks Native and has chef/founder of Smoke in Dallas, author, and James Beard Award Winner Tim Byres on the line talking about his experiences abroad as they relate to culinary diplomacy as well as his book Smoke: New Firewood Cooking. Tim explains that his personal definition of culinary diplomacy began with Hillary Clinton and the U.S. State Department launching a Diplomatic Culinary Partnership in order to elevate the role of culinary engagement in Americas formal and public diplomacy efforts. Tim joined the efforts and tells Briana how he found himself flying to one of the most remote corners of the world in the name of culinary diplomacy: Kyrgyzstan. Briana gets Tims take on the success of the program and how it has influenced his cooking beliefs and techniques. After the break, Briana gets the scoop on Tims book and how hes trying to get more people to cook with fire! This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market.

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The idea for me is sounded in that belief of common ground. Its really weird that the further you can get from home and its like the world gets smaller and smaller because everyone is eating and everyone has a story to tell through food. [3:45]

My whole view is not to try to mimic everything, its to try to pull some solid technical ideas from things and then add fun stories. [29:15]

--Tim Byres on Native