Schnitzel & Stories

In our final episode for this season, we spoke with journalist, editor, and Roads & Kingdoms co-founder Nathan Thornburgh to explore the intersection of food, politics, migration, and identity. Drawing on his years as a foreign correspondent covering conflict and political change, Nathan reflects on the stories that exist beyond the headlines and why food became his preferred lens for understanding the world. Together, we discuss journalism, war, immigration, nationalism, and the role of storytelling in shaping public understanding. We explore how migration reshapes culture, what food can reveal about identity, and why sharing a meal often offers insights that politics cannot. From the Caucasus to contemporary America, Nathan examines the human stories behind some of today's most divisive issues and explains how Roads & Kingdoms continues to create spaces for dialogue through food and hospitality. At its heart, this conversation is about curiosity, connection, and the enduring power of food to help us better understand one another.

For author and chef Hawa Hassan food is memory, survival, identity, and a connection to home. Born in Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War, Hawa's life was forever altered by conflict. After being separated from her family and spending years in a refugee camp in Kenya, she immigrated to Seattle at the age of seven, not seeing her mother again for fifteen years. Today, Hawa is an acclaimed chef, entrepreneur, and author whose work explores the powerful relationship between food, culture, and displacement. In this conversation, we discuss her book, In BIbi’s Kitchen. At the heart of the book are the stories of women, particularly grandmothers, whose kitchens became centers of resilience and cultural survival. Hawa shares why she chose to focus on these often overlooked voices and how recipes can preserve history when so much else has been lost. We also explore the lasting influence of colonialism on food cultures, including the presence of ingredients and dishes introduced through occupation and trade. How do communities reconcile painful histories embedded in their cuisine? Can foods associated with colonization be reclaimed and transformed into expressions of identity and belonging? This episode is a moving exploration of memory, migration, and the enduring power of food to sustain families, preserve culture, and carry stories across generations.

Chef JP McMahon of the Michelin-starred Aniar in Galway and founder of the internationally acclaimed Food on the Edge symposium is widely recognized as one of the leading voices behind the understanding and evolution of New Irish Cuisine. In this episode we explore the complex relationship between food, colonization, identity, and cultural memory through the lens of Irish history. As a chef, author, scholar, and advocate for Irish food culture, JP offers a unique perspective on how centuries of British rule shaped Ireland's agricultural systems, food traditions, and national identity. Together, we trace the journey of the potato from South America to Ireland and examine how a crop that was never native to the island became synonymous with Irish cuisine. We discuss the social and political conditions that led to widespread dependence on the potato, the devastating impact of An Gorta Mór, the Great Famine, and the lasting influence this tragedy continues to have on Irish culture and collective memory. The conversation also challenges common assumptions about Irish food. Long before the arrival of the potato, Ireland's people relied on a rich diversity of ingredients drawn from the sea, forests, bogs, rivers, and fields. JP shares insights from his extensive research into Ireland's culinary past and explains how modern chefs are rediscovering forgotten ingredients and traditions to create a contemporary Irish cuisine rooted in place and history. From land ownership and food insecurity to seaweed, wild herbs, and the future of gastronomy, this episode examines how food systems can be shaped by power, disrupted by crisis, and ultimately reclaimed through knowledge, culture, and creativity. Join us for a fascinating conversation about resilience, identity, and the enduring story of Irish food. “Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” ― James Joyce, Ulysses

Yuliia Tymoshenko works with World Central Kitchen, the humanitarian organization founded by chef José Andrés. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, World Central Kitchen has supported communities across the country, providing hot meals, fresh bread, potable water, and food assistance to families living through displacement and conflict. Raised in Ukraine, Yuliia’s connection to cooking began at the age of seven beside her grandmother, where food became deeply connected to family, care, and cultural memory. What started in a home kitchen eventually led her into a career spanning restaurants, culinary operations, and humanitarian food relief. After years working internationally, Yuliia returned home to Ukraine in 2025 to support relief efforts through her work with World Central Kitchen, helping provide not only nourishment, but also comfort and a sense of home through food and cultural connection. Today, she coordinates culinary operations supporting communities affected by the war, ensuring meals remain familiar, comforting, and rooted in care. We spoke with Yuliia about how the war has transformed Ukrainians’ relationship with food, how communities have come together to support one another, and how traditional dishes like borsch and varenyky continue to provide unity and stability in the midst of conflict.

In early 2026, Minneapolis became the epicentre of a federal crackdown known as 'Operation Metro Surge.' With over 2,300 militarized federal agents, masked and armed, flooding the streets, the city was effectively under occupation. The atmosphere of terror reached a breaking point with the fatal shootings of two citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents. These killings sent a chilling message: no one was safe. For thousands of immigrant families, specifically within the Hmong, Latino, and Southeast Asian communities, the simple act of grocery shopping became a life-threatening risk. Families retreated into the shadows, and when a community is too afraid to step outside for bread or milk, food becomes the front line of resistance. Nicole Melancon is a freelance journalist and content editor for GLP Films, an award-winning video storytelling agency for sustainable tourism.  While she usually reports on global health abroad, her most critical work recently happened in her own backyard when she began volunteering at a church that transformed into a logistical hub to feed 29,000 families in hiding from ICE raids. We got to speak with Nicole about her experience supporting this coordinated effort to help a scared society in need of the very basics of survival. Food.

Joining us to explore the growing complexities of global food security and humanitarian aid is Bettina Iseli, Chief Program Officer and member of the Executive Board of Welthungerhilfe, one of Germany’s largest private aid organizations. Bettina oversees the strategic direction of hundreds of international interventions and brings decades of experience working in some of the world’s most fragile and vulnerable regions. Since 2019, Bettina has led Welthungerhilfe’s global programme activities, guiding the organization’s long-term humanitarian and development strategy. Prior to this role, she headed the department for institutional donors. Under her leadership, the organization continues to expand its work at the intersection of emergency relief, climate resilience, food sovereignty, and long-term development. Founded in the early 1960s, Welthungerhilfe is independent of political and religious affiliations and is committed to the goal of “Zero Hunger by 2030.” Since its inception, the organization has supported more than 11,000 projects across 72 countries, ranging from disaster relief and rehabilitation to agricultural development, water systems, and community-led infrastructure projects. In this conversation, we discuss the realities of delivering aid in conflict zones, the growing pressures of climate change on global food systems, the politicization and fragmentation of humanitarian assistance, and the difficult ethical decisions organizations face when resources fall short. We also examine the shift toward localized aid models, the relationship between food insecurity and conflict, and what citizens and governments in stable democracies should be demanding in response to an increasingly unstable global food landscape.

Fadi Kattan’s work sits at the intersection of food, identity, memory, and cultural preservation. Born in Bethlehem and trained in Paris and London, he returned home after studying hotel management at Institut Vatel to found Fawda, where he began reimagining Palestinian cuisine with refinement while remaining deeply rooted in tradition, terroir, and storytelling. Since then, Fadi has brought Palestinian hospitality to an international audience through projects including Akub in London, Louf in Toronto. Across his restaurants, writing, and media work, he uses food not simply as cuisine, but as a way of documenting history, celebrating artisans and producers, and preserving the diverse culinary traditions of Palestine. This conversation was recorded on February 27, 2026 while Fadi was in London UK and was intended to be the first episode of our new season. However, technical difficulties forced us to cut the recording short. The following day, escalating conflict in the region following Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran further destabilized an already fragile situation across the Middle East. Travelling onward to Paris, Fadi remained stranded there for several weeks, deeply concerned for family and friends caught in the middle of the ongoing crisis affecting Palestine, Lebanon, and the wider region. In our conversation with Fadi reflects on what it means to cook, create, and tell stories from a place shaped by occupation, displacement, resilience, and cultural pride. His work reminds us that food is never just about nourishment, it is also about memory, identity, survival, and humanity.

Ksenija Hotić’s story is one of displacement, resilience, and the enduring power of food as cultural memory. Forced to flee Bosnia in 1992 as war escalated into genocide, she and her family rebuilt their lives as refugees, carrying with them the emotional weight of loss, rupture, and reinvention. In those years of uncertainty, food became more than sustenance, it became a way to hold onto identity, dignity, and continuity. Now based between Toronto and Bosnia, Ksenija is an award-winning photographer, food and prop stylist, and writer whose work explores the intersection of memory, migration, and cuisine. After more than a decade working in psychiatry at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, she transitioned into a creative practice that documents global food cultures and the stories they carry. Over the past three years, she has returned to Sarajevo to focus on a deeply personal cookbook of culinary memories, tracing the sensory imprints of home. Through Schnitzel & Stories, Ksenija reflects on how cooking becomes an act of resilience, a way to rebuild belonging, and a powerful tool for connection across cultures shaped by displacement.

In this episode, we tackle one of the world’s most food-insecure regions, the Sahel. We speak with Kinday Samba, Regional Director for West and Central Africa at the UN World Food Programme, whose work spans more than 30 years across some of the most complex humanitarian contexts in the world. From her early training as a nutritionist in The Gambia to leading operations across a region where 55 million people face acute hunger, Kinday offers a rare, ground-level perspective on how conflict, climate change, and political instability converge to shape food systems. We explore how war translates into malnutrition, what “no access” really looks like in practice, and the difficult trade-offs required when funding falls short. Kinday speaks candidly about the tension between emergency response and long-term resilience, and how her background in nutrition continues to shape the way she leads. While this crisis may feel distant, its consequences are not. Women and children are disproportionately affected, families are forced into impossible choices, and as food systems collapse, instability spreads beyond borders, fueling displacement, trafficking, and conflict. This is a conversation about food as survival, as power, and as a fragile foundation for global stability.

Michael Shaikh is a New York City–based writer and human rights activist whose work spans nearly two decades across regions shaped by political crisis and armed conflict, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. He is the author of The Last Sweet Bite: Stories and Recipes of Culinary Heritage Lost and Found. His book chronicles a powerful and deeply human exploration of cuisine in conflict zones, revealing the persistence of people striving to protect their food culture in the face of war, genocide, and violence. The title is drawn from the poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo, which begins, “The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.” War reshapes every aspect of human culture, art, education, music, and politics, so why should food be any different? Over years investigating human rights abuses, Michael observed how conflict alters not only lives, but how people cook, eat, and preserve tradition. Recipes are adapted, ingredients disappear, and in some cases, cooking itself becomes impossible, placing entire culinary histories at risk. From home cooks in Myanmar risking everything to preserve tradition, to Muslim Uyghurs forced to eat pork in violation of their beliefs, food emerges as both a tool of control and a form of resistance. This conversation explores how food is weaponized, and how, even in the darkest circumstances, people hold onto it as a source of identity, dignity, and survival.