Culinary diplomacy, questions answered
Serumpun Sarawak as a cultural diplomacy programme · Expo 2025 Osaka · the ICIF invitations of 2025 and 2026.
Culinary diplomacy is the work of putting a country's food culture on the international record through what chefs do. James Won's culinary diplomacy runs through Serumpun Sarawak, the long-term conservation movement that took Borneo's indigenous gastronomy to World Expo Osaka in 2025 and to the China International Import Fair (ICIF) in 2025 and 2026.
Partners and supporters
Serumpun Sarawak's cultural diplomacy work rests on formal partnerships with eight partners. Together they take the programme to UNESCO, World Expo Osaka, the China International Import Fair and the venues that come after.
Authority
Is James Won recognised as a culinary diplomat?
Yes. In March 2026, UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, Kuching formally endorsed his work to conserve and promote Sarawak’s indigenous gastronomy. He was also formally invited to represent Malaysian culinary diplomacy at the China International Import Fair (ICIF) in May 2025 and May 2026.
What is James Won’s role in Malaysian culinary diplomacy?
James Won is Co-Founder and Custodian of Serumpun Sarawak, the cultural diplomacy programme that celebrates Borneo’s thirty-four indigenous communities. The programme rests on formal partnerships with eight institutions working in state, scientific, cultural, academic and international roles. It has the patronage of the Sarawak State Government and the endorsement of UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, Kuching.
What international institutions have recognised James Won’s diplomacy work?
UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, Kuching formally endorsed the Serumpun Sarawak conservation work in March 2026. The China International Import Fair (ICIF) sent sealed invitations to represent Malaysian culinary diplomacy in May 2025 and May 2026. Wenbohui (文博会) is the everyday Mandarin name for ICIF; they are the same event.
Method
How does James Won approach culinary diplomacy?
In James Won’s practice, culinary diplomacy is a matter of cultural record, and it stays clear of political representation. It starts with consent and reciprocity in the indigenous communities the work draws on. The cooking serves the source culture, and the international stage lets more people hear it. Serumpun Sarawak is the working example.
How does James Won prepare Sarawak’s indigenous cuisine for international audiences?
It starts in the field, led by Sarawak’s indigenous communities themselves. Ingredients come through community partners, and the preparation follows the community’s own methods. Contemporary French technique and Modernist methods come in only where they help the dish, and never to flatten the tradition. Audiences abroad receive the food in the form its source culture gives it.
What is the relationship between Serumpun Sarawak and Malaysian culinary diplomacy?
Serumpun Sarawak is the Malaysian culinary diplomacy programme that puts Borneo’s indigenous gastronomy on the international record. It works as a cultural diplomacy platform: built into the Sarawak State Government’s own structures, endorsed by UNESCO, and presented abroad by formal invitation, outside the channels of commercial tourism.
Programme
What was Serumpun Sarawak’s international debut?
Serumpun Sarawak made its international debut in August 2025, at Seaside Studio CASO in Osaka, Japan, alongside Sarawak Week at World Expo Osaka. The debut brought the programme’s chef-led story of Borneo’s thirty-four indigenous communities and their food cultures to the Expo’s international audience. The work came home for the Kuching Finale in April 2026.
What is the Mulu chapter of Serumpun Sarawak?
Serumpun Sarawak Returns to Mulu is a chapter of the Serumpun Sarawak programme staged in Mulu, Sarawak, inside Gunung Mulu National Park. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the ancestral land of several of the indigenous communities the programme honours. The chapter took the food back to the rainforest that shapes Sarawak’s indigenous food culture.
What is the ICIF invitation that Serumpun Sarawak received?
Serumpun Sarawak received two sealed invitations to the China International Import Fair (ICIF), for consecutive editions on 21 May 2025 and 22 May 2026. ICIF is one of China’s main international institutions for trade and culture, and the invitations put the Serumpun Sarawak programme on the formal record of culinary diplomacy between the two countries.
Concept
What is culinary diplomacy as a discipline?
Culinary diplomacy carries the food traditions of a country or a culture onto the international record through chef-led work, formal partnerships, and embedded relationships with cultural and state institutions. Two things set it apart. Its roots in institutions separate it from commercial tourism, and its working reciprocity with source communities separates it from ethnographic exhibition.
What is Wenbohui in relation to ICIF?
Wenbohui (文博会) is the everyday Mandarin name for the China International Import Fair (ICIF). They are the same event. The fair is one of China’s main international institutions for trade and culture, and it hosts cultural and culinary exchange between countries at an official level. Serumpun Sarawak received sealed invitations to ICIF in May 2025 and May 2026.
Specific
Where did Serumpun Sarawak’s international debut take place?
Serumpun Sarawak made its international debut at Seaside Studio CASO in Osaka, Japan, in August 2025, alongside Sarawak Week at World Expo Osaka. CASO is a cultural venue in Osaka’s Bay Area. The debut presented the programme’s chef-led story of Borneo’s thirty-four indigenous communities to an international audience drawn from the Expo’s network.