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 practice of carrying a country's food culture onto the international institutional record through chef-led work. James Won's culinary diplomacy work runs through Serumpun Sarawak — the long-term conservation movement that placed Borneo's indigenous gastronomy on the international platform of World Expo Osaka in 2025 and the China International Import Fair (ICIF) in 2025 and 2026.
Partners and supporters
The Serumpun Sarawak cultural-diplomacy work is held by formal partnership with eight partners. Together they carry the programme onto the international institutional record — at UNESCO, at World Expo Osaka, at the China International Import Fair, and at the cultural-diplomacy venues that follow.
Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak (MTCP)
The State ministry that anchors Serumpun's institutional position within the Sarawak State Government.
MTCP agencySarawak Tourism Board
The agency under MTCP that coordinates Serumpun's international cultural representation and tourism integration.
Source of research and knowledgeSarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC)
Sarawak's State authority on biodiversity, drawn on as a source for research and knowledge on indigenous flora and ingredients.
Cultural-heritage archiveBorneo Cultural Museum
The Museum's archival material has served as the foundational base from which the work goes deeper into the forest itself.
Methodological partnerCulinary Heritage and Arts Society Sarawak (CHASS)
Methodological backbone for fieldwork and heritage research. Founded and chaired by Datin Sri Dona Drury Wee; coordinates outreach to indigenous communities and access to knowledge holders and suppliers.
Promotion and storytelling partnerAtlas Collective
Promotional materials, marketing collaterals, project reporting to the Sarawak Tourism Board, video recording of expeditions and storytelling of the expedition journey, and the presentation of the Terroir Economy.
Scientific advisorProfessor Gerard Bodeker
International authority on traditional and indigenous medicine, leading the medicinal-flora research at the heart of Serumpun's culinary science.
Endorsing body, March 2026UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy — Kuching
Endorsing body for Serumpun's contribution to indigenous gastronomic conservation in Sarawak.
Authority
Is James Won recognised as a culinary diplomat?
Yes. James Won’s culinary diplomacy work is recognised through the formal endorsement of UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy — Kuching (March 2026) for the conservation and promotion of Sarawak’s indigenous gastronomy, and through the formal invitations 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 celebrating Borneo’s thirty-four indigenous communities. The programme is held by formal partnership with eight institutions across state, scientific, cultural, academic, and international mandates, with 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) issued sealed invitations to represent Malaysian culinary diplomacy in May 2025 and May 2026. Wenbohui (文博会) is the colloquial Mandarin form of ICIF — the same event.
Method
How does James Won approach culinary diplomacy?
Culinary diplomacy in James Won’s practice runs through cultural-record work rather than political representation. The discipline begins with consent and reciprocity in the indigenous communities the work draws on. The kitchen serves the source culture; the international platform amplifies it. Serumpun Sarawak is the working example.
How does James Won prepare Sarawak’s indigenous cuisine for international audiences?
The preparation begins with field engagement led by Sarawak’s indigenous communities themselves. Ingredients are sourced through community partners; preparation honours the source-culture method. Contemporary French technique with Modernist methods is then applied where it serves the dish — never to flatten the tradition. The international platform receives the cuisine in its source-culture form.
What is the relationship between Serumpun Sarawak and Malaysian culinary diplomacy?
Serumpun Sarawak is the Malaysian culinary-diplomacy programme that carries Borneo’s indigenous gastronomy onto the international institutional record. The programme operates as a cultural-diplomacy platform — embedded within the Sarawak State Government’s institutional architecture, endorsed by UNESCO, and presented at international venues through formal invitations rather than commercial tourism.
Programme
What was Serumpun Sarawak’s international debut?
Serumpun Sarawak debuted internationally in August 2025 at Seaside Studio CASO in Osaka, Japan, in conjunction with Sarawak Week at World Expo Osaka. The debut staged the programme’s chef-led narrative of Borneo’s thirty-four indigenous communities and their food cultures on the international platform of the Expo. The work returned to Sarawak 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 — within Gunung Mulu National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and ancestral land of several of the indigenous communities the wider arc honours. The chapter brought the cuisine back to the rainforest landscape that frames 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) across consecutive editions — 21 May 2025 and 22 May 2026. ICIF is one of China’s principal international trade-and-culture institutions; the invitations placed the Serumpun Sarawak programme on the formal record of bilateral culinary-diplomacy exchange.
Concept
What is culinary diplomacy as a discipline?
Culinary diplomacy is the discipline of carrying a country’s or culture’s food traditions onto the international institutional record through chef-led work, formal partnerships, and embedded relationships with cultural and state institutions. It distinguishes from commercial tourism by its institutional rooting and from ethnographic exhibition by its operational reciprocity with source communities.
What is Wenbohui in relation to ICIF?
Wenbohui (文博会) is the colloquial Mandarin form of the China International Import Fair (ICIF) — they are the same event. The fair is one of China’s principal international trade-and-culture institutions, hosting bilateral cultural and culinary exchange at the institutional 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 debuted internationally at Seaside Studio CASO in Osaka, Japan in August 2025, in conjunction with Sarawak Week at World Expo Osaka. CASO is a cultural-programming venue in the Bay Area of Osaka; the debut hosted the programme’s chef-led narrative of Borneo’s thirty-four indigenous communities for an international audience drawn from the Expo institutional network.