Dining Diplomacy

Can breaking bread solve a battle as old as time?

Breaking Borders, a 13-episode series for Travel Channel, takes a look at some of the most long-running, historically and culturally complex conflicts around the world and brings people together from each side to discuss their differences over a meal.

“Food is a unifying force, and it breaks down the stereotypical barriers between people,” says Ross Babbit, senior vice-president of programming and development for Travel Channel.

“[Around a dinner table,] they're able to talk honestly and openly and really do find that they have a lot more in common than they do not.”

Produced by MY Entertainment and based on a Norwegian show called Dining with the Enemy, the series explores cultures surrounding the various conflicts. Helping tell the stories are Peabody Award–winning journalist Mariana van Zeller and season-six Top Chef winner Michael Voltaggio.

“Mariana is incredibly smart, quick on her feet and has been to a lot of the countries we go to, so she's comfortable in what could be tricky situations,” Babbit says.

Cohost Voltaggio, whom Babbit calls “a food genius,” is responsible for bridging cultures through cuisine, collecting ideas and ingredients on location and, when necessary, taking into consideration dietary restrictions based on religion.

“Every single one of these meals is the most important meal I think I’ve cooked in my life,” says the chef, who arrives in each country with nothing but his set of kitchen knives.

To ensure raw, honest conversation, the show’s executives choose not to involve political representatives or spokespersons for a cause. “These are real people,” Babbit says. “It would be boring if they were just throwing sound bites at each other.”

Van Zeller moderates the dinner debates, making sure everyone’s voice is heard.

“We’ve had tears,” she says. “We’ve had fights. We’ve had screaming. But there hasn’t been one situation where at the end people haven’t hugged each other or given a handshake and told us how much they appreciated this.”

With episodes exploring the consequences of civil wars in Bosnia- Herzegovina and Rwanda, as well as political unrest in Cambodia, Cuba and Sri Lanka, production was not without some harrowing moments. Voltaggio recalls having to surrender his passport to the Egyptian police in post–Arab Spring Cairo.

“They walk up. There’s no uniform. There’s just a guy with a walkie-talkie and a huge gun on his side. I asked Mariana, ‘How do I know if these guys are even police?’ She’s like, ‘You just have to trust that they are.’ I was impressed with Mariana’s calmness — she’s reacting as if this is normal, and I’m thinking ‘This is one of the craziest things that’s ever happened to me.’”

Can one meal have a lasting impact? “It would be silly for us to think that after 2,000 years of war, one meal is going to solve the problem,” Babbit says. “But you absolutely feel a sense of hope.”