Peace Kitchen is passionate about fostering understanding,
connection and community-building.
To do so, we facilitate meaningful conversations over food.
We draw on our lived experiences, backed by our academic research, of how
food enables human connectedness and global flourishing.
Our food events and team-building activities are designed to be inclusive, safe spaces for
thoughtful dialogues that matter.
Listen to our founder Elaine on Dani Valent's food podcast!
Peace Kitchen's story began with a sandwich...
When Dr Elaine Pratley first moved from her native Malaysia to Switzerland, she was taken aback by how hard it was to make friends. She was an awkward 13-year-old and unable to speak the local language. One winter day, a boy approached her with a sandwich and invited her to share his meal.
That act of compassion began Elaine's lifelong journey of using food to promote peace between people of different ages, cultures, and beliefs in the various countries she has called home, whether Malaysia, New Zealand, China, Thailand, or Australia. Beginning difficult conversations with a meal or a drink – whether as a Crown prosecutor, negotiator for the New Zealand government, entrepreneur in China, or mother – helped Elaine set a scene for connection, even amidst ongoing conflict.
Elaine's belief in the connective potential of food spurred her towards doctoral research at the University of Melbourne. Her thesis 'Hungry for Peace' explores some of the extraordinary and ordinary, but valuable, ways our everyday food practices produce and sustain conflict and connection. As Founder of Peace Inc., she works to transform conflict in their many forms towards good.
For Elaine, Peace Kitchen offers more than fun food events. At its core, its mission is to facilitate mutual understanding and dialogue so that participants appreciate the simple ways we can all promote peace and connection. Sometimes, all it takes is a sandwich.
