Conflict Kitchen (2010-2017) was a restaurant that served cuisine from countries with which the United States was in conflict. Each Conflict Kitchen iteration was augmented by events, performances, publications, and discussions that sought to expand the engagement the public had with the culture, politics, and issues at stake within the focus region. The restaurant rotated identities roughly twice a year, or in relation to current geopolitical events.
Operating seven days a week in the middle of the city, Conflict Kitchen used the social relations of food and exchange to engage the general public in discussions about countries, cultures, and people that they might know little about outside of the polarizing rhetoric of governmental politics and the narrow lens of media headlines. In addition, the restaurant created a constantly changing site for platforming the under-recognized diversity of the City of Pittsburgh, as it has presented the first Iranian, Afghan, Cuban, Venezuelan, North Korean, Haudenosaunne and Palestinian restaurants the city had seen.
Jon Rubin, Co-Director
Dawn Weleski, Co-Director
Robert Sayre, Culinary Director
Brett Yasko, Graphic Designer
Blaine Siegel, Education and Outreach Director
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STAFF
Isaac Beachy (Manager),
Aidan Smith (Manager and Catering Director),
Cheyanne Bronzell, Clara Gamalski,
Matt Getzow, Madalyn Hichendoner,
Sheryl Johnson, Trevon Jenkins,
Josh Klimaszewski, Max Lyons,
Edmund Pfleegor, Erica Shed
Quinton Steele (Research Fellow),
James Volk, Ngai Wharff
