Welcome back to World Food Thursdays, if you know the drill, please scroll down to the bottom of the page and link up your delicious international food! Diversity is the key to life, diverse cultures, ways of cooking, things to eat and — very importantly — diverse micro-flora in your gut. One of the things I love about food and cooking is that there is always another way to cook something, always a new dish or combination of food flavors possible. As a chef, I spent a lot of time freelance catering and had to learn how to work for all kinds of different chefs. Each one had their own particular way to cook a noodle, sear a steak, whisk a hollandaise, blanch a vegetable and they all wanted it done their way. Most of them were convinced their way was the only way to do each thing. I feel fortunate to have learned so many different techniques, from so many brilliant minds, and to learn that everyone has their own optimal way to get to their goal.

Global cuisine is a great place to get a good look at this diversity, to experiment and find your own way, to reach into your heart, soul and intuition and bring together cooking techniques and flavors that are unique to you and your own experience. Don’t let anyone tell you different, shut you down and try to make you feel inferior. Food is the true spiritual religion in my book. There are many, many paths to God or the great spirit or whatever you prefer to call it. It is as important to appreciate the diversity of cooking techniques as it is to value the various methods of communing with the divine.

Love for good, wholesome food is what will, inevitably, bring all of us with our different ideas together. It seems all foodlovers agree factory farmed food from greedy corporations–who do not have our health and the health of our children, earth, animals and plants at heart–have no place in our world any more. Around the world mothers are going to great lengths to feed their babies right, no matter the religion, dietary views, or culture. I am very excited with what is happening globally as we come together with our common purpose.

Please link up your international dishes. We want to see food from every corner of the world together, side by side being delicious all in one common community. We want to revel in our diversity, to respect everyone’s techniques, food preferences, ways of eating and rituals around cooking and eating. Our other linky Grain-Free Tuesdays is quite restrictive, so this one is very open. We still prefer traditional recipes with little to no processed foods, but we want everyone to feel welcome here.

Please follow the common bloghop courtesy of linking back to this post in your recipe, leaving a comment after linking up, and tweeting, posting to facebook, digging, stumbling or otherwise helping to promote this bloghop. If anyone would like to join us in hosting it just drop us a line. In the meantime enjoy the wonderful foods of the world–perhaps we will all learn to be more tolerant of each other’s differences and in doing so we will create a world of peace, harmony and delightful meals.