About

Hello! I'm Lauren. For 2025, my family and I are embarking on a Global Kitchen Challenge where we’ll be attempting to bring the world to our dining table, one meal at a time.  My husband and I have three boys ranging in age from 4 to 10.  I wish I could say that they are not picky eaters, but we are working on it.  I’m hoping my kids might even discover a new favorite food—though right now, it’s hard to imagine anything dethroning pizza or chicken nuggets

All three are interested in learning to cook, but let's just say that we've had more than our fair share of flour explosions. We don't cry over spilled milk, eggs, or whatever else ended up on the ceiling—instead, we try to remember that each mess is a chance to teach our kids about the world beyond our walls. Cooking is a way for them to explore and appreciate how diverse and amazing the rest of the world is.

Why are we doing this?

Eating Paella

I hope this experience will give us, as a family, an opportunity to learn more about places we know and places we've never heard of before. I’m a big believer that you can learn a lot about other countries through their food. In every culture, food represents not just nourishment but also family and love. I think the world could use a bit more curiosity about each other. I also hope to turn many of these meals into dinner parties—because I love hosting and having people over.

When I was a kid, we did something similar. Each month during the summer, we learned about a new culture and had a party with another family doing the same thing. I loved it and I hope that my kids will enjoy this adventure too.

I’m curious to see what my kids will think about eating with chopsticks (and probably turning them into mini drumsticks), discovering new flavors, and learning new dish names.

What counts as a country?

That seems like it should be an easy answer, but things get pretty interesting geopolitically. I’m planning to use a combined list of USA-recognized countries, UN Member States, and the two observer states and a couple grouping for countries in the Olympics but not the UN, for a total of 200 meals.

Getting a bit messy

Another complexity is cultural diversity. For example, India’s regions have as much variety as all of Europe, yet on most lists, it gets the same amount of time as the tiny country of Liechtenstein. Some countries will get extra attention for their regional cuisines, and others might get an extra dessert just to keep things fair.

All of that to say, this will end up being more than 200 meals and we’ll discover the exact number together as we go.

How will we pick?

Many others who’ve done this challenge go through the countries alphabetically, but that's way too linear for us! Randomness is more our speed so each country will be drawn out of bag by one of my kids.

Full disclosure: I actually started this challenge 10 years ago. Back then, I made it through 15 countries but only blogged about 10 of them. Life got in the way with an intrastate move, a local move, and then a pregnancy. This time, there’s less risk of chaos (hopefully), but with three kids in the mix, I’m bracing for at least a few unexpected "adventures" along the way.

What’s the most memorable dish you’ve tried from another country? Let me know—I’m always looking for inspiration!