Our current Palestinian version introduces our customers to the food, culture, and politics of Palestine. Developed in collaboration with Palestinians in Palestine and Pittsburgh, our food comes packaged in wrappers that include interviews with Palestinians on subjects ranging from culture to politics. As is to be expected, the thoughts and opinions that come through the interviews and our programming are informed by personal perspective and history. These diverse perspectives reflect a nuanced range of thought within each country and serve to instigate questioning, conversation, and debate with our customers. There are multiple levels of invitation and engagement to the project, creating a diverse and broad ecosystem of participants.
Operating seven days a week in the middle of the city, Conflict Kitchen uses the social relations of food and economic exchange to engage the general public in discussions about countries, cultures, and people that they might know little about outside of the polarising rhetoric of governmental politics and the narrow lens of media headlines. In addition, the restaurant creates a constantly changing site for ethnic diversity in the post-industrial city of Pittsburgh, as it has presented the only Iranian, Afghan, Venezuelan, North Korean and Palestinian restaurants the city has ever seen.