Northstar Unplugged #029. Jesse Friedman: building community through a multi-year dinner series of 194 countries’ cuisines
In 2011, Jesse Friedman and his wife Laura began welcoming both friends and strangers into their 500 sq ft apartment in Brooklyn for a series of dinner parties to celebrate the cuisine of each of 194 countries, in alphabetical order. Since then, they have moved to Portland, OR, and have since hosted dinners featuring 152 out of 194 countries’ cuisines. Although interrupted by COVID, they look forward to resuming sometime in 2021 with Senegal.
About Jesse (in his own words):
I'm from Oakland, graduated with a degree in linguistics from the University of Chicago, and lived in San Francisco and Brooklyn for most of my eleven years at Google.
I now live in Portland, Oregon. Outside of work, when we're not tending to our hilarious and strong-willed daughter, my wife Laura and I run United Noshes. It's a series of 194 dinner parties, one per UN member. It's a stimulating culinary challenge, a deep dive into the ingredients and cultures of the world, a fantastic community builder, and a successful fundraiser. I'm also a passionate home gardener, mildly enthusiastic cyclist, and studious travel planner. My two dogs and two cats are adorable, but useless as interns.
For the business side of things, please reference LinkedIn.
Resources:
https://www.jessefriedman.com/
https://www.unitednoshes.com/
Video & articles about United Noshes
Global Table Adventure
Everyone Speaks Food (Google Translate’s multicultural pop-up restaurant in NYC)
Jesse’s book recommendations
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (Samin Nosrat)
Salt (Mark Kurlansky)
Winners Take All (Anand Giridharadas)