At age 21, Cris Comerford dropped out of college in the Philippines to move to the United States with her family. A decade later, she was hired by then-White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib III, and a decade after that, she herself was appointed executive chef by first lady Laura Bush.

Brand USA, the destination marketing organization for the United States charged with increasing international tourism into the United States, announced it will launch its culinary tourism strategy in conjunction with its participation at the James Beard Foundation Awards Ceremony and Gala Reception on Monday, May 4, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. 

In India as part of a cultural exchange, Shirzad and three of his countrymen, two chefs and an administrator, are at the ITC Maurya, in Delhi, for a 10-day festival celebrating Afghani cuisine, after which they return with a similarly assembled Indian team to the Inter-Continental in Kabul for a 10-day showcase of Indian food.

The Expo is not only to be experienced, but also remembered. As it is a concentrated temporal social occurrence, the outsized event rivets visitors’ attention and fascination. Transient as the Expo experience is, one’s impression of it can be long-lasting.

Over the past decade, the Peruvian government has been making a very deliberate effort to popularize its cuisine worldwide. It's a strategy that a growing number of middle-income countries are adopting as they look to flex their muscles on the international stage. "Think – if you're Peru, Mexico or Korea, you are not going to be major nuclear proliferators," says Johanna Mendelson-Forman, a policy expert on international conflict. "But maybe you can hope to become the world's No. 1 culinary destination."

“Breaking Borders” is a travelogue, cooking show and dining-table summit all in one. And somehow it works, with each component of its cultural, culinary and political mission enhancing the others, at least to judge from the first of its 13 episodes.