Ksenija Hotić’s story is one of displacement, resilience, and the enduring power of food as cultural memory. Forced to flee Bosnia in 1992 as war escalated into genocide, she and her family rebuilt their lives as refugees, carrying with them the emotional weight of loss, rupture, and reinvention. In those years of uncertainty, food became more than sustenance, it became a way to hold onto identity, dignity, and continuity.

Now based between Toronto and Bosnia, Ksenija is an award-winning photographer, food and prop stylist, and writer whose work explores the intersection of memory, migration, and cuisine. After more than a decade working in psychiatry at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, she transitioned into a creative practice that documents global food cultures and the stories they carry.

Over the past three years, she has returned to Sarajevo to focus on a deeply personal cookbook of culinary memories, tracing the sensory imprints of home. Through Schnitzel & Stories, Ksenija reflects on how cooking becomes an act of resilience, a way to rebuild belonging, and a powerful tool for connection across cultures shaped by displacement.

In this episode, we tackle one of the world’s most food-insecure regions, the Sahel. We speak with Kinday Samba, Regional Director for West and Central Africa at the UN World Food Programme, whose work spans more than 30 years across some of the most complex humanitarian contexts in the world.

From her early training as a nutritionist in The Gambia to leading operations across a region where 55 million people face acute hunger, Kinday offers a rare, ground-level perspective on how conflict, climate change, and political instability converge to shape food systems.

We explore how war translates into malnutrition, what “no access” really looks like in practice, and the difficult trade-offs required when funding falls short. Kinday speaks candidly about the tension between emergency response and long-term resilience, and how her background in nutrition continues to shape the way she leads.

While this crisis may feel distant, its consequences are not. Women and children are disproportionately affected, families are forced into impossible choices, and as food systems collapse, instability spreads beyond borders, fueling displacement, trafficking, and conflict.

This is a conversation about food as survival, as power, and as a fragile foundation for global stability.

Michael Shaikh is a New York City–based writer and human rights activist whose work spans nearly two decades across regions shaped by political crisis and armed conflict, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. He is the author of The Last Sweet Bite: Stories and Recipes of Culinary Heritage Lost and Found.

His book chronicles a powerful and deeply human exploration of cuisine in conflict zones, revealing the persistence of people striving to protect their food culture in the face of war, genocide, and violence.

The title is drawn from the poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo, which begins, “The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.”

War reshapes every aspect of human culture, art, education, music, and politics, so why should food be any different? Over years investigating human rights abuses, Michael observed how conflict alters not only lives, but how people cook, eat, and preserve tradition. Recipes are adapted, ingredients disappear, and in some cases, cooking itself becomes impossible, placing entire culinary histories at risk.

From home cooks in Myanmar risking everything to preserve tradition, to Muslim Uyghurs forced to eat pork in violation of their beliefs, food emerges as both a tool of control and a form of resistance.

This conversation explores how food is weaponized, and how, even in the darkest circumstances, people hold onto it as a source of identity, dignity, and survival.

Nancy Matsumoto has lived an extraordinary life. From a young age, her love for writing and storytelling led to an accomplished and wide-ranging career as a journalist and author.

Ever curious, she has never limited herself to a single subject. Although much of her work has focused on food and culture, Nancy has also written about sake, childhood nutrition, and her family’s history, including a moving book of translated poetry based on her grandparents’ writings during their internment as Japanese Americans in World War II.

Her latest book, Reaping What She Sows, takes readers on a journey through a distinctly female lens, offering insight into how care, leadership, and creativity can shape a more just and sustainable food system. Deeply researched and beautifully told, the book follows inspiring women working in agricultural reform in the American South, coffee and cacao production in Belize and Guatemala, regenerative mezcal making in Mexico, and beyond.

For our final episode in the Only a Woman series, Nancy reflects on how the stewardship of our food systems is deeply maternal and shares the lessons we can all learn about nourishment, resilience, and change.

Schnitzel & Stories will be back with season 4 in 2026.

Palisa Anderson inherited more than a restaurant, she inherited a legacy. Following in the footsteps of her mother, Amy, who founded Chat Thai in 1989 as a young newcomer to Sydney, Australia, Palisa grew up immersed in hospitality. Her childhood was spent between kitchens and dining rooms, where she developed an instinctive understanding of food and a deep respect for ingredients.

After graduating from the university, she spent a decade abroad, working in Hong Kong, London, New York, and Tokyo. But when she returned home, it wasn’t just to rejoin the family business, it was to transform it.

Rather than relying on imported ingredients, Palisa sought to reconnect their restaurants to the land. She founded Boon Luck Farm, where she grows Thai herbs, rare Asian vegetables, and over 30 varieties of citrus. Her guiding belief is simple yet profound: human health begins with soil health.

Through regenerative farming and reforestation, the farm restores depleted land, captures carbon, and rebuilds biodiversity, proving that agriculture can be both ethical and economically viable. Today, Boon Luck Farm supplies 50–80% of the produce served across 15 restaurants, including Chat Thai’s five locations.

Palisa’s story stands as a powerful testament to what is possible when tradition, migration, and ecological responsibility come together, led by women determined to nourish both people and the planet.

Care and Feeding is about relationships, and we were fortunate to speak with bestselling author Laurie Woolever about her memoir. Beyond being a writer, she is also an editor, public speaker, and former cook. For nearly a decade, Laurie served as the right hand to the late author, TV host, and producer Anthony Bourdain.

Over the years, she has worn many hats, private cook, nanny, caterer, busgirl, recipe tester, farmhand, video store clerk, and food editor. From 1999 to 2002, she was Mario Batali’s assistant, contributing to Holiday Food (2000) and The Babbo Cookbook (2002). She later edited and recipe-tested Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook (2004) before working as an editor at Art Culinaire and Wine Spectator.

Her memoir is raw and unflinching, shedding light on the realities of being “the woman behind the man” while carving her own powerful voice in food writing.

We were fortunate to sit down with Chef Alice Waters, often called “the mother of American cooking.” Widely credited with launching the farm-to-table movement and shaping what we now know as California cuisine, she has spent more than five decades transforming the way we think about food.

In 1971, Waters opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley, a restaurant so iconic that chefs from around the world have made pilgrimages to experience it. There, alongside a community of remarkable talent, she championed a philosophy of local, seasonal, and organic cooking that remains as influential today as it was revolutionary then.

Waters has authored six books, including her memoir Coming to My Senses, and founded both the Chez Panisse Foundation and the Edible Schoolyard Project, initiatives that have inspired everything from school lunch programs to Michelle Obama’s White House vegetable garden.

Over the years, she has been named “Best Chef in America,” received the James Beard Humanitarian and Lifetime Achievement Awards, and was honored with the National Humanities Medal.

It was a true delight to speak with this culinary icon and learn what continues to inspire her extraordinary journey.

Sophia Hoffmann has built her career with a consciousness of care. A strong advocate for fairness, she uses her cooking to embody ethics and equality. Known as a pioneering female leader in Germany’s culinary world, she has become recognized for her zero-waste, plant-based kitchen.

She is the chef-owner of HAPPA Restaurant in Berlin. A passionate advocate for gender equality, diversity, and social justice, Sophia pairs her commitment to sustainability and conscious consumption with a love of indulgent, creative food.

The author of four cookbooks (published in German), Sophia has earned international recognition, speaking at conferences such as Food on the Edge (Ireland) and Couraveg (Portugal). In 2018, she was invited to cook the first all-vegan, all-female dinner at New York’s renowned James Beard Foundation.

She spoke to us about her approach to leading a diverse and inclusive team, and how she has created a space where people, not just dishes, can flourish. With her mix of creativity, clarity, and courage, Sophia Hoffmann is one of the most exciting forces shaping German food culture today.