New year! That means new ideas, new challenges, a white canvas, and lots of opportunities to learn and create. And this time, I’m aiming high because I’ve set a challenge for myself that I’ve had in mind for a while: cooking the world!

Let me explain. You know I love food. Sometimes I like going out and discovering restaurants, and other times I really enjoy cooking for myself and for my loved ones. So this time, what I want to do is cook one dish from every country in the world. That’s a total of — at least — 197 different dishes.

Why?

And I ask… why not?
I know I mostly write about restaurants I’ve been to, and I think I’ve only written once or twice about something I cooked myself 🤔, but I genuinely enjoy getting my hands dirty in the kitchen. I’ve also been watching a lot of cooking shows, and while most of the time it doesn’t look easy, it does look fun and delicious.
And lastly, I don’t want to focus in a single type of cuisine or style. I want to learn different techniques, use ingredients I’ve never used before, try flavors I’ve only seen or read about until now, and challenge myself to finish this and be consistent.

Strategy and Duration

With 197 countries in the world (193 UN members + 2 UN observers + Taiwan + Kosovo), that means I have a lot of cooking ahead of me. After thinking about how to choose the next country or dish, I decided the best option is to go alphabetically. I’m adding the full list of countries at the end of this post, but I’m starting with Afghanistan and going all the way to Zimbabwe.

So… how long is this going to take?
Honestly, I’m not sure, but most likely more than a year.
According to my math, I’d need to cook about two dishes per week to finish in two years. But I don’t know if I can always cook two dishes per week because, well… life happens ¯\(ツ)/¯. That said, sometimes I might be able to cook two dishes at once, or even three in the same week, depending on how challenging they are.

In the end, what really matters to me is completing the whole list, no matter how long it takes. I don’t want it to drag on forever, though — if I cooked only one dish per week, it would take me almost four years, and that feels like too much. For this challenge, I’m choosing quality — and especially consistency — over speed. So it’ll take as long as needed… but definitely less than four years.

Choosing the Dish

I’m hoping this is the easiest part of the whole challenge. I’ll choose each dish after researching the most popular and well-known foods from the country in turn, how difficult they are to prepare (meaning I don’t need specialized tools or wild techniques like digging holes in the ground to cook), and — very importantly — how easy it is to get the ingredients.

If I’m doing this, I want to do it right, following recipes as they’re traditionally made in each country, not my own interpretation or what I’d like it to have. That said, recommendations are more than welcome.

Documenting the Journey

I’ll document the whole experience: getting the ingredients, the cooking process, the final dish, and the score given by my judges (aka my girlfriend, family, and whoever wants to stop by for a good meal and a good time).

And yes — there will be pictures.

And what happens after I finish the challenge?
Again… I don’t know ¯\(ツ)/¯
We’ll see when the time comes. For now, it’s time to gather my list of countries, check tons of recipes, and start hunting for ingredients around my city.


Please join me in this culinary adventure! I’d love to read your comments, recommendations, and words of wisdom.


Here’s the list of countries:

A
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan