In Hong Kong, food and politics don't mix - yet

Rarely has a meal at the Legislative Council caused so much fuss. But, understandably, the invitation to lunch for Zhang Xiaoming , the director of the central government's liaison office, prompted a torrent of comment mainly because, in Hong Kong's weird political system, the people who pull the strings rarely meet their critics.

Consequently, a great deal of hope has been invested in the very idea that a leading mainland official has actually been in the same room as members of the democratic camp and eaten with them.

We shall see how this pans out. However, it provides a useful opportunity to reflect more widely on the connection between meals and politics.

The theory goes that a lot more can be accomplished when protagonists gather in a less formal setting, allowing their dialogue to be eased by good food and wine. In my other life as a purveyor of food in restaurants, I commend this idea.

However, the record of food and politics is mixed. In the US, President Barack Obama makes all sorts of efforts to get intransigent Republican legislators to ease their opposition to legislation initiated by the White House. In March, he went so far as to invite some for dinner in Washington's Plume restaurant and paid for it out of his own pocket. It is hard to say whether this was much of a success, although there has been some easing of intransigence.

A far more successful meal was hosted in 1790 by his predecessor, Thomas Jefferson, who invited Alexander Hamilton and James Madison to a famous meal that resulted in the compromise that was largely responsible for the union that is today's United States of America.

A rather less edifying but, arguably, also successful meal was the famous gangsters' summit in Atlantic City held during the prohibition period over a lavish meal. At this dinner, the mobsters agreed to divide up territories and produced a truce, halting a long period of gang warfare.