Foodie one meal away from making every national dish, raising thousands of dollars – but mum still prefers Sunday roast

A food lover who set out to make every national dish in the world after cooking an Irish stew for his family during a Covid lockdown now has just one meal to go on his 197-plate adventure, which has raised more than a quarter of a million dollars for charity.

Dan Berger, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has made 196 national dishes so far, from Peru’s ceviche to the Vatican City’s fettuccini alla papalina – and while his favourites came from the Middle East, his mother’s favourite was a classic British Sunday roast.

The 38-year-old American, who believes his cooking has improved but says he would be “terrified” to work in a restaurant, had to cook many of the dishes several times, such as Australia’s pavlova, and had some of the rarest ingredients flown in.

Last year, he decided to team up with the non-profit organisation, Care International, to help raise funds to fight global hunger and has already received more than 250,000 dollars (£195,000) in donations.

He has one more dish to plate, fiambre from Guatemala, which he is planning to serve to friends and family next month, to celebrate the end of his “Around the world in 197 plates”.

“I’ve actually probably saved money because I’m eating out so much less and cooking at home,” Dan, who made thanksgiving turkey for the US’s national dish, told PA Real Life.

“It’s just been an amazing experience.

“There were different ways to (make a list of countries), but I wanted to do something fun and arbitrary, so instead of using the UN or something like that, I based my list on a Sporcle quiz.”

Dan, who works in investment banking, hatched a plan to cook every country’s national dish from scratch during the global pandemic with the help of his brother, Matthew, 35, who was happy to do the washing up in exchange for food.

“He said, make me something from Ireland and Uganda,” Dan continued.

“So I did an Irish stew and this dish called matoke, which is a spicy beef and plantain stew, which is really popular in Uganda and it was just amazing – so delicious.

“I was like, OK, that’s it, I’m going to do every single last one and started working my way through every country.”

Dan began researching recipes online and cooking dishes from the four corners of the world in no particular order, including thieboudienne from Senegal, stamppot from the Netherlands and Hungarian goulash.

But what started as a fun way to pass the time during lockdown soon turned into a complicated exercise and Dan was forced to create a spreadsheet to keep track of what ingredients he needed, some of which proved difficult to source.

“I had to go to a different city, New York, to actually find mutton to make buuz from Mongolia – which are like dumplings,” he said.

Finding noni leaves, also known as Indian mulberry, a key ingredient in fish amok, the national dish of Cambodia, also proved to be near impossible.

“I connected with a local organisation called SEAMAAC which works in a part of Philadelphia which has a large South-East Asian population, many of whom are Cambodian,” he said.

“I messaged the executive director being like, hey, does anyone know where I can find this plant?

“So they asked around and said, ‘Yeah, we’ve got one for you, just stop by the office, we had it shipped over from Texas’.

“I thought someone might have been growing a plant at home or something.”

Sometimes the ingredients proved to be a little too exotic for Dan to get his hands on, such as fruit bat soup, a delicacy in Palau, Oceania.

He also allowed for “a little bit of discretion” when countries claimed to have the same national dish, as was the case with fufu, a staple for many West African countries.

“But as much as possible, I would figure out a unique dish that is representative of that country’s food identity,” he said.

Picking a clear favourite was not easy for Dan, who says he relied heavily on Wikipedia to make his national dish list.

“It’s usually the one that I’m about to eat, but if I was forced to give one among all the other amazing highlights, I think it would have to be machboos from Bahrain, a spicy chicken and rice dish,” he said.

“Out of all of the regions I have discovered, the middle east is a favourite among favourites, because of the spice combinations which just come together perfectly.”

Other star dishes include oil down from Grenada, a salted meat and vegetable stew, and tave kosi from Albania, a type of pie baked with fresh garlic, lamb, oregano and yogurt.

“They just come together in such a great way,” he said.

“Zigini from Eritrea was another one which knocked my socks off.”

Dishes which included lobster or crab, such as Singapore’s chilli crab or the Seychelles’ langoustine in vanilla sauce, came with the highest price tag, he said.

While Dan decided to make fish and chips for England’s national dish, he also cooked a Sunday roast for his mother Patricia, 64, to celebrate England playing the United States in the 2022 Fifa World Cup.

“I did the potatoes in duck fat, Yorkshire puddings and sticky toffee pudding for desert,” he said.

“My mum, who tried many of my dishes said, ‘I think this is the best thing that you’ve made’.

“I was like ‘well, that’s quite the compliment for this dish but quite the insult for everything else’.

“But she said that it reminded her exactly of the roasts that her dad used to make.”

Dan also made a Swiss fondue with his mum, following the recipe of his late grandfather, who was known to be a “excellent cook”.

“It was nice being able to do that together,” he said.

The list includes the 193 United Nations member countries plus the Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan.

About two thirds of the way through his global dish list, Dan decided to partner with Care International, an international aid agency which he has been working with since the Haiti earthquake in 2010.

He is aiming to raise money to help the charity fight global hunger and promised to match 100,000 dollars (£77,400) in donations with his own money.

So far his efforts have raised an “incredible” 250,000 dollars [£195,000] and Dan is hoping his last meal will help drive donations higher.

“Everything I have given to Care has been returned tenfold,” he said.

“It’s been my life’s adventure – all the cool things that have happened in my life are because of Care.

“So this was an opportunity for me to do something big for Care and it’s been an amazing accomplishment.

To see the full list of national dishes visit Dan’s website at 197plates.com or follow him on Instagram, as @bergershot.

To make a donation visit www.care.org/cooklikeyoucare