Every place on earth has its own kitchen.

The tagine and the couscoussier, ras el hanout and harissa, preserved lemons and cracked green olives, semolina in every form, and the Egyptian breakfast of ful medames under a slick of cumin oil.

Red palm oil, pounded yam, and the long argument over jollof rice. Groundnut stews and smoked fish, fiery pepper soups, fermented locust bean, and grilled suya dusted in yaji spice.

Cassava in every form — kwanga loaves, saka-saka leaves, chikwangue — with moambe palm-nut sauce, bitterleaf, smoked river fish, and the ground melon seed that thickens half the pot.

Injera torn to scoop berbere-red wats, teff and its sourdough tang, ugali with sukuma wiki, nyama choma over coals, and the Indian Ocean pilau of the Swahili coast, heavy with clove and cardamom.

The braai as a social institution, maize pap and chakalaka, Cape Malay curry and bobotie, biltong dried in the wind, Durban's bunny chow, and Madagascar's rice with romazava and vanilla.

Smoke and time: Texas brisket, Carolina whole hog, Kansas City ribs. Creole gumbo and Cajun boudin, New England chowder, soul food's greens and cornbread, Québécois poutine and tourtière, salmon on cedar.

Nixtamalised corn is the whole foundation — masa for tortillas, tamales and pupusas. Above it sit the mole pastes of Oaxaca, cochinita pibil from the pib pit, and a chile vocabulary hundreds of words deep.

Jerk pork buried in pimento smoke, Cuban sofrito and ropa vieja, Puerto Rican mofongo, Haitian griot with pikliz, Trinidadian doubles and roti — African technique, Indian spice, Spanish larder, one archipelago.

The cradle of the potato — thousands of varieties — with quinoa, ají amarillo and freeze-dried chuño. Peruvian ceviche cured in leche de tigre, anticuchos over coals, pachamanca cooked in the earth.

Feijoada simmered all Saturday, moqueca in dendê oil, farofa on everything; the Argentine asado and its chimichurri; arepas and bandeja paisa to the north; and yerba mate passed from hand to hand.

Plov from the kazan, its rice stained gold with carrot and cumin; hand-pulled laghman; manti and samsa slapped onto a tandyr wall; round non bread stamped before baking; the steppe's horse meat and kumis.

Spices bloomed in hot fat, the tandoor's blistered bread, dal in a hundred versions, dosa fermented overnight, biryani layered and sealed with dough, pickles and chutneys, ghee, paneer, and the thali.

Wok hei and knife work, dashi and umami, the fermentation cellar: soy, miso, doubanjiang, kimchi. Dim sum trolleys, hand-pulled noodles, sushi counters, Korean banchan, hot pot, and tea taken seriously.

Balance as method: sour, salty, sweet and hot, all at once. Fish sauce and shrimp paste, lemongrass and galangal pounded in a mortar, coconut milk cracked for rendang, pho broth simmered overnight, sambal alongside.

Preservation as cuisine: cured, smoked, salted, pickled, buried. Dense rye and smørrebrød, gravlax and rollmops, Icelandic skyr, the full breakfast and the Sunday roast, and New Nordic foraging.

The French mother sauces and the codified brigade, terrines and confit, the baguette and the patisserie window; Alpine fondue and raclette; German wurst and sauerkraut; Belgian moules-frites and beer.

Olive oil, wheat and the vine. Regional pasta shapes by the hundred, risotto and ragù, Spanish tapas and jamón ibérico, paella from the Valencian rice fields, Portuguese bacalhau, the Greek meze table.

Rye, cabbage, sour cream and dill. Pierogi and vareniki, Hungarian goulash red with paprika, borscht in a dozen versions, Romanian mămăligă, cured kielbasa, and a cellar of pickles for the winter.

Where the Ottoman kitchen met the Slav one: ćevapi off the grill, burek coiled in filo, ajvar roasted in autumn, sarma rolled in vine or cabbage leaf, thick kajmak, and rakija at both ends of the meal.

The hāngī pit and the backyard barbecue; bush tucker — wattleseed, finger lime, kangaroo — beside a modern Asian-inflected café culture that gave the world the flat white; and the contested pavlova.

The earth oven — umu, lovo, mumu — lined with hot stones and banana leaf. Taro and breadfruit, coconut cream squeezed by hand, raw fish cured in lime and coconut, and kava as the ceremony that opens the meal.

The meze table and the kebab fire. Tahini, za'atar and sumac, hummus and labneh, kibbeh pounded in stone, Persian rice with its golden tahdig, saffron and dried lime, and pastry drowned in sugar syrup.

Georgia's supra table: khachapuri boats of molten cheese, khinkali twisted shut, walnut sauces and sour tkemali plum. Armenian lavash from the tonir, Azerbaijani plov, and eight thousand years of qvevri wine.