Conflicts often trigger unique information flows, potentially fostering political awareness and engagement among previously disengaged citizens. This study explores this phenomenon in the context of social media, examining how previously apolitical actors leveraged food-related content to share political messages following the most recent outbreak of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Utilizing a novel dataset of millions of popular cooking-related posts and comments from before and after October 7th, 2023, we find evidence that cultural ambassadors are galvanized by conflict into political activism. We document a sharp shift in social media content among accounts with cultural ties to the conflict: previously apolitical accounts begin to blend political messages with their more typical food-focused content at high rates. We further uncover striking patterns in the level of commenter engagement. Messages mixing cultural and political messages generate significantly higher engagement than strictly apolitical content and reach a larger and more diverse audience. This effect is particularly pronounced for chefs whose ethnic identity aligns with the conflict's key players. Yet this broader outreach comes with tradeoffs: 'going political' actually reduces engagement with previously loyal followers. The act of turning food content into political messaging highlights the amorphous boundaries between personal and political in the modern media environment and reveals a new channel for broadcasting information to a public that increasingly tunes out of traditional news.