Chef Izzeldin Bukhari, cohost of Kitchen Conversations: A Thanksgiving Table, on his trip sharing Palestinian food and culture across Canada
Breaking bread is a fundamental part of human interaction. As humans, no matter what our differences are, it’s the same essential way how we live our lives. Food always is the medium that brings people together. It’s a way to share our culture, as well as to share the differences between us.
For the past several months, I’ve been travelling throughout Canada, cooking and sharing meals and stories with more than 2,000 people at United Churches and other communities. I’ve travelled across British Columbia, through Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto. For many of the Canadians I met, it was a chance to try Palestinian dishes that they didn't know as well.
I got the feedback a lot that people felt they were able to get to know Palestine a little bit—its food and hospitality—through the plates, and through the stories behind the dishes. Maybe that little bit changes things.
I also watched as Canadians got to understand Palestinians themselves more through my own experiences, through the stories I shared from my family, and the stories behind the dishes we shared together at the table.
I think this is something very crucial: by knowing about a people, you're able to do much. If you didn’t know the stories, if you didn’t know the narrative, the culture, and even the food, then you’ll be far from a place or a people. By knowing a bit of their life, and those of their families, in a way they got to be much closer, even in Canada.
One of the things I heard the most from people at these events was gratitude. Now that they got to know a bit about Palestine, they have the threads of things they can look up; stories and references, organizations and people who also do the same work of sharing about Palestine.
Many people have been lied to for a long time in their life about Palestinians. Much of what they know about Palestinians comes from the media’s sabotaging of our image, the idea that exists of us as violent people who are only concerned about fighting. But as with any culture, and any humans, there's so much about us to share: our food, our culture, our dances, how we like to have fun, how we enjoy life, what type of stories we have. It’s been a pleasure to share this with you at tables across Canada.
—Izzeldin Bukhari is a Palestinian chef, storyteller, and organizer who through Sacred Cuisine shares the ancestral wisdom embedded in Palestinian culinary traditions, emphasizing Palestinians’ historic connections between food, land, and identity.
This blog has been adapted from Izzeldin’s appearance in Kitchen Conversations with the Moderator: A Thanksgiving Table. Watch the full series now on YouTube. The views contained within these blogs are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of The United Church of Canada.