Have you noticed that we at the Museum are a little obsessed with food these days?
There’s a few reasons for that. Firstly, we’re cooking up a new exhibition about food called eat make share: a taste of immigration, which opens May 10. Secondly, food is a big part of who we are as individuals and families, as communities, and as a country.
And lastly, when the food is prepared right, eating can be one of life’s biggest joys.
Getting to know all about you
Food brings people together. We’ve all experienced it. Want to get to know someone better? Invite them over for dinner. But it’s not just the act of eating. It’s the conversation around the dinner table and the work and care that goes into preparing the food.
Just as bringing ingredients together creates new tastes, bringing people together can create friendships.
Delicious culinary collisions
Our new program, Perfect Pairings, brings together pairs of chefs and home cooks from different cultural traditions to make a new recipe and form new relationships. Participants are asked to open their hearts and their kitchens to one another.
Our first pairing
The first pair of participants were in the Museum’s lunch room in February to create something new.
Ghada Shuli is a Palestinian-Canadian who came to Canada from Kuwait in 1992. She received a diploma in Culinary Arts with a certificate in Baking and Pastry Art from the Nova Scotia Community College and now specializes in making sourdough. She is the owner of Sanabel Chef Mama G’s Bakery.
Keisha Carter is African Nova Scotian, with family roots going back many generations in the province. She started working in the food industry at age 15. She studied culinary arts at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary and now owns Comfort Foodies, a business that operates as a pop-up and catering company selling Mexican-style dishes like birria tacos.
Keisha is impressed by Ghada’s approach. “There's a lot of care and preparation that goes into it and the use of fresh ingredients,” she says. “That was a big takeaway for me, just seeing the passion that comes with it.”
What did they make?
The two chefs talked about what they could do together- something that would blend and reflect two cultures. Here’s what they landed on:
Ghada prepared ka'ak al-Quds, a traditional Middle-Eastern ring-shaped pastry sometimes called a Jerusalem bagel.
Keisha made a lobster dip, with a special sumac and chive sprinkle “Traditionally, with a lobster roll you get a lemon wedge on the side. I was like, what if we garnish it with sumac, because the sumac has a lemony flavor to it.”
The result?
“I just feel like someone needs to see this and serve it at their restaurant,” says Keisha.
Ghada agrees. “It's a piece of art, the way it looks. The colors, they come together. Like the sumac with the redness of the lobster and the nice color of the bread and the taste of the sumac.”
