THE BEAUTY OF EATING TOGETHER
A few years ago, a group known as Alfresco Vancouver was making it their mission to create pop-up dinners in mystery locations around town. You’d sign up online, and on the day of the event you’d get a notice telling you where to be and asking you to bring a dish to share and a willingness to chat with your neighbour—the goal being to break down Vancouver’s reputation for being a little chilly.
The day I attended, a volunteer team had set up white-linen-covered tables in and among the rows of a community garden. About 30 of us passed around our dishes, and any initial shyness fell away as we started to eat: soon, we found ourselves sharing our recipes, gossiping about what was going on in the city and revelling in the gorgeous location. I even discovered that my septuagenarian neighbour’s grandfather was the first mayor of my mother’s tiny hometown of Hearst, Ontario—the kind of small-world moment that happens only when strangers have a reason to come together.
For the past couple of years, Kelowna’s Aman Dosanj has been creating that same kind of community-building experience in the Okanagan. As writer Jamie Maw recounts in “Bounty Hunters,” page 52, Dosanj’s Sourced dinner series brings people together in orchards all over the Okanagan—and she, in turn, brings both her talent as a chef and her infectious love for all things local to the people who sign up. “It’s delicious, and it’s igniting conversations that might just turn strangers into friends,” writes Maw. When he asks how a couple across the table had met each other, one says, “Actually, I don’t know him from Adam.” And the other responds, “Actually, I am Adam.”
It’s the kind of magic that springs up when you gather together with others around great food, whether it’s happening in your local community garden, under a pear tree in B.C.’s favourite valley, or even on your own back patio. Friends, family, neighbours, strangers: whatever the occasion you might be cooking for this summer—and whatever kind of alchemy that mix of people creates—I hope your gathering is full of similar delights and surprises.