Food tells the story of migration, evokes memories, reminds us of where we came from and connects us to the land that produces the food we eat. As Kai Gardner Mishlove so beautifully explains, food unifies us and heals us. “When you prepare a dish, you’re putting your heart and soul into it and you’re evoking the memory of your ancestors in that work,” she says.
In 2018, Gardner Mishlove came up with an idea that would merge her love of food, building bridges between people, and supporting the many refugee communities in Milwaukee. She wanted to find a way for refugee chefs to share the food from their culture with others.
Through food, she knew there was a way to “celebrate the diversity amongst us, the beauty of our differences but also the beauty of our commonalities.”
Gardner Mishlove reached out to her friend Saehee Chang, the owner of Korea Konnect and Kosari Kimchi, to ask about local restaurants willing to collaborate. That connection led Gardner Mishlove to chefs Gregory Leon of Amilinda, Christie Melby-Gibbons of Tricklebee Café and Caitlin Cullen of Tandem who helped her found Tables Across Borders in 2019.
Each of the three restaurants would volunteer their time and space to host pop-up dinners featuring chefs from different refugee communities. Gardner Mishlove would organize ticket sales for the events and 100 percent of the proceeds would go to the chefs. Since 2019, the project has hosted 18 dinners and featured chefs from Syria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Rohingya people of Burma, Congolese, and many more. After the pandemic, the restaurant Lazy Susan replaced the Tandem as the third space to host dinners.
Fighting Hate with Knowledge
“I thought it was important for people to see refugees as people contributing positively to our community. And I also wanted to connect that to my own experience as a Black woman—as a Jewish woman,” explains Gardner Mishlove.
Her intention has always been to counter the racism, hate and antisemitism that is often directed at refugees—especially after the 2017 ban on predominantly Muslim countries was ordered. Gardner Mishlove credits the bigotry towards these communities to a lack of understanding about their culture. “If we can break down those walls so that people can get to know each other, then it’s harder to hate what you know.”
A Place for Healing
During the dinners, Gardner Mishlove thinks of her own family’s experience—people who survived the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Holocaust. Many of the refugees cooking the food have experienced similar hardship such as genocide in Myanmar or living through the war in Syria. Thanks to Tables Across Borders, these people from different parts of the world can come together to talk about those experiences and find how they are more alike than they are different.
To learn from one another is to heal. The chefs talk about the spices and ingredients they use and how some of those ingredients have influence from different countries—countries their ancestors came from. As they eat, participants begin to see—and taste—the story of the migration and resilience.
Tables Across Borders is working on bigger ideas and deciding what comes next for the project. Gardner Mishlove wants to support the refugee chefs in developing the skills they need to establish businesses. That requires assistance with language barriers and the logistics of getting a business license. She says the best way to support the project is to follow them on Facebook and support the small restaurants who make it possible (Amilinda, Tricklebee and Lazy Susan).
Gardner Mishlove believes most hard conversations and disagreements should be held over a plate of food or a good cup of coffee—because who could be mad when you’re sharing a delicious meal?
Learn more about Tables Across Borders on their Facebook page at facebook.com/Amilindatandemtricklebee.
Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.