The Taste of Memory

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

My sister texted me over the weekend to ask for our dad’s hummus recipe.

He had sent it to me via email in 1999, and I still have it printed out and tucked into my recipe binder. The email starts with a recap of a Packer game he had attended with a friend and then, without much transition, launches into the recipe.

It doesn’t resemble any type of typical recipe. There are no carefully measured ingredients or precise instructions. It is full of basic explanations and directions—the kind of recipe you might get from someone who assumes you already know something about cooking because, well, you’re his daughter.

But I can just hear him in this recipe.

My dad died in 2020, so that printed-out email is precious to me. It connects me to him, but it also connects him to something much older. My father was Palestinian and immigrated to the United States in 1962. When I make his hummus, I am tasting something that was part of his life long before I was born. And through him, I am connected to generations of relatives and ancestors who ate these same foods.

That is one of the remarkable things about food: It carries memory.

We often talk about food in terms of what it does for our bodies. At Convivium, we talk about how food connects us to ourselves, to our community and to our environment. But food has another kind of power. It connects us to where we came from—to our families, our cultures and the people whose lives came before ours.

And sometimes that connection is incredibly specific.

We remember being gathered around a table. We remember being cared for. We remember holidays and celebrations, kitchens and conversations, people who may no longer be with us. Food can bring back a sense of belonging—to a family, a place, a culture or a particular moment in our lives.

This week, I’ll be teaching a Middle Eastern Mezze class here at Convivium, and I’m especially excited about this one because it gives me the opportunity to share a very important part of myself with the people who attend: my heritage.

Mezze is a style of eating common throughout the Middle East in which the table, rather than the individual plate, becomes the center of the meal. Instead of each person receiving one entrée, a variety of dishes—meats, salads, dips, relishes, vegetables and breads—are placed on the table for everyone to share.

Abundance, variety and generosity are at the heart of mezze.

It is also an especially social way of eating. 

And while mezze can certainly be enjoyed anytime, in my experience it is particularly associated with gatherings and celebrations—weddings, baptisms, graduations and other occasions when family and friends come together.

Which makes it a particularly fitting way for me to share a piece of my own history.

When I teach this class, I’m not just teaching people how to make hummus -- I’m sharing foods that tell a story about where I come from. I’m sharing flavors that were part of my father’s life and, through him, became part of mine.

Food connects us to our bodies. It connects us to the people around our tables. It connects us to the land that grows it. And sometimes, if we pay attention, it connects us across time—to the people who came before us and the traditions they carried forward.

Yours convivially,