BREAKING BREAD DINNER SERIES
Our signature series of culinary-centered events is designed to highlight the food and cultures of resettled communities here in Richmond, to empower chefs from within these communities, and to invite Richmonders to better understand, identify with, and walk alongside our newest neighbors.
2021 Breaking Bread: A Virtual Cooking Experience
Our 2021 event, Breaking Bread: A Virtual Cooking Experience, is an online cooking demonstration that features chefs from Nigeria, Syria, and Nepal.
Event Launch will be Friday, June 11, 2021
About the event:
Our 2021 event, Breaking Bread: A Virtual Cooking Experience, is a weekend of online cooking demonstrations that features chefs from Nigeria, Syria, and Nepal. The event is completely virtual and will feature an event launch on Friday, June11th. Access to the videos will be available until June20th (World Refugee Day)
Course One: Nepal - Learn how to make a Nepali appetizer (Aloo Ko Achar) from Chef Chandra
Course Two: Nigeria - Learn how to make Nigerian Fried Rice from Chef Loretta
Course Three: Syria - Learn how to make Halawet El Jibn (Sweet Cheese Rolls) from Chef Manal
Ticket sales will begin Monday, May 2nd.
Our virtual event launch will be on Friday, June 11th.
Your $20.00 ticket includes:
Invitation to the event launch on June 11th that will feature a few of the chefs
Access to the cooking experience videos until June 20th (World Refugee Day)
Materials packet so you can participate alongside the chefs -- recipes, ingredient list, list of immigrant owned local grocery stores, children's activities that are linked to the cultures and food, and a specially curated music list so you can play music from the Chefs' home countries while you cook!
An opportunity to receive this year's special Breaking Bread bread basket, designed and sewn by ReEstablish Richmond's own Heela Sewing Class
* If you are interested in sponsoring this year's event, please reach out to Robin Seagraves at admin@reestablishrichmond.org *
LOOKING BACK
COVID-19 Special Event: Kneading Community at Home
Virtual Dinner, Watch Party, and Discussion of The Breadwinner, an award-winning film with refugee and immigrant themes
Friday, June 5, 2020 | 6:30pm
About the Event
This multi-generational event was designed for families with children (upper elementary and older) and adults of all ages looking for a social event during this time of isolation.
To enhance the viewing experience of this film, we created an Educational Guide, including:
Background and cultural information
Movie-themed activities and educational materials for students of all ages
Recipes, and more!
Congolese Cooking Demonstration + Tasting
Summer Series: Course Three
Saturday, September 7, 2019 | 1-4pm
Parsley’s Kitchen, 2600 Nine Mile Rd, Richmond, VA 23223
About the Chef
Antoinette Murekatete is a Congolese community liaison, wife, and mother of 4. She arrived in the U.S. over 15 years ago and moved to Richmond in 2012. As a teenager, she was violently forced from her village and spent many years in a refugee camp until her family came to the United States. Antoinette currently serves as an interpreter for several resettlement agencies, helping newly arrived Congolese families learn about, adapt to, and understand their new home.
About the Menu
While demonstrating her cooking techniques, Antoinette will talk about Congolese culture, especially the customs of preparing and sharing food. For example, meals are traditionally family-focused, with the entire household attending 1-2 large meals eaten each day.
An essential component of Congolese cuisine is fufu, a mash made by pounding starchy root vegetables with hot water. Stirring it together is a serious workout! In many African cultures, this staple food is eaten at least once a day — typically with a soup or stew of vegetables, meat, fish, or pepper. To eat, break off a small piece of fufu, roll it into a ball, make a small indentation, and dip into soup or stew.
Fufu | made from cassava and corn
Fish stew | made with onions, bell peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and peanut butter
Beef stew | made with onions, bell peppers, and tomato sauce
Pop Up Dinner + Wine Tasting
Summer Series: Course Two
Sunday, August 25, 2019 | Seatings at 5pm and 8pm
Nota Bene Restaurant, 2110 E Main St, Richmond, VA 23223
About the Chefs
Sub Rosa Bakery is teaming up with Nota Bene Restaurant and Native Selections, distributor of organic and natural wines in Virginia, to present a unique Pop Up dinner + wine tasting event, with a portion of proceeds benefitting ReEstablish Richmond.
About the Menu
Presenting a Regional Grains dinner paired with natural wines.
Pre-course: saj bread, spiced ezme salad
Perles Val du Moines- Domaine des Cognettes
1st: smoked trout rilette, cucumber bandeau, einkorn cracker
Alma de Mar- Bodegas Albamar- Rias Biaxas
2nd: imam bayaldi (stuffed eggplant), cipollini, fermented grain sauce, dill
Tragaldabas- Mandragora- Sierra Salamanca
3rd: NuEast wheat rabbit cappelletti, smoked leek, ricotta
Poil de Lievre- Domaine Bobinet- Loire Valley
4th: Redtail Grains Spelt cavatelli, hen clam, saffron, verbena
Fedelie Bianco- Cantina Marilina- Sicily
5th: unripe fig crostada, fig leaf ice cream
(sparkling) MUZ vermouth, Partida Cruz- Penedes
Afghanistan
Summer Series: Course One
Friday, July 12, 2019 | 6-9pm
Mobelux, 1635 W Broad St, Richmond, VA 23220
Jalal hopes to open a food truck or restaurant, and Breaking Bread is his first opportunity to work alongside his wife Zakia towards that dream.
About the Chefs
Jalal and Zakia are a husband a wife team who resettled in Richmond, Virginia in 2015. In Afghanistan, Jalal worked as a human resources manager and supported the U.S. mission against terrorism; doing so put him and his family in danger. With the support of the Richmond community and ReEstablish Richmond, Jalal is working as a workforce management analyst, and Zakia is working as a tailor at a local bridal shop. They both dream of opening their own food truck or restaurant. Though accustomed to catering for large family and community gatherings, Breaking Bread is Jalal and Zakia's debut in sharing their cuisine and culture with the Richmond food scene.
About the Menu
This Breaking Bread Afghan meal will be served family style, accompanied by a presentation and discussion of the power of food in Afghan culture.
Qabeli Palau with meat | rice mixed with carrot, raisins, almonds, and veal
Chicken Karai | chicken with tomato and pepper with seasoning
Afghanistan Salata | onion, tomato, pepper, mint leaves, and traditional Afghan spices
Naan-e-Afghani | this homemade flatbread is the national bread of Afghanistan
Gosh-e-Feel or Elephant Ear | a traditional Afghan dessert of fried sweet bread with green cardamom
Afghan Tea | hot green tea, simmered with cardamom pods
“Cooking cannot only balm our emotions and sustain, it is also a constant reminder of transformation and possibility. Just watch things like flour and buttermilk get stirred together into a shaggy dough and then, just like that, stand tall in the oven as they become bronzed biscuits. Cooking shows us over and over again that we can make things happen, we can make change happen, with just our own hands. Food is metaphor personified, and within that there is reaffirmation of what we can accomplish.”
