When We Eat Together
An evening at Shared Table invites a closer look at how food, stories and everyday habits shape connection.
Serving ourselves at the Shared Table at Bricolage · Credit: Leadership for Cities
At Shared Table, we served ourselves.
It was a small detail, but one that stayed with me after the evening at Bricolage, at The Arts House. Serving yourself from shared dishes intended for a group involves decisions that an individually plated meal has already made for you. How much will you take? Is there enough for everyone? Does someone else need to reach the dish?
These are ordinary considerations. Yet they invite people into a collective act of eating. A meal becomes an occasion to notice how we occupy space and spend time together.
The evening prompted a question that extends beyond the dinner table: what helps a gathering become a place where people can connect?
A meal shaped by a story
Shared Table is co-created by Food Citizen and Bricolage. Each session centres on a personal story connected to food, place and the living world, with the chefs at Bricolage interpreting it through a multi-course communal meal.
For this second edition, Hui Shan from Terra Tea shared how getting to know Balinese red rice farmers became foundational to her work. The evening included a tea meditation led by Shi Qi from Terra Tea, while the food menu drew inspiration from the farmers, harvest rituals and thankfulness.
This format gives diners something to approach together. A conversation can begin with what is being tasted, where an ingredient comes from, or what a farmer’s way of working brings into view. There is a shared point of interest before anyone has to decide how much of their own stories to reveal.
The tea meditation offered another way into that shared attention. Pausing with tea can make room to notice sensations that are easily missed when drinking is incidental to something else. Within the evening’s format, it also offered a common activity that did not depend on everyone being equally comfortable speaking.
The story, tea and food gave the gathering several ways to participate. It was important for participants to know that listening could be a contribution too.
Making room for a stranger
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