Friendly Table

Goodbye 2020!

Wrapping up 2020 Oh 2020, how you challenged us. We slugged through shutdowns, survived isolation, learned about grocery store supply chain management, and even adopted a new social norm called Social Distancing! Many leading mental heal...

One of our last meals for 2020 was Hosted by Lynn and her husband and the Guests were former Hosts, Mahria and Brian. When I first met Lynn I was immediately taken in by her sense of family, cooking and community. She and her husband are both medical professionals and her sense of community and well being really shined.
When we talked about her meals, one of the original ideas was an Oktoberfest theme she she has some Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. Then she told me about her seasonal go-to meal that she first saw on the local TV News a long time ago. For those if us old enough to recall, in Philly had the Greengrocer Joe Carcione or maybe it was Frank Jelinek on Dining Around. Referencing both of them seems like a nice tribute regardless of who broadcasted the dish, they both were inspiring to me!
Just the sight of a pumpkin brings forward memories of past Halloween treats and Thanksgiving tables overflowing with home cooked food. Nothing is more authentic american cuisine than a Thanksgiving meal. Besides a turkey, nothing says fall better than a great big pumpkin,

Hope you enjoy the attached youtube video!

Lynn's Pumpkin Meal Lynn prepares a uniques holiday beef stew and served in a pumpkin.

When we started Friendly Table, we hoped to attract 1st generation Americans to our platform because we knew the cooking would be unique and special. When Tracy signed up to cook, we had no idea what to expect. All I can say is WOW, she and her family did not disappoint The original menu of sweet and sour soup and summer rolls was augmented substantially because, as Tracy said, "I was concerned we would not have enough food". Seems like something my mother would have said, and I loved how genuine and caring the meal experience turned out.

I have been working on a concept to bring people together and share a home cooked meal. My inspiration for this idea originated from a business trip I made to a United Nations refugee camp in Jordan, housing 110,00 Syrian refugees. The UN is one of my company’s largest customers and I was asked to visit a camp so I could understand the IT challenges they were facing. At the camp, I shared a clay oven baked pizza with a Syrian refugee family and found the experience to be life changing. All my preconceived notions of the refugee crisis were turned upside down. I left the meal thinking that maybe, just sharing a meal with somebody is a great way to bring people together.