A local dinner series highlighting immigrant chefs and their stories, forced to pause during Operation Metro Surge, returns tonight with a sold-out meal in south Minneapolis.
The dinner with Ukrainian chef Viktoriia Panova is the first in the Immigrant Kitchen series over the next month. The second will feature LaToya Mbayu, highlighting her Cameroonian heritage.
The series was launched by the BIPOC Foodways Alliance in March 2025 to “break down cultural barriers using food as a tool.”
Mecca Bos, co-founder of the BIPOC Foodways Alliance, said she was surprised at the impact the home-cooked, intimate meals had not only on the diners but also the chefs who participated.
“One of the things that we weren’t really counting on is that bringing these women to showcase their cultural background has turned into a real empowerment piece for them,” Bos said. “Particularly for people who are new here, to be able to be in a room and show a group of strangers the importance of their culture.”
Bos said even though the dinners became a refuge for participants, she had no choice but to pause the series when federal immigration agents flooded the Twin Cities last winter.
“Those women at that time reported back that our spaces were the only spaces where they felt safe and that being there was very therapeutic for them,” Bos said. “When things got really bad, I didn’t feel like we had any recourse but to pause and just kind of wait and see.”
Mbayu, who will lead the rebooted series’ second dinner on Aug. 10, said her inspiration for becoming a chef was rooted in her Cameroonian culture.
Mbayu said she attended Immigrant Kitchen dinners before the relaunch and saw a Ukrainian chef discussing the background of a dish she showcased as the country is currently in an ongoing war. That inspired Mbayu to start telling stories with her culture’s food.
“It was such a simple dish or a simple meal, but the story behind it inspired me to not be afraid to tell our story too,” Mbayu said. “That’s how we connect as humans through food and through stories about the food.”
Mbayu said she’s planning to offer a variety of Cameroonian dishes, including two appetizers, beignet haricot which translates to “puff puff and beans” in French, and beef soya, a popular appetizer. Her main entree will be poulet DG, a one-pot meal of chicken, plantains and vegetables that was once served to the country’s elite, as its title, which translates to “chicken director general,” suggests.
Tess Bouska assists the featured chefs at Immigrant Kitchen with food preparation, especially since it’s a major shift working in a larger kitchen compared to their usual at-home cooking.
“We’ve really seen just like an uptick in people’s interest in our events, which feels really encouraging that people are hungry literally and metaphorically speaking,” Bouska said. “Restarting these dinners, it’s a light for a lot of people.”
Tickets for the first dinner, with Panova, were snapped up a few hours after they were announced. All five meals in the current series are free, thanks to an outside funder.
Bos said the organization hopes to highlight a chef from Afghanistan in September, but details are still being worked out. Updates will be posted on the BIPOC Foodways website.
