Grounded (2024)

Overview

Traditional cuisine is much more than just food—it is a living expression of identity, memories, and heritage. Its ingredients are rooted in the land's geography and seasons, while its flavors reflect its conflicts and politics. Palestinian cuisine carries within it a blend of popular, personal, and feminine history; it intertwines with the narrative found in books, adds depth to it, and brings it to life. Cook and culinary historian Muzna Bishara embarks on an eight-chapter journey, one that also explores a vanishing generation of women who preserve the memory of rural cooking. Each chapter focuses on a key ingredient or raw material, its region of cultivation, its season, and a local family who works with it. Olives, sumac, akoub, and eggplants are among the foundational elements that shape the flavor of the land—stories that Muzna seeks to uncover, offering a new way to touch the tragic history of her people.