Food for Thought
a TEDxCMU restaurant event series highlighting underrepresented communities in Pittsburgh
TEDxCMU Salon is a branch of TEDx which aims to create spaces for underrepresented communities at CMU. We create these spaces through small, intimate events aimed at community building. As the head of Salon, I had the privilege of hosting and putting together an event called Food for Thought with my team. Our plan was to invite local restauranteurs to speak and cater a joint tasting menu for CMU students and faculty. Our guests would enjoy a completely free full-service candlelit dinner while they listened to the speakers.
We wanted to specifically highlight cultures that were underrepresented at Carnegie Mellon, so I cold-called restaurants and food trucks that I thought would be a good fit for weeks leading up to the event. Finally, a week before the event, we finalized our speakers:
- Chris Edmonds, a former NFL player who runs a Black-owned food truck centered around healthy food called ATU. Chris brought us a taco salad for our tasting menu.
- Dalel Khalil, who co-owns a Syrian restaurant called Khalil’s with rich history in Pittsburgh. Dalel brought us traditional dolmas and Khalil’s signature salad (with the best dressing I’ve ever had).
- Foy, a CMU student who runs a pop-up kitchen called Honeypoi. Foy brought us traditional Mexican horchata and a fusion pastel de nata.
- Armando and Leonardo Gonzalez, who run a Venezuelan Arepa Bar called Papelón in the heart of Squirrel Hill brought us Venezuelan arepas and tequeños.
My team and I then got to work planning out the decorations and theming for the event, with some amazing help from the TEDxCMU Design team. They created beautiful posters and Instagram graphics for us, and tickets ended up selling out almost instantly.
We decided to pick out candles and make our own floral centerpieces for each table in order to create a sit-down dining experience. Design even created menus to elevate the experience.
Hosting the event was a lot of fun, and doing the event honestly helped me get over some of my fears around public speaking. I want to take this space to say thank you to my Salon team, and thank you to the entire TEDxCMU team who helped make this beautiful event a success. A special thanks to Design who took all the photos for the event, this wouldn’t have been possible without any of you.
