top of page

Like Her Hands

Designed by Christale Terris, the performative dinner LIKE HER HANDS explores place and memory, women's role in the food system, intergenerational heritage and relationship building through the act of preparing and sharing food. 

 

Using local and sustainable ingredients, participants prepared a stew composed of handmade GLISSANTS simmered in a rich chicken stock and served with boiled potatoes, fresh green beans and carrots.

 

Named after the slippery little dumplings it contains, this dish is a traditional French-Canadian meal. Glissants are also known as “pâtes à ragoût” or “grands-pères” (although these are normally shaped like dumplings).

 

Glissants are a family favourite taught to Christale by their grandmother, Victoria May Whalen (Mimi), who herself learned it from hers in Sudbury, Ontario in the 1940s.

To perform the actual cooking and dinner, Christale invited five women with whom they cook regularly. Hands dusted in flour, using bottles as rolling pins, the crew made glissants and cooked them while chatting and laughing. This shared experience showed the relationship cuisine can build.

 

In the end, enticed by the mouth-watering aromas, observers and participants shared a bowl until the pot was empty, just like you can do at home. 
 

Words

Christale Terris

Geneviève Sicotte

Images

What is Food?

Videos

Concordia Food Coalition

Erdene Batzorig

IMG_0506
IMG_0528
IMG_0511
IMG_0508
Like Her Hands
likeherhands
IMG_0531
IMG_0533
IMG_0532
P1000189
Terris.JPG

Christale Terris is a queer Métis/settler raised in Sudbury, Ontario who has been living and working in Montreal since 2010. They are an interdisciplinary artist, community organizer, cook, and Intermedia/Cyberarts student at Concordia University. They hold a B.A in Public Policy and Community Development from Concordia University specializing in intersectional politics. Christale’s research interests include food systems, ecology, climate change, sharing, and radical self love. Their work regularly uses sound, space, text, and food to create collaborative experiences designed to critically engage the public with issues related to social, environmental, and economic justice.

bottom of page