Photo by Emily Julka via Bint Jamila's Table - Instagram
Bint Jamila's Table - PCRF Event Prep
A selection of Palestinian dishes Bint Jamila's Table prepped for the For Palestine, For Humanity benefit (2025).
Gastronomy is a crucial component of preserving one’s culture, history, storytelling and identity. With her business, Bint Jamila’s Table, Muna Riyad Sharma creates dynamic, artful tablescapes of Palestinian cuisine through uniquely-curated community events and her private catering services. She named her business, which translates to “Jamila’s daughter” in Arabic, as a way of honoring her mother and the powerful relationship they share.
Photo by Faisal Quershi
Muna Riyad Sharma
Muna Riyad Sharma
“Food is one of the most beautiful, poetic, multisensory ways to tell a story that you can’t do with anything else,” Muna affirms. “It is a form of art, and I see my tablescapes as an extension of that.”
As a Palestinian-American, Muna recognizes how her people’s connection to their land is not just ancestral, but everything about the land is connected to their physical being and the food that they eat.
“Our food comes from this soil. It came from seeds that came from a tree before it. Every dish is an inheritance of its own that connects me to people I’ve never even met. The same way I come from a generation of women and families, every single tree and every single za’atar bush comes from their own generation.”
Each Dish is Different
She continues, “You will likely never meet two Palestinian people who make the same dish the same way. That is because of how we have been divided and separated and disconnected from one another and the land. It’s one of the only cuisines in the world that is like that. For every person to be able to showcase their own dish on a table is an act of resistance because you’re telling your family’s story. Everything I do is laced with Palestinian-ness because of that.”
Muna grew up with a big family in Al-Bireh, Palestine. Her mother is a wonderful cook, and their house would be a hub for grand feasts with over 15 people. Muna loves bringing people together, and food does exactly that.
“Life happens around the kitchen table … the gossip, the updates, the news, the planning …anything that’s going on in a family is happening around where food is being prepared and enjoyed.”
During the Second Intifada, Muna noticed her mother starting to preserve food in different ways, such as baking her own bread or making fruits into jams. “As a child, you don’t understand what’s going on, but seeing my mom take something that’s usually consumed quickly and stretching it so we could have it for an extended period of time piqued my interest as an eight or nine-year old.”
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Connecting with Heritage
In 2021, Muna took time to feel more connected to and visible in her Palestinian and Muslim identities. Around the same time, she and her husband moved to Milwaukee from New York. “I did not know Milwaukee had such a large Palestinian population,” Muna laughs. “I connected with people I went to high school with in Palestine, which is wild to me. I felt safe to be Palestinian here.”
Muna started Bint Jamila’s Table in 2022 as a way to not only share a part of herself with others but build vibrant, immersive experiences in doing so.
In early 2024, everything shifted for Muna when she created a tablescape for the “For Palestine, For Humanity: Food is a Form of Resistance” art show by Amal Azzam and Liala Amin. “The centerpiece was inspired by Al-Bireh itself. One of the most beautiful experiences that I had during that event was seeing other Palestinians see themselves in the table, like someone taking a bite of the warak dawali and being reminded of the one their family makes back in Palestine.”
Muna adds, “I really enjoyed seeing my friends’ kids interact with the table, trying stuff they would never try like salty goat cheese, or olives, or spicy labneh, and seeing their faces light up. It felt so wholesome.”
Curated Menus
Subsequently, in collaboration with Muna’s mother, Bint Jamila’s Table hosted a series of workshops focusing on different aspects of Palestinian cooking, including ones on stew and fermentation, complete with curated menus that featured bamya and mulukhya stews, makdous and vermicelli rice.
Bint Jamila’s Table also created tablescapes for the Palestine solidarity encampments at UW-Milwaukee last spring, a summer Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) fundraiser hosted by Cloud Red, “Unladylike: Sticky Licky Foods; A Tablescape Experience” with Braided Magazine at Task Creative, and the Second Annual Community Appreciation Iftar with Milwaukee 4 Palestine and UMMA at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee.
They have hosted a book club as well, discussing “The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey” by Laila El-Haddad, where they cooked and discussed dishes from different chapters of the book.
Muna hopes to tap into different communities in the liberation movement and collaborate with more chefs on pop-up events. Have an idea? Email bintjamilastable@gmail.com or message them on Instagram. Muna affirms, “We will be there to bring their vision to life in a way that truly represents them.”
