“It is impossible not to love someone who makes toast for you,” wrote British chef Nigel Slater. That idea — that food is a gateway to connection — is at the heart of Stories Behind the Menu, a Twin Cities dinner series that pairs meals with storytelling.

“We take four chefs of color a year, and we storytell how the only true cuisine in the United States is Indigenous,” said Chaz Sandifer, a health and wellness coach who founded the dinner club. “Everything else was brought in through enslavement or immigration.”

Each Stories Behind the Menu event blends food and story, with chefs sharing both personal histories and the cultural roots behind their dishes.

Past chefs who have led dinners include James Beard Award winner Sean Sherman and Katie Chin, the daughter of Leeann Chin. The most r

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