Interview · People · Community
Marisol Ibarra on the Potluck as Honest Cooking
A community organizer on why the potluck table tells you more than any restaurant does.
Marisol Ibarra's potluck has run every month for six years, rain or shine, in the same community hall. We asked her what keeps people coming back.
What makes a potluck different from a regular dinner party?
No one's performing. At a dinner party, the host is usually managing an impression. At a potluck, everyone just brings the thing they actually know how to make, and it shows.
Is there a dish that always shows up?
Someone's grandmother's rice, in one form or another, almost every month. It's never the same recipe twice, but it's always clearly someone's inheritance.
What have you learned about your neighbors through food?
More than six years of small talk ever taught me. You learn who someone is from what they think is worth sharing, and what they assume other people will actually eat.
Any advice for someone starting their own potluck?
Don't assign dishes. Let the overlaps happen. Three people bringing the same salad tells you something true about the neighborhood that a sign-up sheet would have erased.
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