For Ling Sue Withers and Tina Firesheets, food has always been about more than what is served on the plate. It is a pathway to culture, memory, storytelling, and connection — an idea at the heart of disCOURSE, the intimate dining series they created for women.
The seeds for the idea were unknowingly planted long ago when the pair first met as students at UNC Greensboro. Their friendship began, fittingly, over food. Ling Sue had earned a reputation for her cooking. “You didn’t want to miss a chance to go to her apartment when she was cooking, and everyone knew I liked to eat,” Tina recalls with a laugh.
After graduation, their lives took them in different directions. Tina built a career as a writer, reporting for a local newspaper, running a lifestyle magazine, and later working at an advertising agency. Her favorite assignments often involved food — from interviewing chefs to attending special dining events. Ling Sue, who studied design, worked in desktop publishing before moving to the Washington, D.C., area and later Taiwan. After returning to Greensboro, she built a career in promotional products while also organizing festivals and cultural events.
Tina and Ling Sue eventually reconnected and rediscovered their shared fascination with exploring the world through food. “We love food. We’re obsessive about it. And we both explore cultures through food,” says Tina.
The idea for disCOURSE began taking shape in 2023 after Tina introduced Ling Sue to the story of a Raleigh-based chef from West Africa. Separated from her family through adoption and raised in an abusive household, the chef had once associated cooking with forced labor. Later, restaurant work helped her reconnect with her identity and cultural heritage.
The story deeply moved both women. What began as an effort to bring the chef to Greensboro for one special gathering soon developed into a dining series highlighting female chefs and food entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds. disCOURSE launched in January 2024.
Its name is both a nod to the courses of a meal and a reflection of its greater purpose: encouraging meaningful discourse among women. Each gathering combines food, storytelling, and conversation, with details tailored to the featured chef’s cuisine, culture, and personal journey.
Rather than recreating an experience guests could have at a restaurant, Tina and Ling Sue aim to offer something immersive. An event might include a chef interview, conversation cards, a recorded personal story, a cooking demonstration, or a hands-on lesson. Guests may sample kimchi alongside sausages created by a Korean American butcher, learn to roll dumplings or taste cardamom-based Indian ice creams paired with the foods that inspired them.
There is limited seating for each event, which helps preserve the intimacy that allows genuine relationships to form. Guests range in age from their 20s to their 70s, and many return regularly, resuming conversations and friendships begun at previous gatherings.
“There’s something magical that happens when women can commune together without men,” Tina says. Creating a women-centered space also allows disCOURSE to highlight talented female chefs from a predominantly male-dominated industry.
The pair’s complementary strengths help bring each experience to life. Tina describes Ling Sue as both meticulous and deeply creative, crediting her with the events’ thoughtful details and striking tablescapes. Ling Sue, in turn, calls Tina the heart of disCOURSE, and someone who draws out the best in the chefs and people they meet.
The series has grown and continued thanks to supportive venues, private donors, and community partners. Occasionally, sponsors step in to allow women to attend who might not otherwise be able to participate. Still, Tina and Ling Sue are intentional about expansion. As working mothers with careers and family responsibilities, they do not host events simply to maintain a schedule. Each one must feel meaningful.
Their hope is to continue disCOURSE for as long as possible, introducing women to unexpected flavors while uncovering the histories, memories, and traditions behind them. Because at these tables, a meal is never only a meal. It is an invitation to listen, share, and discover the common threads that connect us all.
Follow discourse dining @discoursedining or on Substack “discoursefareforthesoul”
The name is both a nod to the courses of a meal and a reflection of its greater purpose: encouraging meaningful discourse among women.