26/12/2016 15(30Syrian refugee chefs share their recipes - News from Al Jazeera

Page 1 sur 14http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/syrian-refugee-chefs-share-recipes-160628081358083.html

A fusion of Iranian and Syrian cuisine, served at the Refugee Food Festival in Paris [Micah Garen/Al Jazeera]

FEATURES SYRIAN REFUGEES 9 JULY 2016

Syrian refugee chefsSyrian refugee chefsshare their recipesshare their recipesRefugee chefs 'seduce Parisians'with their culinary creations whilesharing a taste of home.

Rashid Nourouzi, a refugee chef from Iran, prepares a meal at le PetitBain during the Refugee Food Festival in Paris [Micah Garen/Al Jazeera]

12C° | 5C° Paris, France

News Middle East Documentaries Shows Investigations

Opinion More

Live

26/12/2016 15(30Syrian refugee chefs share their recipes - News from Al Jazeera

Page 2 sur 14http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/syrian-refugee-chefs-share-recipes-160628081358083.html

by Marie-Helene Carleton

Paris, France - Docked along the Seine, the Petit Bain is afloating cultural event space that features musicians, DJs andartists. Recently, the venue was host to several refugee chefs whoprepared their recipes for hungry and curious Parisians as part ofan inaugural Refugee Food Festival.

Reservations for the evening filled up fast and about 110 peoplegathered to eat Syrian and Iranian food prepared by two refugeechefs.

Linda, 27, a Parisian woman, who preferred not to give her lastname, said this was her first taste of Syrian food. She liked thefalafel and other mezze, and loved the idea of refugee chefs havinga platform to share their cooking.

Images in the media of refugees struggling to survive in theinfamous camp in northern France called the Jungle of Calaisportray them as people "you would not want to meet", she says.

"With this food, you can imagine their lives; it brings you closer."

For Moayyad Hamoud, a Syrian refugee from the Eastern Ghoutaneighbourhood on the outskirts of Damascus, which was attackedby chemical weapons in 2013 , cooking is both a means of survivaland a way of sharing his culture and a part of himself.

"People see refugees as numbers," he says, moving quickly aroundthe kitchen as the orders flow in. "But each person has a dream, astory, a family - a life."

For Moayyad Hamoud cooking is both a means of survival and a way ofsharing his culture and a part of himself [Micah Garen/Al Jazeera]

The refugee chefs working at the Petit Bain were brought togetherby Les Cuistots Migrateurs, The Migratory Chefs. Louis Jacquot,

26/12/2016 15(30Syrian refugee chefs share their recipes - News from Al Jazeera

Page 3 sur 14http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/syrian-refugee-chefs-share-recipes-160628081358083.html

the cofounder of the group, quit his job to launch the cateringstart-up that focuses on authentic world cuisine created byrefugee chefs and helping them to integrate socially andprofessionally into the French culture.

"Sometimes, the only contact refugees have here with the Frenchis through social assistance," Jacquot says. His focus is on thepower of good food.

"If people come for the cuisine, they will keep coming back. Andthrough food, we can bring people together."

The kitchen feels like homeThe kitchen feels like home

"I really love to prepare a dish well," says Rashid Nourouzi, theIranian chef working alongside Hamoud.

The 29-year-old political refugee learned to cook as a child fromwatching his mother in the kitchen. He became a professionalchef in Iran.

Everything changed when his mother, a photojournalist workingfor the government-run news agency IRNA, was targeted forcovering the 2009 protests calling for the removal from office ofthe president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He says she wasimprisoned and tortured, and the regime stripped her ofeverything she owned - from her apartment and car to hergrandmother's jewellery. She received asylum in France.

Nourouzi tried to stay in Iran, but says he, too, was targeted forhis mother's work. He fled to France three years ago.

A family member who came to the Petit Bain for dinner withNourouzi's two young children mused: "Iran is our homeland.France is now our home."

But the kitchen, Nourouzi says, is the place that really feels likehome.

INTERACTIVE: What food means to me

Connecting through foodConnecting through food

The Refugee Food Festival, an event held for the first time inParis from June 17-June 21, falling around World Refugee Day onJune 20, was as much about cultural interaction as it was aboutgood food.

Louis Martin, cofounder of the food organisation that founded thefestival, Food Sweet Food, believes food is a great unifier and a

26/12/2016 15(30Syrian refugee chefs share their recipes - News from Al Jazeera

Page 4 sur 14http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/syrian-refugee-chefs-share-recipes-160628081358083.html

way of changing the conversation about refugees.

Stephane Jego, the chef of L'Ami Jean, and Mohammad al-Khaldy, aSyrian chef, work together on one of the collaborative dishes theyprepared together during an elaborate and innovative seven-course meal[Micah Garen/Al Jazeera]

"Most of the information around the arrival of refugees focuses onmisery and destruction. While this reflects reality, it is noteverything," Martin says. "Refugees are also people withknowledge, know-how and competence."

This savoir-faire in the kitchen is not only a possibility for socialand economic integration. Martin believes it can play another,gastronomic, role. "The arrival of refugees is an opportunity forthe culinary scene in France."

The festival fostered a connection between French chefs andrefugee chefs that led to a collaboration over recipes, ingredientsand experience.

For Stephane Jego, chef of the famed bistronomy restaurant,L'Ami Jean, the project was not only a fusion of food, but also apartnership.

INTERACTIVE - Alex Assali: The Syrian refugee giving back toGermany

"The language of gastronomy is universal," Jego says. He callscooking with Mohammad al-Khaldy, the Syrian chef he waspaired with, "a creative cuisine with four hands and two heads"experience.

Khaldy introduced him to a spice called za'atar, a mix of thymeand other spices well-known in Syria and Lebanon, to becombined with olive oil on bread. Jego smelled it, tasted it andsmiled.

26/12/2016 15(30Syrian refugee chefs share their recipes - News from Al Jazeera

Page 5 sur 14http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/syrian-refugee-chefs-share-recipes-160628081358083.html

Kishkeh, a Syrian appetiser byMoayyad Hamoud

Ingredients

250g large-grained bulgur

750g Greek yoghurt

salt

1 minced white onion

3 tablespoons crushed walnuts

3 tablespoons dry mint

Directions Combine all ingredients with theyoghurt and mix. Do not cook theyoghurt.The bulgur will absorb the fluid fromthe yoghurt. Keep cold and allow to

"This will stay on our tables. It will be the mark of this moment inmy life."

For Khaldy, the innovative seven-course meal featuring farm-raised quail, lamb and fish was "perfect". His passion for cookinghad found a home in Paris. "I bring my taste from Syria," he says,"and with the experience of Jego, we have the first mix of Frenchand Syrian gastronomy."

Za'atar , a mix of thyme and other spices well-known in Syria andLebanon, made it on to the tables of L'Ami Jean in Paris [Micah Garen/AlJazeera]

Jego sees his restaurant as a place where people can "come andwrite their own stories".

For Khaldy, this represents a new beginning. He had to flee Syriain 2012 after his house was bombed and destroyed, and theSyrian government tried to recruit him into the Syrian army. Hemade his way through Lebanon and Egypt, taking a dangerousboat journey from Libya to Italy, then through Europe beforefinally arriving in Paris eight months ago.

Now 36, Khaldy has beencooking since he was 16. Hefirst learned from his motherand then studied cookingprofessionally, building a careerin Damascus, creatingrestaurants, launching a foodbrand and a cooking show - allof which were either destroyedor left behind because of thewar.

The chefs pass through therestaurant talking with dinerseager to take a picture or shake

26/12/2016 15(30Syrian refugee chefs share their recipes - News from Al Jazeera

Page 6 sur 14http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/syrian-refugee-chefs-share-recipes-160628081358083.html

set for a few hours before serving.Adjust the seasoning andconsistency by adding more yoghurtand some water if needed to createa creamy consistency.To serve, drizzle with olive oil andgarnish with walnuts and dry mint.Serve with oriental flat bread.Serves six people

their hands.

Khaldy takes a quick break, ashe has been cooking all daywhile fasting for Ramadan, andreflects on his future.

"I have spent money on twothings in my life - my home andmy mind. My home is destroyed. Now all I have left is my mind."

He will soon begin working as a chef at a new restaurant servingSyrian food, but dreams of opening his own restaurant that wouldrepresent a fusion of Syrian and French cuisines.

At the end of the several-hour lunch service, the two chefs resttogether outside, tired and happy, with bits of food on their chefclogs.

"From chef to chef," Jego says, as the two clasped hands, "this is areal success."

Then they head inside, ready to start again for the dinner service.

'Our life is here now''Our life is here now'

At Indonesia, a restaurant in a different arrondissement, the storyof cuisine and collaboration came full circle. Anita Sobron, thechef who runs the kitchen in this cooperative restaurant, arrivedin France 17 years ago as a refugee. Indonesia opened with fourrefugee chefs and four French partners.

For Sobron, "food is a way to communicate with others", and shewanted the interaction with Fariza Izakova, a Chechen chef at therestaurant, to be "a collaboration, teamwork, a transmission offood knowledge from one to the other".

As such, they worked on the recipes together, using what alreadyexisted on the menu to add Chechen influences.

26/12/2016 15(30Syrian refugee chefs share their recipes - News from Al Jazeera

Page 7 sur 14http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/syrian-refugee-chefs-share-recipes-160628081358083.html

Lentil soup with Kibbeh, a Syrian dish by Mohammad al-Khaldy

IngredientsLentil soup:

160g red lentils

80g yellow onions

50g carrots

30 cl chicken stock (classic, pepper...)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon curcuma powder

1 tablespoon cumin powder

Dressing:

1 tablespoon cumin powder

For chef Anita Sobron, 'food is a way to communicate with others, acollaboration, teamwork, a transmission of food knowledge from one tothe other' [Micah Garen/Al Jazeera]

"The cuisines are very different," Sobron says, "and at the sametime, there is overlap. For example, we both use a lot ofcoriander." So Izakova and Sobron decided to fuse the meat dishpreparation with a coriander spice.

For Izakova, "cooking is important". She fled the war inChechnya, arriving in France as a 17-year-old girl. She learned tocook from her mother and grandmother. Cooking for her was away to do more than just exist in France, she says.

Now 32 years old and a mother of three, she says she could have"cleaned houses or ironed shirts". But as a chef, she chose to"make things, to play with food and experiment". Food for her is aconnection to her family, but it is not nostalgic. "Our life is herenow," she says.

Louis Martin, of Food Sweet Food, believes that a good chef andgood food can indeed create a universal language that connectspeople. "The objective of the Refugee Food Festival," he says,smiling, "is to seduce Parisians."

26/12/2016 15(30Syrian refugee chefs share their recipes - News from Al Jazeera

Page 8 sur 14http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/syrian-refugee-chefs-share-recipes-160628081358083.html

1 tablespoon red pepper paste

4 tablespoons olive oil

Fresh coriander

Kibbeh:

For the filling:

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more to garnish

1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped

230g spinach

1 teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

¼ cup pine nuts, toasted

30g fresh pomegranate

1 tablespoon ground sumac, plus more to garnish

For the shell:

1½ cups fine bulgur

1 tablespoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

60g boiled potatoes

Canola oil for frying

Mint leaves to garnish

Directions

1. For the filling: Heat oil in a 30cm skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until soft,about 10 minutes.

Add the spinach, and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 7minutes.

Add salt, allspice, and cinnamon, and cook, stirring, until the spinach is soft, about 4 minutes more.

Transfer to a bowl, stir in nuts and sumac, pomegranate and let cool.

2. For the shell: Rinse bulgur, squeeze out excess water, and place in a large bowl. Add salt,allspice, cinnamon, pepper, and onion and set aside.

Grind potatoes in a meat grinder and add to bulgur mixture; knead mixture in bowl into a pliablepaste, for about 5 minutes.

Cover bowl with a clean dish towel.

3. Shape about ¼ cup of the bulgur-meat paste into a ball, moistening your hands with water as youwork.

Hold ball in one hand and insert index finger of other hand into centre to form a hole. Shape ball intoa thin-walled (about 0,5cm-thick) oval with an opening at one end by molding ball around finger,gradually tapering closed end. Mend any cracks in shell with a moistened finger.

Fill hole with 1½ tablespoons of the filling. Moisten edges of opening, then gather edges together toseal.

Gently form kibbeh into the shape of an egg, and keep moist under a clean dish towl. Repeatshaping with remaining.