In Eat, Habibi, Eat!, chef Shahir Massoud interweaves Egyptian home cooking with his many culinary influences
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Article content
Our cookbook of the week is Eat, Habibi, Eat! by Shahir Massoud. To try a recipe from the book, check out: Gido Habib’s ful breakfast; pink and gold beet dip with pine nuts; and koshary with red lentil ragù.
Advertisement
Article content
“Eat, habibi, eat!” was a key refrain in the soundtrack to Shahir Massoud’s childhood. Habibi is a versatile Arabic word; its meaning shifts depending on the context. But in this phrase, oft-repeated by the chef’s Egyptian mother when he was growing up in Toronto, it translates as “my darling.”
The familiar exclamation became the name of his debut cookbook, Eat, Habibi, Eat! (Appetite by Random House, 2021), in which Massoud reinterprets the Egyptian dishes of his upbringing. Now the father of two, he finds himself imploring his children to do more eating and less goofing around the same way.
“That’s what you grew up listening to. Every mother, every aunt, every grandmother would be yelling at you, ‘Eat, habibi, eat! Sit down.’ … Really, the book could have been called Sit Down: Eat, Habibi, Eat! We just eliminated the ‘sit down,’” says Massoud, laughing.
Advertisement
Article content
A graduate of the Schulich School of Business at Toronto’s York University, Massoud changed tack five months shy of qualifying as a chartered accountant. He moved to New York City where he graduated from the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center), cut his teeth at Italian restaurant Lupa, and gained experience at the likes of the Mark by Jean-Georges and the now-shuttered Pulino’s.
When he started to consider cookbook ideas in 2018, then back in Toronto, he initially gravitated towards the familiar: a decade’s worth of experience in Italian and French fine dining. In the midst of listing recipes such as bucatini all’amatriciana and croque madame — the “greatest hits” of his culinary career — he hesitated. “I thought, ‘What kind of book could only I write?’ And then it hit me,” recalls Massoud.
Advertisement
Article content
In his professional cooking, Egyptian food hadn’t been on his radar, but he was aware that Middle Eastern flavours had become more popular in the West than ever before. While people rarely asked him about Egyptian food when he was growing up, that was starting to change. Massoud’s thoughts turned to the dishes his mother made during his childhood as he contemplated ways he could put his own mark on them.
“All the things that I longed for when I was a kid and said, ‘This is tasty but man, I want some texture here’ or ‘I want her to cook it a little less.’ And that’s where I got the idea,” says Massoud. “I could take the classic French training, some experience from Italian restaurants, experience as a Canadian person growing up in Canada, experience training and living in New York City, and combine all those things to put a makeover on those Egyptian dishes.”
Advertisement
Article content
He worked with his mother on many of the recipes, as she answered his questions and reinforced the importance of family tradition. In doing the food styling for the book, Massoud mined her collection of textiles. Rugs and even intricate pillowcases set the stage for the food. The result is unique to him: Elements from his parents’ home add texture, colour and a sense of place; and his “modern Egyptian” recipes are interwoven with the techniques and flavours he’s picked up along the way.
Early on in the writing process, “I was really trying to be creative and really trying to be wild,” says Massoud. Seeing how far he could push dishes without obscuring their origins, he told his mother he was considering developing a version of ful mudammas using white beans instead of the conventional favas. “And she was like, ‘No! This is where I have to put my foot down.” Upon further reflection, Massoud realized she was right.
Advertisement
Article content
“There was no reason to change it,” he says. “The fava bean is the way it should be and it’s delicious. So, I’m not changing stuff just for the sake of changing stuff. It was good at the beginning of the process to have that conversation with my mom to realize that.”
When his parents received a copy of the finished book in the mail, he was anxious to hear what his mom thought about it, especially some of the more modern twists. She loved it — but took exception to his tarragon baba ghanoush. “I don’t know if she thought we would literally recall these books: ‘Uh, sorry everyone, correction. Author’s mother thinks tarragon is stupid in the baba ghanoush.’”
Advertisement
Article content
He stands by the tweak; adding the subtly anise-flavoured herb gives the classic Levantine eggplant dip a French touch.
In creating something new and exciting, but remaining rooted in the food of his youth, he hopes to appeal to the next generation of Egyptians growing up in Canada. “I thought that our generation would find it really cool. They would see for the first time the food that they grew up with in a way that was exciting. In a way that they could envision even being served in a hip, trendy restaurant. Whereas before, that was never, never, ever, ever the case,” says Massoud.
He mentions the popular Toronto restaurant Maha’s Egyptian Brunch and their overflowing shawarma sandwich on a toasted egg bun. “That’s not really what you would see if you were looking for a street food snack in downtown Cairo. But the flavours are there and it’s fun, and it’s cool,” adds Massoud. “It’s very much like this (book), where you take those ideas, you take some new ideas and you put them together. And you do that without losing yourself.”
Advertisement
'Eat, habibi, eat!': Chef Shahir Massoud evokes the flavours of his childhood with a familiar refrain - National Post
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment