We spoke to Fadi Kattan about his culinary roots and what led him to open several Palestinian restaurants in Europe.
Fadi Kattan was born in Bethlehem, Palestine. He has always been fascinated by the culture and cuisine of his country, which led him to open his first restaurant in 2016. In Fawda he honoured Palestinian cuisine with a modern twist. From then on, he knew that he wanted to bring it to the whole world.
How did the impulse to promote Palestinian cuisine and Palestinian cuisine around the world come?
It started a long time ago. As a child, I always wanted to share my food. It started really from that early on where I wanted to share that table, share that culture around the table, and much later when I opened Fawda in Bethlehem, I started cooking a menu that was changing every day with the produce in the market, the Palestinian products, the Palestinian stories, and people started asking, but can we come with you to the market? Can we come and meet those farmers, those bread makers, those butchers, those spice makers? And really from there it evolved into wanting to tell the story to the world.
When we opened Akub two years ago in London, it was taking it another direction. I had already started writing my book that came out this May, but I started writing it two and a half, three years ago.
I think we have a beautiful culinary culture and it is underrepresented and it needs to be told, and very recently I opened louf in Toronto again with the desire to share that food, share that story, those traditions with the world.
Book by Fadi Kattan. Publishing credit to the author.
You have become the voice of modern Palestinian cuisine, do you feel comfortable under that label, and how would you define that type of cuisine?
No, I don’t think I am the voice of Palestinian modern cuisine by myself. I think there’s plenty of chefs that are cooking Palestinian food, that are cooking Palestinian food beautifully across the world in Palestine, out of Palestine.
There is a whole generation of people that is really celebrating our kitchen in different manners, each in their own interpretation, each in their own way of telling the story. And I think there’s space for another few hundred Palestinian chefs and chefs who are not Palestinian, who cook Palestinian food as long as they recognize the origin, the tradition, the stories, the thousands of years where these produce and these recipes come from.
You work a lot with local product, but do you practice sustainability in other ways?
Yes, definitely. It’s not only about local produce. First and foremost, sustainability is about human beings. And I think the policies we have, whether at Akub in London, Fawda in Bethlehem, Kassa in Bethlehem, the boutique hotel or Louf in Toronto are about sustainability of people. It’s the way the teams work, the way the teams are supported, the way the teams are safe. We create safe environments wherever we are with each reality being what it is.
Interior of the Akub restaurant. Editorial credit: Akub.
Also, sustainability for me is not only about how we source, it’s also how we dispose. So it’s how we handle our waste. Waste for me is very important. We are at 1.2% waste and we try keeping that level, and waste goes to compost, to recycling.
I think it’s beyond just how we source and sourcing locally is definitely very important, but also, and mainly the human beings, the teams, the people who work very hard day in, day out to make this restaurant and hospitality craft happen. I think it is very essential that we understand that there’s been over the last 25 years, drastic change in how and what restaurants are for the teams. And it’s important we gone changing and going beyond that old image of a screaming chefs and a very misogynistic kitchen. Very segregated between front of house and back of house. All of those things are things that don’t exist in my world and I don’t want them to exist.
What values has your culture taught you on a personal and gastronomic level?
Hospitality, sharing the food, the hospitality of receiving guests that comes from the house, comes from the home, comes from my grandparents’ house, comes from my parents’ house.
Until today, I still call my mother every day to ask her about recipes. My father established this sacredness of having breakfast together when we’re in the same place. And all of that is essential for me in everything I do every day.
Also, seasonality. What do we cook at home? We cook whatever is fresh on the market that day. Whatever herbs are in season, whatever vegetables and fruits are in season and responsibility, we make our own broth. We use the bones and the peelings to make a broth. All of these things, we haven’t reinvented the wheel. When people talk about farm to table, when people talk about the responsible kitchens, that’s not something new. That’s what my grandmother used to do. That’s what my mother does. That’s what my great grandparents used to do. And it’s not specific to Palestinian culture, it’s specific to all cultures in the world.
Image from the book Bethlehem. A celebration of Palestinian food.
What it’s also taught me is tolerance and diversity. Palestine is a diverse place where people that are Palestinian, historically were Samaritan, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, atheist, we are on the spice route and the trade route, the historic roots. And that makes it such a diverse place. I think Palestine has been cosmopolitan for hundreds of years, maybe even before the word cosmopolitan was invented.
Do you think there is still a certain stigma attached to spreading Palestinian cuisine in Europe?
Yes, there’s still a lot of misconceptions, still a lot of people who don’t understand what Palestine is and what Palestinians are. We are a people. We are a proud people of our culture, of our cuisine, of our history. And it’s always very confusing because a lot of things that are part of European life actually come from Palestine to start with. I come from Bethlehem. So 2,200 years ago, somebody was born in Bethlehm who somehow represents a lot of the culture in Europe or partially the religious culture, but also on a daily life level, a lot comes from our part of the world.
What was the process of opening restaurants in London and Bethlehem like, and are you happy with the results?
The process of opening the restaurants in Bethlehem, London, and Toronto are very different.
In Bethlehem, it seemed natural to extend the story, to come back to my roots of cooking. I opened the guest house and a few months later opened the restaurant. It seemed natural to want to tell the story there to the public that was there. And the public was a mix of locals and foreigners and diplomats and journalists.
Typical Palestinian dish: aubergine with tahini. Editorial credit: Fadi Kattan.
And then London came with my partner Rasha Khouri, who reached out at the time and said, what do you think of London? Let’s do something. And we started this adventure of akub.
When Toronto started, with my partner in Toronto, Nicole Mankinen, who reached out and said, come and think of Toronto. And we opened 20 days ago, Louf in Toronto.
So each place came with a different set of challenges. But each place has been a fantastic adventure thanks to the partners I have, thanks to the teams we have and we’ve been lucky to have.
When we opened Kassa in Bethlehem with Elizabeth Kassis, the boutique hotel, that was also an adventure. It was an adventure of a Chilean-Palestinian family going back to Bethlehem, to their roots. So that was great. The return of their family, in their historic family home with the hospitality and the savoir-faire from Chile and Palestine, but also telling the story of migration, the story of the Diaspora and the story of passion for the homeland.
Akub Restaurant, London. Editorial credit: Akub.
How do you understand multiculturalism?
Multiculturalism is not fusion, it is respecting all cultures and being able to live in cosmopolitan places where we celebrate all those cultures together, where we put forward the beauty of each of our identities, each of our journeys and paths into creating universal multiculturalism. It’s the path where we understand, where we integrate other, the other with a big O and at the same time where we are proudly what we are in our own journeys. I think we all have very different rich journeys and all those come together once we’re at peace with understanding that each one is different and it’s beautiful diversity.
What challenges will you face next?
I’ve been working a lot on Palestinian wines and sharing Palestinian wines, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages with the world, with the sommelier Anna Patrowicz. We are working on sharing those stories and flavors with the world through akub and louf, but also beyond in pop-ups, a bit everywhere.
The big challenge is to hopefully see the end of this genocide, being able to feel that people in Palestine are safe. I live in Bethlehem and I want to see people prosper and be safe in their homeland, in their full rights equal to every other human being, wherever they are.
