Casting a Light on Lebanon's Traditional Fast Food

Casting a light on Lebanon's traditional fast food Barbara Abdeni Massaad discusses the gestation of 'Man'oushe' By Matthew Mosley Daily Star staff Friday, June 12, 2009 Interview BEIRUT: "Nobody ever says 'no' to me," says writer and photographer Barbara Abdeni Massaad. "I'm not sure why." Chatting with Massaad over coffee and cake in her kitchen, which in recent years has doubled as a laboratory for the writer's culinary adventures, the reason soon becomes pretty clear. Massaad is possessed of an iron will. Her account of the gestation of her cookbook "Man'oushe" (aka "Manqousheh") provides a case in point. "I decided I wanted [photographer] Raymond Yazbeck to take the pictures," Massaad says, "but he had his own projects going on. He said he was too busy. So I turned up the next day and asked, 'When are we going to start?'" Massad's steely determination is about to bring her to the international stage. "Man'oushe" has already been awarded the special jury prize of the Gourmand Cookbook Awards, a kind of culinary Oscars. In Paris on July 1 the tome will go head-to-head against all the other notable cookbooks of the world in competition for top prize. Massaad and family are flying out for the ceremony in the Comedie-Francaise. Although the main subject of "Man'oushe" is of course the titular breakfast flatbread - which in its classic form is adorned with a mixture of olive oil, zaatar and sesame seeds - the luscious photography that dominates Massaad's book broadens its ambit into a snapshot of a country and its inhabitants. "We didn't just go to Achrafieh and take photos there," she says. "Food is our common denominator. I travelled all over the country, and I discovered a side to Lebanon that many people don't see even when they've lived here their whole lives. This is a portrait of Lebanon through man'oushe." Despite winning over Yazbeck, who produced "The Stone," a book documenting Lebanon's stone houses, Massaad ended up taking the majority of the photographs herself. "I had such an exact idea of what I wanted," she explains. "Raymond encouraged me to have a go myself. We travelled the country together, both working on our own projects, and I learned so much from him. When does that ever happen - the chance to learn the ropes from such an incredible photographer?" The resulting images form a compelling cross-section of Lebanese society. From hip city-slickers at Zaatar w Zeit to a Druze farmer, hoe in hand and sporting a spectacular walrus moustache, the reader encounters an array of dough-munching characters. For the second edition, which has just been released, Massaad and her associates worked extensively on the calibration of the photographs to give the images an exceptional lustre. The red of a Barbar chef's apron almost socks the reader in the eye. Although the varied faces are the big draw of the book, foodstuffs are lovingly captured as well. A man'oushe zaatar sits on a board surrounded by its traditional accompaniments - olives, tomato, onion, mint - sombre and luminous as a Spanish still life. A hand grasps a head of spinach, the red of the chipped nail varnish reflected in stains at the base of the plant. Massaad might have genetics to thank for her skills with the camera. Her father George, a celebrated photographer, snapped stars such as Sabbah before the family left for America in the early 1980s. Massaad attended high-school there, her passion for food inflamed at the age of 15 when her father opened a Lebanese restaurant in Florida. An 18-year-old Massaad returned to Lebanon with her family at the end of the 1980’s, quickly finding herself married, going on to produce three children. Cooking became a form of therapy for the young mother. "The kitchen provided me with an escape," she writes in "Man'oushe." "Over time my focus became dough making. I find that making dough is very gratifying." Bread-making is no mere hobby for the author, however. Before starting on her book, Massaad marched into her local furn (bakery) and demanded to work alongside them, learning man'oushe-making from the masters. "[S]liding the pies from the wooden board into the gas-fired oven requires real skill," she writes. "I practiced doing it with a mocking baker over my shoulder. Not an easy task." After this baptism of fire, Massaad felt ready to embark on her culinary tour of Lebanon. "I wanted to live through this journey and document it," she says. "The photography and the writing happened at the same time. "People were so kind. There are great differences within the Lebanese, but this difference is what makes us so special." Massaad speaks of receiving incredible hospitality all the way from Nabatiyeh to Ehden. "You have to get out there and discover these places," she exorts. "These experiences don't come to you by themselves." As well as documenting Massaad's journey from motherhood to man'oushe-making, the book offers step-by-step guides to making every variety of bread-based snack, from spinach fatayer (the triangle-shaped turnovers) to a type of spicy red pepper flatbread beloved of the Armenian community. "Of course, most people who live here just go to the local bakery," Massaad says. "But many Lebanese people living abroad use the recipes - you can make any of them in a household oven. I feel very glad to have recorded these food traditions for the generations to come." The author is excited about the upcoming ceremony. Whereas most cookbook-competitors are allocated a sole two seats in the Comedie-Francaise, Massaad demanded places for her children as well. Like many before him, Edouard Cointreau, president of the awards, found Massaad impossible to turn down. "These are the lessons of life we pass on to our children," says Massaad. "It's not all 'This is the time you should go to bed.' No, it's that if you are determined and persistent, you can achieve your dreams. So many people laughed at me about my plan to make a man'oushe cookbook. Now I'm travelling to Paris to represent Lebanon." It looks like Massaad's steely determination is to be handed down to a new generation. "Man'oushe" is self-published but widely available in discerning bookstores in Beirut.