Beirut Cooks

What differentiates Beirut Cooks from any other cookbook is the wide variety of people it features: cooks and food enthusiasts who represent the modern, vibrant, happening Beirut. In this book, people from artistic and creative occupations to entrepreneurs, writers or businessmen and women, all meet to share their homemade, personal recipes. They welcome us into their homes, offering old and new recipes, assembled from every corner of the world. Beirut Cooks goes beyond just the recipes (no less than 37 cooks have participated in the project), as it gives us a glimpse into their lives. Great care has been taken in the book's artistic direction, photography, graphic design and writing, so that the final result can be appreciated for both its aesthetic qualities and the recipes it offers. “The salty mist, the sea breeze, the rolling waves and the food it offers - Tala loves everything about the sea. Karim likes the anarchy that comes with barbecuing - the absence of set rules gives way to endless possibilities. Ghida is not one to cook solely for herself but invariably for the entire neighborhood; the food from her simmering pots and pans is in constant circulation between her home and theirs. Burying his fish in rice, stock, and spices, Johnnyâ€TMs dish follows a well-practiced ritual that merges the land and the sea in one course. A beautiful mountainous setting, a foldable table under the shade of one of Ziadâ€TMs olive trees in the south, an arak carafe: you have a no-fuss-meal meets regal feast experience. Seeing Raya and Anthony cooking a holiday turkey is quite a fun and loud experience. Jokingly bickering about who is the better cook, they make it a point of honor to always perfect their recipe.