Excerpts

From the Foreword by José Andrés, Owner/Chef,
ThinkFoodGroup and minibar by José Andrés

“Chef Mayada Anjari shows us in this book that the simple act of breaking bread together can go a long way in building community, both in the places we grow up and those we move to, out of choice or necessity…Mayada has added another amazing chapter to the long legacy immigrants have had on American culinary tradition…Mayada’s dishes are simple and delicious and perfect to cook for family—I would love to sit down with my wife and three daughters for these meals, just like her family does every Friday night.”

From the Preface by Mayada Anjari

“I first learned to cook with my mother and sisters when I was young. We lived in Homs, Syria. Every Friday night, there was a big family gathering. We would wake in the morning and start cooking. We loved to make roast chicken with potatoes, kabsa with chicken, and tabbouleh. Everybody got along and it was so fun to be together. …To celebrate our six-month anniversary of being in the U.S. and to show our thanks for everything, we wanted to treat everybody to a big meal at our home. People enjoyed themselves so much that someone got the idea that I should cook a fund-raising dinner at the church. I had never cooked for so many people before—the first dinner was for seventy-five people—and it was the first time I had ever made that much food. It gives me joy to cook the dinners and to see so many people enjoying my food. From the dinners came the idea of this cookbook.”

From the Introduction by Jennifer Sit

“Mayada is not a culinary historian, nor a restaurant chef, blogger, or food personality. She is a woman who has cooked for her family, in some form, all her life—from family occasions alongside her mother and younger sisters, to trading off household cooking duties with her sister-in-law when she first got married and lived with her new in-laws, and now, as the matriarch of her own nuclear family of six. Syrian food is rich and varied, with a history that dates back to its ancient agricultural roots in the Fertile Crescent. Mayada’s cooking doesn’t aim to be the definitive, all-encompassing statement on Syrian cuisine. Rather, this cookbook and its recipes—humble and modest, not unlike Mayada herself—reflect the everyday rhythms of her life, the simple Syrian meals she makes for her family and friends. The dishes are unfussy and delicious, authentic to Mayada and imbued with her unwavering hospitality.”