The president’s man
Chef Mohammed Hellal was whisked away from Aleppo to cook for Syria’s biggest names, reports Sam Bayoumi
PHOTOGRAPHY TERRY CARTER
When the trio of partners behind the Four Seasons in Damascus needed a chef for the hotel’s new Al-Halabi restaurant, they drove to Aleppo. After three days sampling the food in various places, they identified their man and made him an offer on the spot. The next day the car returned south with the three hoteliers and their new recruit. “When we were driving,” says chef Mohammed Hellal, “they told me, ‘Actually, the hotel’s not in Damascus, it’s in Baghdad’. And I shouted, ‘Stop the car. I want to get out!’”
Hellal refers to the event as his “kidnapping”, but he says it with a big grin on his face. After all, as far as being a chef goes, he has arguably the top job in the country, heading up the kitchen at the flagship restaurant of the most prestigious five-star hotel in Syria. President Bashar AlAssad and his wife are regulars.
He grew up in Aleppo, one of six children – three boys, three girls – and while his father worked as an agricultural labourer his mother spent most of her time preparing food for her off-spring. “I used to cry and cry until I was allowed to help,” says Hellal, whose first experiences in the kitchen were helping out making yalanji (stuffed vegetables), borek (stuffed pastries) and wara einab (stuffed vine leaves). Precarious family finances meant his education was cut short, and at the tender age of 12 he was employed cutting and peeling at a local restaurant.
Stints in better-paid jobs in Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan followed, while in between he spent five years as a senior chef at Aleppo’s Chahba Cham Palace. Time working outside Syria, says Hellal, introduced him to a variety of international cuisines, and while this has influenced his cooking, the food at AlHalabi is 100 percent pure Aleppan. Asked to recommend one or two items from the menu, he declines. “You have to try everything,” he says. “In Syria, a table of four people will order maybe 35 dishes and sit for three or four hours. It’s not like Europe – we don’t eat and go.” www.fourseasons.com/damascus
CHERRY KEBABS (KEBAB KARAZ) Serves 4
If there’s a signature Aleppan dish, this is it. Done properly it uses a special type of cherry called washna, which is found only around Aleppo. These are ripe and ready for picking only three months of the year, so Al-Halabi buys three tons each year to make sure the restaurant has enough.
INGREDIENTS For the kebab
1 lb minced lamb | ½ tbsp sea salt | ½ tsp spice mixture | 1 tbsp unsalted butter
For the cherry sauce 2 lb cherries | 1 tbsp sugar | 1 tbsp pomegranate syrup
To finish 2 tbsp unsalted butter | 2 to 3 pita breads, opened at the seams and cut into medium-sized triangles | 4 tbsp pine nuts
Preparation
1. Mix the meat with the salt and spices, and shape into small balls. Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat and sauté the meatballs until they are lightly browned.
2. Put the cherries, sugar and pomegranate syrup in a saucepan large enough to eventually take the meatballs, and place over medium heat. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the meatballs and simmer for another 15 minutes.
3. Melt half the butter in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add the pine nuts and sauté, stirring constantly, until lightly golden.
4. Spread the pita bread on the serving platter, coarse side up and with the pointed ends arranged on the outside. Melt the remaining butter and drizzle over the bread. Spoon the meat and sauce all over the bread, then add the pine nuts. Recipe courtesy of Anissa Helou, see www.anissas.com/blog1 |
