What are you able to inform us about your journey?
My journey within the culinary world began after I was only a baby. I might spend hours in my mom’s kitchen, watching and studying from her. She instilled in me a deep love for cooking and a ardour for sharing meals. Throughout that interval, I additionally found French gastronomy, watching esteemed cooks like Robuchon and Bocuse cook dinner on TV. Nonetheless, it required an incredible quantity of arduous work to grasp Michelin-starred methods with out receiving conventional chef coaching. However, I demonstrated resilience and willpower, diligently mastering these methods, in the end discovering my place on this career and fulfilling my lifelong dream.
How do you view Lebanese delicacies and the way in which through which it contributes to the cultural change between Lebanon and France?
Lebanese delicacies is a treasure trove of steadiness and generosity, the place every dish tells a narrative of sharing and conviviality. It brings vibrant flavors resembling zaatar and sumac to French gastronomy, enriching our tables with recent, spicy notes. In my creations, I prefer to marry these two cultures, combining French finesse with the range of Lebanese dishes. This creates a real culinary dialog, the place every chew celebrates the approaching collectively of two wealthy and complementary heritages.
What strategies or methods do you utilize to introduce and promote Lebanese dishes in France and the way have the French reacted to Lebanese delicacies?
To introduce Lebanese delicacies to France, I take advantage of a refined strategy, incorporating emblematic elements into reinvented French dishes. Moreover, I supply tasting menus. I enable company to find the richness of Lebanese genuine mezzes in my conventional Qasti eating places. French individuals, who’re curious and wanting to discover new flavors, warmly welcome these dishes with enthusiasm and appreciation. Moreover, they significantly benefit from the freshness of the elements and the conviviality that this delicacies brings to the desk. Finally, it’s a harmonious encounter between two gastronomies, each of which share a love of authenticity and culinary pleasures.
What challenges have you ever confronted in selling Lebanese meals and the way have you ever overcome them?
One of many primary challenges in selling Lebanese delicacies is balancing authenticity whereas adapting dishes to swimsuit French tastes and expectations. Moreover, some particular elements could be difficult to supply in France, necessitating using native merchandise. Moreover, I needed to educate clients concerning the richness of Lebanese delicacies, typically decreased to hummus or falafel. However, Lebanese delicacies is in the end well-received in France, regardless of the variations in flavors and elements generally used. Certainly, each cuisines share a profound love for high quality produce and a dedication to gastronomic authenticity, thus making a pure concord.
What makes Qasti Lausanne, your new restaurant, particular?
Qasti Lausanne is the newest addition to the Qasti household, which incorporates all my conventional Lebanese eating places. I began working with Swiss companions two years in the past and fell utterly in love with this glorious nation. I actually wished to have the ability to develop my very own tasks there and I’m delighted to say that that is now the case. Qasti Lausanne follows the identical mannequin as its Parisian cousins: lovely tables of conventional and genuine mezzes to share with household and associates. The watchword at Qasti is at all times conviviality!
Do you will have any tasks within the pipeline?
After all, I at all times have numerous concepts for brand new tasks. So far as my eating places are involved, there’s the Auberge Nicolas Flamel, the oldest home in Paris, which we’re within the technique of bringing again to the forefront, with a menu that completely displays what made me fall in love with French gastronomy: noble, seasonal merchandise and genuine, completely mastered recipes.
We even have a number of partnership tasks underneath improvement, which ought to come to fruition within the subsequent few months, with quite a lot of nice issues arising.
