Imad's Syrian Kitchen is a bustling, riotous tour through 90 traditional and adapted Syrian dishes that can be made in the comfort of your own home. He will also share his incredible personal story and demonstrates that food has the power to bring us all together.

I really recommend this book – both as a cookbook with very tasty recipes, and as the story of a man who risked everything to come to London. Alarnab’s testimony is split into nine sections interspersed within the different recipe chapters of the book. K., and how cooking—including making meals on a hot plate for hundreds of his fellow refugees in a camp in Calais, France—got him through tough times. A chapter on spice mixes including dukkah (cumin, coriander, pink peppercorns, and two types of chilli flakes) and another on basics like the crispy onions that top many dishes lay a solid foundation for cuisine that is both homey and elegant. Imad’s Syrian Kitchen is divided into chapters which are interspersed with further details about Imad’s journey to the UK as well as information about Syrian cuisine.

Imad’s Syrian Kitchen is part recipe book, part human story about how a successful businessman found himself fleeing for his life, crossing 10 countries, and turned by necessity into an illegal immigrant in the UK. Many of the dishes that have become signatures at Alarnab’s London restaurant feature, including the falafel, which are strikingly shaped with hole in the middle for a ‘crispier texture’.

I try every new recipe I come across for this dish, having first discovered it at Miznon in Paris many moons ago. Process to a thick soup in a blender, adding more water if needed, then add the remaining safflower. My favourite recipes were ‘Katif Ghanam’ (slow cooked marinated lamb shoulder baked in a parcel with herbs, carrots, potatoes and onion), ‘Mujadara’ (bulgar wheat and brown lentil salad) and ‘Muhammara’ (a red pepper and walnut chunky paste). Imad Alarnab is a Syrian chef, entrepreneur, and refugee who ran three successful restaurants, several juice bars and cafes in Damascus. He burst onto the London restaurant scene four years ago with a series of charity events which became hugely popular.He was beaten very badly and was saved only by a neighbour who intervened as he lay bleeding and broken on the ground. Add the lentils, rice and freekeh and stir to toast all the grains for two minutes before mixing in the ground cumin, one tablespoon of the safflower, the black pepper, ground coriander, tomato purée and two teaspoons of salt. I never make moussaka the traditional way because I don’t often cook meat at home and the required béchamel sauce is a faff, but this was a Syrian moussaka which is much less work and I put it together with ease in my lunch hour. The copy of the book I have is subtitled “A Love Letter from Damascus to London”, and it is book showing the deep affection the author has for his homeland of Syria, and his gratitude to Britain for giving himself and his family asylum here. An entry midway through sees him reflecting on his relationship with his mother, who died in Syria less than two months after he arrived in the UK.

I whipped up the recipe for laban bikhiar (yoghurt salad) – Greek yoghurt topped with grated cucumber, mint, garlic and lemon – which is served with the mujadara.Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook). From Imad: “From the traditional dishes that my mother first taught me to cook, to the imaginative food that has become my own, my recipes tell my story. Restaurant quality cooking in your kitchen During those long days of Covid lockdown when many restaurants kept afloat by pivoting to meal kit deliveries, I was gifted a wonderful meal. Most of all, what refugees want is to recreate a life for themselves, and thereby, make a contribution to the new country they find themselves in.