Talk about your Lebanese heritage. I’m third-generation Lebanese. My Lebanese family was from LA and Brooklyn. The families knew each other in Beirut. My maternal grandparents’ marriage was essentially “arranged” – not formally, but their parents introduced them, and there was some heavy pushing. My grandfather drove out to Brooklyn for the wedding. The reception was at Coney Island. They drove together out to L.A. in a Studebaker convertible, stopping at all the National Parks. My grandfather, my Jido, who had one of the first auto body shops in L.A., was really into technology, so he took home movies of them at every park, in their suits and dresses, hats and gloves. I have the movies.
How did you learn Lebanese cooking? My grandma, my Siti, was a wonderful cook. We spent every summer with them, in Grants Pass and in Balboa. There was lots of fishing, lots of cooking.
Tell me more about your family growing up? I was the youngest, with five older brothers. My dad was the cook – I always helped him cook. He was English and Irish, and he loved to make his own puff pastry, made Beef Wellington, lots of game which he hunted. My step-dad was also a great cook, who loved to make Yorkshire pudding.
What did you want to be as a child? I wanted to be an archeologist or a fashion designer.
So what was the step to a culinary career? Well, I was a high school dropout. I was working as a temp at a bank. It was the beginning of the tech industry, a time when people were just looking for warm bodies to train. I got trained as a computer programmer, and before I knew it, I was working on Wall Street, writing financial trading software. I was well-paid. I worked on Wall Street for eight years. But I had to face that my favorite part of my workday was lunch. Great food, great wine.
So I enrolled in night classes for nine months at The French Culinary Institute. Jacques Pepin was one of my instructors. I graduated the FCI, quit my job, and took an internship in Paris. But I was homesick, so I came back and took a job as a line cook at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan, $7 per hour. After the first month I couldn’t make rent. So I took a consulting job in the computer industry in Hong Kong. Great food there.
Next step in your culinary odyssey? I discovered the world of a private chef. I took a job in E. Hampton (Long Island). The morning of 9/11 I dropped my boyfriend off at his work at the World Trade Center. He was okay – he was taking a smoke break outside when it all began. I lost a lot of friends. So I left NY, and drove to St. Helena where my father was living. I got a job at Robert Mondavi and Julia Childs’ Copia, at Julia’s Kitchen. That’s the only place she ever used her name. She was in her 80s then. She dined there a lot. Every giant food icon of the era passed through the restaurant.
Next? I really wanted to get back to New York. So I took a job as a line cook at the Savoy in Soho. Then I ran a gourmet food store in Brooklyn, where we had a huge range of prepared foods, including lots of Lebanese food. There’s a huge Arab community in Brooklyn. During that time, I went to the Caribbean for the first time. As soon as I put one foot in the water, I asked myself what I was doing in New York?
So? So I looked for jobs, and through the FCI, got a job on a private yacht. We spend the winter in St. Barth. Then we had a catastrophic accident in the Bermuda triangle when the captain sailed us into 40′ seas. He was negligent. It was terrifying for several days. I wasn’t injured, but my spirit was hurt.
I came to realize that I had been on a “jalopy” yacht. So I began to freelance on bigger yachts all over the Caribbean. Going onshore on the Island of Becquie I got to work with sisters of the crew – cooking breadfruit, green bananas. Then I got a job with a superwealthy family having a 180-foot yacht, built in Seattle. I got to help design the galley. We sailed to Mexico.
Why did you leave the work on yachts? I developed an auto-immune disease, so I started work as a private chef. First with a family that divided its time between St. Louis and Sweden. I love the opportunity to be in both places. Then I had another private chef job with a family that was in L.A. and Europe, especially South of France, where they had a home above the market in Antibes. I would drink coffee with the market farmers who were having rosé. Wonderful adventures. But I got tired of being a fly on the wall, and always doing what someone else wanted.
How did you happen to come to Sonoma? My mother was in Sonoma – she had a shop on Broadway, Sonoma Silver. So in 2014 I moved here. I started doing catering at Ramekins, and I had Lebanese pop-ups. In 2022, I opened Spread Kitchen.
How did you choose Lebanese cuisine? I didn’t choose, the cuisine chose me. My fondest memories of childhood are being in the kitchen with my grandma. We made stuffed grape leaves, fatayers – little savory ham pies stuffed with spinach, and kibbeh. I think we have a tendency to drift back to our roots.
I’m sorry to have to ask you to, but can you talk about the situation for your relatives in Lebanon with the Israeli attacks. My family is in northern Beirut and Beirut is under attack. I am horrified, and heartbroken, and I’m fearful for Lebanon’s future. Such a beautiful country. Such beautiful people. I am fearful for the land grab that is happening. I am starting a fundraiser. People can donate on the website:
I will wire the funds I collect to Barbara Masad. She’s a cookbook author and chef, and where I got the beautiful photos of Lebanese people in my restaurant. Right now she is on the ground, feeding people.
Another concern about the war is how it will impact costs, especially gas. We run the gas all day long. And our vendors have already added fuel surcharges, since Covid; these will go up too.
Talk about this first brick and mortar venture along Sonoma Highway. This was a hard location. Yes, but the restaurant is going gang-busters. We’re bursting at the seams. We grew out of the space the year we opened. We’re looking for a bigger place.
Our menu is easy to navigate, offering a really good variety of choices for meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans, and other food preferences such as gluten free. This is very intentional on my part. My biggest compliment is when people say they are not left out. Personally, I like having options that are the way I like to eat – fresh, healthy, bold flavors.
You’ve garnered some culinary kudos. Oh yeah. We made the San Francisco Chronicle’s list of top 25 wine country restaurants (Napa-Sonoma). And also the Chronicle’s Top 25 affordable eats in the Bay Area. The Chronicle also reviewed us and said we were one of the best Middle Eastern restaurants in the Bay Area. And we won the I-T’s “best vegan/vegetarian restaurant” three years running.
What do you like about Sonoma? I love it in Sonoma. The people, the sense of community. And it is stunningly beautiful.
What will be your next chapter? Maybe literally, “next chapter.” I want to write a cookbook. And get back to my writing. When I was working on yachts, I had a blog that was pretty popular. When I started working with big families, I had to sign nondisclosure agreements, and so their attorney would look over and edit my blogs. It took the fun out of it. I’ve been working on a cook book geared toward Spread Kitchen.
I hope my next chapter is not as physically demanding; owner/chef of a restaurant is a really hard job.
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