Life as a chef in the West Bank right now

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chef Fadi Kattan does something that usually isn’t done in the West Bank of Palestine: he cooks seasonal, locally sourced dishes for a dining experience meant to rival the world’s best restaurants. Born and raised steps from the Church of the Nativity, Fadi has also been documenting the recipes he grew up with. His new cookbook is called Bethlehem: a Celebration of Palestinian Food, and in today’s episode he tells Lilah why talking about food and culture is especially important in a time of war.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We’re on X @lifeandartpod and on email at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– Fadi’s book Bethlehem: A Celebration of Palestinian Food” is out this month in the US and the UK

– HTSI recently featured Fadi, his book and his London restaurant Akub: https://on.ft.com/3JFHfhs

– Fadi is on Instagram @fadifkattan and on X @FadiKattan

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Life and Art from F.T. Weekend. I'm Lila Raptopoulos.
0:06.4	Chef Fadi Katan has been called the voice of modern Palestinian cuisine. He was born and grew up in
0:12.3	Bethlehem. He studied in Paris. He lived in London. And in 2015, Fadi did something that really
0:18.6	wasn't done in the West Bank. He opened a locally sourced, fine dining restaurant in Bethlehem but specialized in Palestinian food.
0:27.3	It's called Fowda.
0:28.7	When Fowda opened, people called Fadi crazy because, despite the restrictions that Israel had placed on the territory, he insisted on doing things right. He traveled through
0:39.2	checkpoints to get the best salt from the Dead Sea. He brought tablecloths from abroad because
0:44.4	he couldn't get them in Palestine. And he did it because to him this mattered. For years now,
0:50.2	Fadi has also been documenting the dishes that he grew up eating because he's proud of the
0:55.8	Palestinian cooking tradition and he wants it to have a future. Last year Fadi opened a Palestinian
1:01.6	restaurant in London and this month he's coming out with a beautiful new cookbook. It is called
1:07.2	Bethlehem, a celebration of Palestinian food.
1:17.2	He's speaking with me today from Bethlehem, just 60-odd miles away from the closest entry to Gaza.
1:18.7	Fadi, hi.
1:19.7	Welcome to the show.
1:21.8	Hi. Thank you for having.
1:23.5	It's such a pleasure to have you.
1:30.2	I wonder to start if you could tell me a little bit about where you're talking to me from.
1:31.2	Are you at home?
1:33.4	I'm at home in Bethlehem.
1:37.6	I'm lucky to live in my great-grandfather's home.
1:42.8	So basically every stone around us is from 1886. I'm 1,500 meters away from 1886.
	...

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