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This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. One of the first lessons

restaurateur Rose Prevet learned early in life was what she calls the secret

code, the ways her family used food to hold on to culture.

Prevet grew up in a small town in Ohio, eating almost exclusively home-cooked Lebanese dishes

that were passed down from her great grandparents who immigrated to the US.

But as she writes in her new cookbook, My Don, recipes from Lebanon and beyond, it took a life-changing move to

Russia for her to discover that following in her family's footsteps was her calling.

In her new cookbook, which Bonapetit recently named one of the best cookbooks of the year,

Prevet shares some of her family's tried and true recipes, as well as recipes from home cooks throughout the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Many of these recipes come from areas we often think of as conflict in war zones like

Lebanon, Georgia, and Ukraine.

Private owns four DC area restaurants, Compass Rose, which serves street food from around the world,

like Jamaican Curried Conch, Mexican tacos, El Pastore, and Algerian vegetable taugein.

The Kirby Club in Virginia which specializes in kebabs and the Michelin Star-rated My Don, which serves

food from Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East.

She also runs the neighboring cocktail bar, Medina.

Rose Prevet, welcome to Fresh Air.

Thank you for having me.

That was a kind introduction.

Mydon is such a rich word because as we learn from you it's a

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