Bethlehem and beyond: Chef Fadi Kattan brings Palestinian cuisine to tables in three continents | Canada Voices

Growing up in Bethlehem with a family that shared a passion for food, Franco-Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan has built a career as a culinary ambassador, celebrating his heritage and love of Palestinian culture through food and its flavours.

At a younger age, he already envisioned food would be a part of his future. Kattan honed his cooking skills through his hotel management studies at the Institut Vatel in France. He returned to the West Bank at the start of the second Intifada to help his family’s import and export business and worked there for 15 years.

But working in a kitchen, and having a restaurant to call his own, was always in the back of his mind. He eventually bought a boutique guesthouse with a café in 2016, and made a decision that would set the tone for years to come.

“Yalla,” he uttered, the Arabic word for ‘let’s go,’ as his staff sat around the guesthouse café consuming coffee and cigarettes. “We’re opening a restaurant tomorrow evening.”

Instantly, the room sprang to life. One worker dashed out to find second-hand gas burners, others for white plastic chairs, and Kattan urgently called a carpenter: “I need eight tables by tomorrow.” And by 6 p.m. the next day, the café transformed to Fawda Restaurant, serving dishes that combined his French culinary skills with traditional Palestinian ingredients.

What may seem like a reflection of his spontaneous character turned out to be driven by a very intentional desire: to tell the story of Palestinian food and to share it with the world.

It’s what brought him to London’s Notting Hill neighbourhood two years ago, where he opened Akub, his hugely popular fine-dining restaurant that introduced Londoners to modern Palestinian cuisine. Earlier this year, he released his first cookbook, Bethlehem: A Celebration of Palestinian Food. Now, he’s bringing his interpretation of Palestinian flavours to Canada. His latest business venture, Louf, opens its doors in Toronto this month in a quaint house in the Casa Loma neighbourhood, where he will serve classic Palestinian dishes with a modern twist.

Kattan’s take on Palestinian cuisine is influenced by his unique background: Born to a Bethlehemite family, Kattan has francophone heritage on his mother’s side and British roots on his father’s, with influences from time spent in India, Japan and Sudan.

In much of North America and Europe, Kattan feels it is rare to find a Palestinian restaurant that openly identifies as such – one that serves as a space for diverse groups of guests, rooted in Palestinian culinary tradition while also introducing something fresh and artistic. Beyond the typical offerings of mezzas, grilled meats and beloved street foods such as falafel and shawarma, he says the cuisine is underrepresented.

“Very often, I feel we need to convince people that we exist despite our cuisine being rooted in thousands of years of agricultural tradition,” he says, noting the region’s historical importance for producing the world’s oldest grapes, wine and freekeh – a charred green wheat grain that has nourished generations of Palestinians since 2000 BC.

Since growing up in the West Bank as a child, Kattan has witnessed Palestinian farmers’ struggles to access land and water resources since the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories began in 1967. As Israel’s war in Gaza continues, the Palestinian chef says he has noticed an increase in Israeli settler violence, with settlers setting fire to Palestinian farmland, destroying olive groves and vineyards – two of the region’s primary crops – according to UN experts.

This struggle has shaped Kattan’s vision for Louf: to centre on authenticity and local ingredients. “There’s no sense in me saying I’m fighting for Palestinian farmers if I come to Toronto and disregard Ontario farmers and Indigenous producers.”

With this commitment, Kattan acknowledges that his menu may need to include ingredients beyond those he is currently sourcing directly from the West Bank, such as olive oil, Dead Sea salt, za’atar, maftoul and freekeh. He’s open to incorporating Canadian-grown sea asparagus and locally grown lentils, even if they aren’t traditionally part of Palestinian cuisine. In fact, he’s excited to explore how this twist can enhance his dishes.

“I will use parsnips, carrots and onions because those are more or less the only vegetables available in minus 20 degrees. It’s all about adapting to the realities.”

At Louf, he reimagines the traditional Palestinian roast chicken dish, musakhan. This version features locally sourced chicken liver pâté with onion-sumac jam and mini taboon bread with olive oil from Jenin. Another of his signature dishes is sayyadiyeh samak, a spiced rice dish made with perch and pickerel, both sourced from Canadian waters. The tahini used for the salad that comes with it is sourced from the West Bank.

Kattan is also excited to bring sweet makdous to Toronto. His invention is a creative take on the traditional Palestinian dish, makdous, which is typically made with pickled eggplant. The classic version consists of small aubergines filled with walnuts, garlic and shatta – a chili condiment made with chilis, salt and olive oil. Traditionally savoury, Kattan’s version turns it into a dessert. Years ago, he experimented with cooking eggplant in syrup and stuffing it with walnuts, pistachios and a touch of rose water at his Bethlehem restaurant, Fawda.

The idea for a Toronto restaurant came to be a year ago, when Nicole Mankinen, his now-business partner in Toronto, told him her vision, knowing her city would embrace a restaurant like Louf. He thought, “Why not? I’ve never been to Canada. Let’s see what it’s all about.”

During his first visit in the fall of 2023, the duo went to local farms and spoke with other chefs, confident that the many partnerships in Toronto would make it the ideal place for a restaurant that blends food, drinks, art and storytelling. He saw an opportunity to open his first North American restaurant in the city because he saw potential in bringing Palestinian cuisine to Torontonians and contributing to its culinary scene.

Louf opens on Nov. 21 as a 70-seat restaurant that houses two bars, two dining rooms and an eating space with large tables for a more communal style. Named after a mildly toxic Middle East native plant that turns into a delicacy when cooked, Louf is adorned with Palestinian art – handmade plates and bowls by Palestinian ceramicist Nur Minawi, crafted in Jaffa, as well as prints, paintings and photography, with artwork by Ahmad Hmeedat and Areej Kaoud.

Kattan’s team plans to utilize the space for live events, such as music performances, film screenings and readings, and he plans to visit Toronto several times a year, to be as hands-on as possible.

Having inherited his love of cooking from his mother and his grandmother Julia, Kattan’s core inspiration for Louf are the storied recipes of traditional Palestinian cooking, long preserved over generations in home kitchens. Yet, Kattan says he isn’t trying to replicate what people would cook at home. “What your mother does will always be better than what I do because it comes with nostalgia and stories,” he said.

“You can feed me the best mansaf ever in the world, I will still tell you my mother’s mansaf is the best.”