IDEAL WORLD

Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan explains why he went ahead with the publication of Bethlehem, his celebratory cookbook.

- Olivia Snaije

Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan's ideal world would be as cosmopolitan as it was local. A world in which one would exchange recipes during the aubergine harvest in the 4,000-year-old village of Battir, where the terracing and irrigation system dates back to the Romans, without politics permeating everything. It might involve taking visitors from across the globe on a food tour starting in Bethlehem, to anthropologist and social entrepreneur Nasser Abufarha's Canaan fair trade association near Jenin, where they would taste deep green, unfiltered olive oil from trees thousands of years old.

Or picking almonds directly from the trees, devouring them with a dash of salt. They might visit Nader Muaddi's prize-winning craft arak distillery, where the alcohol rests for up to a year in clay amphoras Kattan's favourite arak is made with grapes of vineyards near Bethlehem and Hebron, distilled several times and fermented with wild yeast before the final touch is added: anise from Jenin, because, as Muaddi says, "the terroir is in the anise".

It is not lost on Kattan-the chef behind London's much-loved restaurant Akub, alongside Lebanese entrepreneur Rasha Khouri-that none of this is possible now because of war, and that celebrating food is all the more poignant. Bethlehem: A Celebration of Palestinian Food is a journey through the heart of Palestinian culture that pours love on the city's culinary traditions and paints a portrait of its colours, scents, markets, and suppliers. While Bethlehem is largely off-limits for the foreseeable future, the cookbook is a testament to the beauty of its food legacy.

"It's extremely confusing working with food, because the most difficult thing for a chef is to imagine that a population next door, our population, is being starved," says Kattan. Following 7 October, 2023, he couldn't cook.