Jeanette behind the stove. (Photo taken from the League of Kitchens Instagram account)
When she moved to the United States many years ago, Korean Lisa Kyung Gross, lacking guidance, authentic flavors, and perhaps memories, long regretted not preserving her two grandmothers' cooking recipes and techniques. Just like all those people from the four corners of the world making their life in the U.S. Like Jeanette Chawki.
In 2014, Gross founded New York The League of Kitchens, with a dream team made up of women of different origins, fourteen mothers and grandmothers from Indonesia, Mexico, Burkina Faso and ... Lebanon. This unique transcultural cooking school has allowed immigrant women, over these ten years, to transform into chefs who teach their culinary expertise and their respective traditions through cooking workshops, at home or online.
According to the League of Kitchens website, these women certainly impart their skills and recipes, but above all their secrets and love for the cuisine and culture of their countries. This initiative has borne fruit today, with the recent publication of a beautiful book titled The League of Kitchens Cookbook: brilliant tips, secret methods & favorite family recipes from around the world.
“To test my idea, I started with a small pilot project with Jeanette, who is from Lebanon, and Asfari from Bangladesh,” said Lisa. Both are still part of our program started in 2014.”
In an informal conversation, which turned friendly, with Jeanette, who quickly turned it into a sobhieh around a coffee, as she called it, the Lebanese living in the United States since 2006 exclaimed with passion: “Lebanon is my oxygen, my therapy. The joy of living of the Lebanese, despite all the difficulties the country endures, is a beautiful life lesson that exists nowhere else. When I come back for a visit and am told, 'We'll pick you up at the airport,' I respond, 'Never! Here, I am at home, I take my suitcase and move around as I want,' to truly feel our atmosphere.”
A spontaneous 'success story'
The American story of Chawki is one of natural and unexpected success. Joining her husband Shehadeh Arnaout in 2006 with her three children, a family culinary talent and not a word of English in her luggage, the first thing she did was enroll in an English language school.
“In this school, the tradition is to end the year with a lunch composed of dishes prepared by each student from different backgrounds who, like me, were learning the local language. I had prepared a large dish of stuffed vine leaves.” When the director asked, “Who made this?” Jeanette thought the worst. “Then, I saw her heading towards me and handing me a business card, telling me to contact a catering company that needed someone to prepare Mediterranean specialties.”
Chawki immediately complied and began a career in cooking, with a solid background inherited from her mother of Turkish origins, her grandparents, her father, farmer Abdelahad-Dominique, and her aunt. “We all lived in a two-story house, our meals were shared together daily, prepared by my parents who, as good Zahliotes, had the best local recipes.”
Besides having mastered the art of preparing a multitude of Lebanese dishes, Chawki naturally possessed what we call nafas. This innate quality that, without doubt, allowed her to be noticed in the American catering company that hired her. It was there that she was spotted by an American of Korean descent who proposed collaborating with her on a transcultural cooking project. This collaboration gave birth, in 2014, to the League of Kitchens.
Cooking classes in the Lebanese style of 'Jeanette entertains'
At the League of Kitchens, an online cooking session lasts several hours. The latest with Jeanette, held in her kitchen, offers the art of mastering chicken rice accompanied by a bowl of laban flavored with dried mint and fattoush. The learning is also done live in the chef's own home and lasts five hours. And the Lebanese hosts as “at home.” The apprentices, numbering five or six, are greeted with a cup of Turkish coffee and small sweets, “to get to know each other more thoroughly.”
Then, it was on to the kitchen for serious matters: Observing the hostess work behind her stoves while providing all the details on the prepared dishes. Next comes the tasting moment, pure joy. A second coffee, to finish, before parting with a notebook filled with Lebanese recipes. “Jeanette and her husband welcomed us to their home as if we were part of the family. It was a wonderful experience discovering her country and her recipes,” said Danielle H., one of the participants in this session.
Jeanette Chawki's Lebanese cuisine has been featured in major gastronomic magazines, including Food & Wine, Vogue, Serious Eats, Travel + Leisure, The New York Times, The Infatuation, Chopt Travels. Major American television networks have also visited to film her behind her stoves.
“I always trust Lebanon,” she said with worry and regret, “but I ask myself this question: why is this happening to us? The world has experienced World War I and II, and the chapter was closed. And us, what war will allow us to put an end to it? A war or better yet, a lasting peace.”
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.