Barbara Abdeni Massaad (born March 15, 1970, Beirut) is a Lebanese-American cookbook author,"From bits to bites, Seattle techies embrace the restaurant world", Seattle Times. December 27, 2014 photographer,"Soup for Syria: chefs are stirred into action over refugee crisis", The Guardian, October 22, 2015. food consultant, and TV host. She is the author of several cookbooks, including Man’oushé: Inside the Street Corner Lebanese Bakery and Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry, which have been translated into French and Arabic, respectively.
Early life
Barbara Abdeni was born in Beirut, Lebanon, but soon emigrated to the United States with her parents. The family settled in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As a teenager, she gained first culinary experience assisting her father, a photographer by training, in the family-owned Lebanese restaurant. In 1988, she returned to Lebanon to attend university, graduating with a BA degree in Advertising and Marketing.
Career Massaad trained with chefs at Lebanese, Italian, and French restaurants. In 2006, she joined the Slow Food Movement, an organization which promotes the preservation of local food traditions, biodiversity, and small-scale food production. She is one of the founding members of Slow Food Beirut and a delegate of the international Terra Madre Community. She represented Lebanon in 2007 in the biannual Slow Food Worldwide Congress] in Puebla, Mexico.
In 2012, Massaad wrote Man’oushé: Inside the Street Corner Lebanese Bakery."The Bestselling Cookbooks of 2012". Publishers Weekly. The book, created in collaboration with Raymond Yazbeck, contains about 70 recipes about Lebanese pies, including typical varieties found in street corner bakeries, but which can also be made at home. Her second book, Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry,"Mouneh by Barbara Abdeni Massaad" . Taste of Beirut, March 2013. includes a selection of recipes, photos and accompanying stories.
Her third book, Mezze: A Labor of Love, illustrated by Pascale Hares, includes recipes for the creation of the traditional Lebanese dish mezze. Massaad hosted a weekly TV segment on Lebanese/International channel LBCI on Helwi Beirut, featuring culinary tours around Lebanon, focusing on local foods, interviewing and cooking with local chefs, producers, housewives and farmers.
After visiting a refugee camp in Syria in 2016, Massaad published another cookbook, Soup for Syria, designating the profits to support refugees."Soup for Syria’ cookbook supports refugees", Boston Globe, January 19, 2016."Una zuppa per la Siria", corriere.it. 23 May 2016."'Soup for Syria' cookbook supports refugees living in camps" The Guardian, May 19, 2016. As well as her own recipes, the book contains soup recipes donated by a number of well-known chefs."Celebrity chefs give soup to humanitarian cookbook for Syria", Toronto Star. October 21, 2015."Barbara Massaad curates cookbook to help Syrian refugees", The National, October 27, 2015.
Personal life Massaad lives in Beirut with her husband Serge Massaad and three children.
Awards and honors Winner of the Gourmand Cookbook Award 2013 Winner of “Prix de la Littérature Gastronomique” 2010 Winner of the Gourmand Cookbook Award 2010 Winner of the Gourmand Cookbook Award 2008
References
External links