São Paulo – Salsabil Matouk (pictured, R) is Syrian and will be the first guest on a cooking show on YouTube that will tell the stories of refugees through typical dishes they will cook on the show. It will be hosted by the chef Paola Carosella (pictured, L), who was born in Argentina and became famous in Brazil for her restaurants and her participation in the Brazilian version of “Masterchef.”
The show will be broadcasted at the channel Tasty Demais, a food network by BuzzFeed Brasil, and supported by the United Nations High Commissariat for Refugges (UNHCR). The fist video airs on Thursday (20), which celebrates World Refugee Day. Brazil is the second country to participate in this UNHCR initiative, after the United States.
In the Brazilian premiere, Salsabil teaches Paola how to make the Syrian kibbeh. “I chose kibbeh because I have this memory associated to Fridays, which is the sacred day for us [Muslims], it’s the weekend, like Sunday is for you here. And every Friday we would gather in someone’s home and kibbeh was one of those dishes, and we’d ate it during Ramadan,” Salsabil told ANBA over the phone.
“I’m very glad to having met that woman (Carosella). Paola told me about her country, and I told her about my life story. We first met for the recording,” said Salsabil, detailing that the recipe they made together is very popular in Syria and its stuffing includes ground beef and nuts.
In Syria, Salsabil worked as a pharmacist, which was her graduation and helped her build her own business in Damascus. However, after moving to Brazil four years ago, she needed to start over and, like many other refugees, saw in the food market an area where she could make a living. “I started cooking to sell food when I arrived in Brazil. I’m a pharmacist, but, after arriving here, I really started enjoying working with food,” she said.
Living in São Paulo with her husband and three children, Salsabil now owns Cozinha de Salsabil, a restaurant buffet with Arab foods she announces on Facebook. Her next step is resuming her studies, now on a more food-related field. “I’m planning to start a master’s degree in Nutrition. I’ve already enrolled in a Brazilian university,” she said.
The show’s name is yet to be announced. The preview is called Tasty Demais Story. Watch it below:
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
