São Paulo – It is impossible not to pay attention to her, circling among the lunch tables at restaurant Halim, in Paraíso neighbourhood, São Paulo. Always well dressed and made up, elegant in her golden earrings, owner Najat Sultan seems to be in her own sitting room as she organises a napkin here and a plate there. Lebanese, from Zhale, she got to Brazil in 1964. And she is part of a special team of entrepreneurs: the Arab mothers who run the houses specialized in Arab cuisine of these countries. Women who, with sugar and love, as well as other seasoning, feed clients with the same love they dedicate to their offspring. We chose them to celebrate International Women’s Day, on Monday (8).
"The restaurant is my house. In the same way I cook there, I cook here,” said Najat. The mother of Issam, Leila and Samir, she is proud of dedicating her life to her family and work. “I got married very young, at the age of 15, and I moved to Brazil at the age of 16. Far from my mother, I clung to my husband and kids,” she explains. She guarantees that, to date, she only sleeps after knowing that her three heirs are home, duly snuggled in. At Halim it is not different. “I keep an eye on everything. If things get tough, I wash dishes, dry cutlery, do whatever is necessary to help the waiters,” said Najat, who heads, together with her husband, a team of 62 employees who should congratulate her for today. (See the video about Najat at the end of the article)
It is with this same spirit that the owner of the Arabia chain, Leila Youssef Kuczynski, runs her four restaurants in the city of São Paulo. Originally from the city of Barretos, her grandparents were Lebanese, and she has been in love with the kitchen since she was a little girl. And she explains that she learnt with her mother the values she is passing on to her daughters Júlia, Fernanda and Laura. In fact, that is the same philosophy she follows to expand her business. "Food is love. If I got home and said I wanted to eat something specific, my mother would make it immediately. I try to act like that with the girls, and I managed to teach them how to eat in a tasty and healthy way,” she explains. "I also seek that at Arabia,” she says, adding that she only uses family recipes at her restaurants. For this, the businesswoman says that the mission of feeding the clientele is a reason for great pride. "I feel gratified by doing this. All of us, women, fulfil this part, every day,” she said.
Another expert when the matter is talent to feed others is the Iraqi Meryam Migrditch Yousif, who is responsible for the kitchen at Sevan, in the centre of São Paulo. And she explains that she got there due to her great success at preparing luncheons at her home for friends in the community. Being a good Arab mother, she is praised by son Haik, whom she lives with, even when “boiling water”. “He loves the rice kibbehs I make,” she guarantees.
In the case of chef Dinah Doctos, the owner of Tanger, in Vila Madalena, also in São Paulo, the mixture of mother and careful entrepreneur is a family heirloom. "My mother granted me an education of respect and love, teaching me not to do to others what I would not like done to me,” explained Dinah. "She was so caring that she was even awarded best mother when we lived in Paris,” she recalled. The efforts of that matriarch made Dinah a careful businesswoman. Born in Morocco, she only uses recipes of relatives in her menu. “My parents always dreamed of having a restaurant,” she said, adding that she managed to realize their dream together with her daughter, Ariela Doctos, in 2000. This is proof that, in what depends on these entrepreneurs, there should be no dearth of experts in taking good and plentiful Arab food to the tables.
*Translated by Mark Ament
