S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 It was because of a mistake of the Lebanese police that, in 1901, businessman Elias Hallab Cauerk left Beirut for Rio de Janeiro in the company of his wife and four children (four other heirs were later born in Brazil). The policemen who wrongfully arrested him because he was the namesake of a thief could not have guessed that their mistake would give Brazil its first Arab chef.<\/p>\n
Deeply disturbed by the injustice, which cost him two days in jail, he loaded all of the gear of the restaurant that he used to own in the capital of his country into a ship and boarded without looking back.<\/p>\n
Thus, in the same year of his arrival, Elias opened the first Arab restaurant in Brazil, Oriente & Ocidente (East&West), on Alf\u00e2ndega Street, in downtown Rio. "Early on, the establishment used to cater to Arab immigrants who lived in the region," explains Samir Moys\u00e9s, a grandson to Elias and the chef at restaurant Folha de Uva (Grape Leaf), in S\u00e3o Paulo. "But then it became a favourite of Brazilians, who loved the grape leaf rolls, the hummus and the lamb that he used to cook," says Moys\u00e9s.<\/p>\n
That’s right, Elias himself used to cook at his establishment. "He used to cook very well," says Moys\u00e9s. The grandson makes a point of sticking to the tradition. "At Folha de Uva, everything is done exactly as he used to," he claims.<\/p>\n
Besides his talent in the kitchen, Elias has left another heritage that is respected in the family until this day: being generous towards those in need. "Every day he would give coins away to the beggars in downtown Rio, and he would also cook more food than he had to so that he could give it to those people," says Moys\u00e9s.<\/p>\n
A serious man who was very dedicated to his family, Elias was a good conversationist. He used to have many "fellow countrymen and customers" over for a chat at his restaurant. "He used to give advice to a lot of people," says Moys\u00e9s.<\/p>\n
After the death of its founder, in 1940, Oriente & Ocidente was passed on to one of his sons until it closed, a while later. Now, the family tradition in cuisine is carried on by Moys\u00e9s at Folha de Uva and another granddaughter, Eug\u00eania, who owns Emp\u00f3rio \u00c1rabe (Arab Emporium) in Vit\u00f3ria, the capital of the state of Esp\u00edrito Santo. This is proof that generations later, the legacy of the first Lebanese chef in the country continues to gather Brazilians and Arabs around the table.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elias Hallab Cauerk left Lebanon to open the first Arab restaurant in Rio de Janeiro in 1901. The talent for cooking runs in the family and remains with his grandchildren, who own specialized places.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-economy"},"wps_subtitle":"Elias Hallab Cauerk left Lebanon to open the first Arab restaurant in Rio de Janeiro in 1901. The talent for cooking runs in the family and remains with his grandchildren, who own specialized places.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}