S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 \u201cSometimes parents say things that eventually turn out to be actual prophecies,\u201d says chef Georges Barakat, who is originally from Zgharta, a city in North Lebanon, and has been established in Brazil for two decades now. When he first told his mother he’d visit relatives in the Latin American country, being the owner of the best Arab restaurant in S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 according to 2021\u2019s Veja Comer & Beber guide \u2013 wasn’t in his dreams, but Ms. Jeanette said, \u201cMaybe I’ll come with you, and we open a restaurant there?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a roundabout way, that is sort of what came to happen, says the chef, who\u2019d know how to make his own food since he was ten. During the Mechanical Engineering course, he lived in a fraternity, and when he went to spend the weekends at home, he arrived with laundry and left with a week\u2019s worth of meals. Eventually his mother complained about the chore and cast him to help her in the cooking duties. \u201cIt was great \u2013 we got closer, because we cooked together and caught up. I told her about my stuff, and she told me about hers.\u201d After graduating, working in Saudi Arabia, he used to call home and ask for a recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2004, when he arrived in S\u00e3o Paulo, Barakat went to work in cloth making in the Br\u00e1s neighborhood, planning on following the same path of prosperity found by his cousins. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t like it. I remained five years in the business, as it was the time required to get my documents in order. After closing everything, I thought, and now what?\u201d As nothing happens by chance, Ms. Eva, who was the owner of the place where they used to have lunch, retired and left many clients without their favorite restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then his mother\u2019s prophecy started to take shake. \u201cI asked my cousins, if I make food, would you buy it?\u201d As they said yes, he started preparing meals. First it was for five people, then orders came rolling in, and when he reached twenty deliveries a day, he decided to improve and grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI went back to Lebanon and spend three months interning in my mother\u2019s kitchen, noting everything. I weighed what went into her measuring cups and spoons and put this into a sheet, to standardize preparations,\u201d he explained. After coming back, Ms. Jeanette came with her son to meet his son\u2019s restaurant Shahiya and her granddaughter Luiza, who were born around the same time, 12 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To start Shahiya<\/a>, in 2012 Barakat made a deal with the owner of the small space in the Br\u00e1s neighborhood \u2013 he\u2019d pay rent but have no contract, so if the owner required, the property would have to be given back. When this day arrived, he moved on to a bigger place, with twenty seats, and then to a bigger still, in Ch\u00e1cara Santo Ant\u00f4nio neighborhood, with 120.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut as the pandemic started and the contract came to an end, we decided to move out. Then we found a pizza place in Moema that\u2019d been closed for over a year, and we rent it. In May we started renovations, and in August 2020 we opened the place.\u201d At the time, Barakat was partner with entrepreneur F\u00e1bio Cavalotti, who left the business as the new phase started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the year following the reopening in a new neighborhood, Shahiya was chosen as the best in its category. \u201cHere in Brazil, we\u2019re all called Arabs, whether you come from Morocco or Egypt. I find it strange, as there\u2019re over 20 culinary traditions under this umbrella. I for one make traditional Lebanese food. He explains he allowed himself to add a personal touch to some dishes while respecting traditions but revamp them without making them Brazilian. An example is his fal\u00e1fel \u00e0 l\u2019acaraj\u00e9<\/em>, a mix of two versions of the dumpling \u2013 as acaraj\u00e9 supposedly comes from the falafel. Traditional hummus was added basil leaves, subtly changing the color of the chicken-pea dip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 45, he feels accomplished. \u201cI didn\u2019t imagine such a future, but I\u2019m happy to have found this calling. That\u2019s what I want to do and love doing \u2013 it\u2019s a passion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barakat is also a consultant chef at Esporte Clube S\u00edrio, where he develops feast menus for the club\u2019s member, and says he\u2019s glad to arouse the emotional memory of guests. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve won the day when someone says a memory was stirred up by my food!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more:<\/em> Report by Paula Medeiros, in collaboration with ANBA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Upon his first travel to Brazil, then mechanical engineer Barakat heard from his mother that opening a restaurant could be in his path. After gravitating towards other fields, what first was a farfetched idea became a reality, and he\u2019s now chef and owner of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s award-winning Arab restaurant Shahiya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2343,"featured_media":371034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3066],"tags":[4600,14625,9534,14864,41561,50367,8481,50368,50369],"class_list":{"0":"post-371045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-arab-food","9":"tag-arab-restaurant","10":"tag-brazil-en","11":"tag-comida-arabe-en","12":"tag-comida-libanesa-en","13":"tag-georges-barakat-2","14":"tag-lebanese-food","15":"tag-lebanese-restaurant","16":"tag-shahiya-2"},"wps_subtitle":"Upon his first travel to Brazil, then mechanical engineer Barakat heard from his mother that opening a restaurant could be in his path. After gravitating towards other fields, what first was a farfetched idea became a reality, and he\u2019s now chef and owner of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s award-winning Arab restaurant Shahiya.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371045","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\/2343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Levant-based brands want to export Arab sweets to Brazil<\/a>
Arab industries make everything from nachos to chocolate<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n