A few weeks ago, The Print Bar’s Naarm / Melbourne team spent a wonderful evening cooking with Aheda and sharing in her story.
A sprig of sage in her teapot and a hand on the side to check how far off boiling it is. The sage gives the brew a strong red colour as Aheda explains her first recipe, “In Australia, people love this so much, I’ve been making this since I was 12! They call it “crumble” here, but I call it Basbossa.” And she’s right — we all love it.
But what’s the secret? Her hands.
Aheda explains how integral it is to use your hands in Palestinian cooking, and how it locks in the love. Metal spoons and utensils don’t have feelings, they don’t have heart — you’re removing yourself from the process. This isn’t what Aheda’s cooking is about.
From kneading spices into oats to prodding an eggplant on an open flame, her hands are sure of themselves and well-learned. She’s spent years as a chef in Palestine and Saudi Arabia, but learned her craft from her mother, whose picture overlooks the kitchen.
Her hands do far more than the cooking, they help her paint a picture. She describes her garden, and how she tends to it while showing us the best technique to chop her produce. A pause in her chopping is accompanied by a gesture to aid her story.
When Aheda first arrived in Australia, she moved alone and didn’t know much English. With tenacity and perseverance, she began to learn the language with the assistance of the Asylum Seeker Resource Center. She has a strong drive to better herself and refuses to sit idle, it’s not how she was built.
Her family is scattered around the world, she has four children who she misses dearly. However, wherever Aheda goes she builds community. To the side, her “adopted” daughter watches her cook and it’s evident that wherever Aheda goes, she touches the lives of others and builds her Australian family.
Aheda is a proud Palestinian.
Palestine is her home, her history and her culture, but she can’t return. Her cooking brings her history to life and shares her culture. There are no exact measurements and no recipe book in sight. Her meals are refined by taste and built by memory. With every meal, she creates community and brings the joy she remembers of her homeland.
And this is Aheda’s mission, she wants to bring her food and culture to all of Australia. Her dream is to open a food truck and travel across the country to keep her country’s history and traditions alive. Aheda’s kitchen is so much more than delicious food, it’s about putting love into what you do, about sharing in the community and most importantly, getting your hands a bit dirty.
Help bring Aheda’s dream to life by sponsoring her [food truck], attending her fundraising event, or popping along to one of her incredible cooking classes. Regardless, find a way to eat some of Aheda’s food, because it’s truly incredible.
And no matter how good her Knafeh tastes, just, don’t ask for the recipe again…
Because that’s a secret she’ll never tell.
