‘Syria: Recipes from Home’ In Conversation with Itab Azzam

Not only is the book a celebration of the taste, culinary culture and raw materials of Syria, it is also a celebration of what food and memory represent and mean for people and their identity. The authors met Syrian women in the Middle East and in Europe, spending months cooking with them, learning their recipes, and listening to their stories.

In this interactive evening, Itab tells us about her fascinating journey that led to the birth of this special book!

Copies of the book will be on sale throughout the Festival at a discounted price.

‘We were given this recipe by Majdoleen from Dara’a; she was very shy and quiet when we worked with her in a theatre workshop but a confident, natural leader in the kitchen. We first realised this when she invited us into her home in the Shatila camp in Beirut, to teach us some of her specialities, and to our surprise, she turned out to be both a fantastic cook and a forceful character. We spent a couple of days cooking with her, her three friends and her fourteen-year-old daughter, who was eagerly watching everything to pick up her mum’s skills’ (from Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’ – for the full recipe buy the book, or follow the link).

Itab Azzam

Itab is a Syrian filmmaker and theatre producer. She was part of the team behind BBC Four’s Syrian School and the multi-award-winning BAFTA nominated BBC Two Documentary Series Exodus: Our journey to Europe. Itab has produced the award-winning film Queens of Syria in 2013, followed by Antigone of Syria, a theatre project bringing together Syrian women in Lebanon in a re-imagining of Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy, in 2014.

This event is preceded by two cooking workshops at 14:30 and at 17:00.