BRUNCHING FOR BEIRUT
Australian restaurateurs lead food-focused fundraisers to aid a crippled Lebanon.
Australia has hosted a vast and vibrant community of Lebanese migrants for generations, extending back in time more than 100 years.
Settling in Sydney suburbs like Redfern, Waterloo and Surry Hills, the Lebanese brought with them new fabrics and spices, quickly adopted and enjoyed by the greater Australian community.
Today, Sydneysiders talk of fine dining in the Lebanese cuisine, and wanting to travel from Beirut, to Tripoli, to Baalbek and Batroun, through staggering hilltop villages and sandstone arches that reveal drooping olive trees littering sloping groves.
For the past year, however, Lebanon has been buckling under the strain of economic, political and medical crises.
The country hosts the world’s highest concentration of refugees, while experiencing regular power cuts, a lack of safe drinking water, limited healthcare, frozen bank accounts and high unemployment.
October 2019 saw a revolt across every social class against the government’s corruption, leaving behind an unpopular and unstable regime. With the hit of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lack of government action following it, the capacity of medical services has stretched thin.
On 4 August 2020, a massive explosion of a warehouse holding 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate at the capital’s port left much of Beirut destroyed, and the country finally crippled. At least 30 people remain missing, while 200 were killed, 6000 were injured, and 300,000 were left homeless.
Neighbourhoods nearby Beirut have been decimated, and villages further out also suffered the impact, their windows and doors smashed through. The blast was heard and felt up to 290km away.
“Shocked and saddened” by the events, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne increased the humanitarian aid to Lebanon from 2 to 5 million dollars within a matter of days.
Australian relief efforts, however, have not stopped there. Community fundraising has swept across the country, with Australian restaurateurs at the forefront of these efforts.
Priscilla and Najee Khouzame, co-owners of the Lebanese restaurant Bayti, are an example of these efforts. They’ve hosted a collaboration fundraising event with chef Dany Karam and the George Khouzame Group to raise $100,000 for Aztec Building, who work to repair broken windows and doors, and the charity Steps of Hope.
Their parents George and Julie Khouzame were born in Lebanon and migrated to Australia in the 1940s, raising their children to be “proud Lebanese-Australians.” That's why Priscilla and her brother are inclined to “do anything, where we can, to help and support.”
“Even being in Australia, a lot of places effected you’ve been to or seen … friends’ windows are shattered, and friends of friends fighting for their lives have died. Everyone’s got a story.”
Moved by footage shared online of people singing and chanting over dinner in the streets of Beirut, Priscilla reiterated her mother’s words;
“In their hearts it's black and bloody, but still they come together and they’ll rise.”
Similarly, Michael Rantissi, Israeli chef and owner of Kepos & Co, partnered with SBS Food Safari’s Maeve O'Meara, advocate Judy Saba, and food writers such as Fouad Kassab, to host the Kepos Street Kitchen Brunch 4 Beirut, raising $15,000 for Red Cross Beirut.
“[The Lebanese people] are not getting any assistance, don’t have any medical equipment, the hospitals are packed, no ambulances … no resources of fresh water or food.”
“As a human I think we all need to assist.”
Restaurant owner Michael Rantissi, and SBS Food Safari's Maeve O'Meara, address the Kepos Street Kitchen Brunch 4 Beirut / Photo Rafqa Touma
Restaurant owner Michael Rantissi, and SBS Food Safari's Maeve O'Meara, address the Kepos Street Kitchen Brunch 4 Beirut / Photo Rafqa Touma
Speaking at the Brunch for Beirut, Fouad Kassab acknowledged that “there’s this old world that’s … been dividing us. It’s the Lebanese and the Israelis … and people are often talking about how we can sort this problem. One of the ways we can do that is stop telling old stories.”
“Once we start looking at each other like brothers and sisters, then we can really start writing a new narrative.”
Both Maeve and Fouad noted that the crisis in Lebanon is an opportunity to bring together people who were once divided- to share food, heritage and culture and to “start a new story."
“I think Australia is a generous and wonderful place,” said Maeve, “and I think food is going to save the world … food in the sense of bringing people together.”
