When I first met Karim, he told me, “As a child in Lebanon, an Israeli soldier made me stand facing a wall as he shot a bullet in the air, just like that, for nothing, and now here you are, in my home…”
Karim and his family later moved to Paris, where he became a renowned chef. I love Karim, and he is one of the first people who joined us on our hummus route. Since then, on this route of ours, our joint-journey also passed through Beirut, where Karim contributed some of the recipes, essays, and stories included in the book’s chapter dedicated entirely to Beirut.
Our book offers a new social order. It is not a book about “Let’s go dip into some hummus together, and talk about peace and love and forget it all…” On the contrary, this book unfolds the full spectrum of the culinary and cultural traditions that go back thousands of years, which will remain well after we are gone. It offers to remember, not to forget, and it offers a dialogue where each of us can give our others their ethical demand for the right to exist, equality, and love, because in the end of it all, it’s all about humanity.