The Levantine Kitchen

So excited for this Sunday's virtual cooking class, featuring recipes from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Join me this Sunday at 4pm CT!

Meal Prep with Charles: Sunday March 13, 4:00-5:45pm Central Time | The Levantine Kitchen Come join Chef Charles for a virtual cooking class over Zoom. The theme of the class is An ode to Italian Chef Marcella Hazan! and we will be making 3 dishes (1 geared toward lunch, the other 2 dinner) from her classic cookbook, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, to keep you satiated for t

Potato tart with thyme and creme fraiche. This was good.

Yes yes friends! Virtual cooking classes are back to help us get through February. First one up: the splendor of CROUTONS! This Sunday at 4pm CT. Pay what you can/want: $15, $25, $35.

Link in bio to sign up!

Breaking a long absence to share this essay that I'm extremely proud of. Thank you for letting me share my story. My business and fatherhood found a symbiosis I never dreamed of, and I am grateful for that. Link in bio to read the story.

Getting back to that . Made the food for my old professor's daughters bat mitzvah and graduation. Such a blessing to play a part in in person events again.

Feeling immense gratitude for everyone that joined and supported The Levantine Kitchen's 2nd annual fundraiser for Syria this past Sunday. We raised $1,160 for . Hoping we can join around the table for next year's 3rd annual!

Making this beautiful carrot and farro salad with whipped ricotta at this Sunday's class. Come get some meal prep done with me for the week ahead starting at 3:30pm. Tickets starting at $15.

https://www.thelevantinekitchen.com/new-products/meal-prep-with-charles-april-11

2nd annual folks! Sunday, April 25th from 3 to 5 CDT. Making sambusac, THE BEST Syrian pastry there is, and talking with author and professor Wendy Pearlman about a conflict that is both forgotten and still raging. On the Zoom of course. 100% of ticket sales go to فريق ملهم التطوعي Molham Volunteering Team. Let's raise some $$!

https://www.thelevantinekitchen.com/new-products/2nd-annual-fundraiser-for-syria

Celebrating 3 years of The Levantine Kitchen today. This picture kind of defines my business this past year. Virtual cooking classes gave my business a reason for being when catering dried up. I never thought I would find so much joy in these classes. Next class is this Sunday and 50% of ticket sales will go to Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago. Let's cook and raise some money.

Sign up here: https://www.thelevantinekitchen.com/new-products/meal-prep-with-charles-march-21

Still plenty of time to sign up for this Sunday's virtual cooking class. Making this super easy and flavorful rice with slow roasted tomato, shallot, and garlic. Tickets are $15/$25/$35, sliding scale. Link in bio to sign up!

The old adage is never buy tomatoes in winter. But these beauties from are the closest thing to summer I've tasted in 6 months.

New virtual cooking classes up on the website. Come cook with me on Sunday 3/21 or 4/11. All vegetarian, and can definitely be made vegan. We'll be making this amazing hummus and fava bean dish on April 11th. Tickets are sliding scale ($15, $25, or $35). Come join me and prep some meals for the week!

https://www.thelevantinekitchen.com/cooking-classes

Kimchi and peanut butter is a dream combination. A dream lunch you won't regret. Here with very tasty krautchi.

Making this miso sesame salmon and other deliciousness a week from today. Still plenty of time to sign up for my virtual cooking class on Sunday 3/7 to prep some meals for the work week! Link to sign up in bio.

Chicken with shallots, tomatoes and white wine. I'll be teaching this and more this Sunday 2/21 during my first meal prep virtual cooking class. Still plenty of time to sign up! Link in bio.

As I continue teaching virtual cooking classes, it feels important to me to learn from and support others doing the same. Made these sfiha yaffawiyeh this afternoon with and they are ridiculously good. She is a fabulous teacher uplifting Palestinian food. Check out her classes!

Join me for a new series of Sunday virtual cooking classes. Each class focuses on 3 healthy, ready-to-eat dishes that will get you ready for the week ahead. This spinach and chickpea soup will be one of the dishes for my 2/21 class.

https://www.thelevantinekitchen.com/cooking-classes

Hey All! Calm some of that election anxiety and come cook with me on 11/5 from 6 to 7:30pm. We are talking Autumn veggies, making Veg stock, and learning to use butternut squash for something other than soup. FREE but throw some dollars if you can to support me and Chicago Market.

https://www.chicagomarket.coop/autumn_veggies_20201105

Online Workshop: Using Autumn Veggies with Charles Dabah Chicago Market

Yesterday's meal prep for a client. My business thrives on dinner parties and birthdays and events that bring people together, and part of me truly feels lost without access to that right now. But dropping off quality, healthy food to people using ingredients from some of my favorite businesses, like still makes me feel good.

The dark caverns of a lemon bundt in the afterlight of a storm. This Maida Heatter recipe is supposedly something of a legendary lemon cake, if that is even possible of a lemon cake. Let it be.

Friends. I am teaming up with Chicago Market a week from today for a zoom class on kitchen fundamentals: knife skills, tips for increasing lifespan of veggies and herbs, and how to get the most out of your spices. Come hang out and learn. RSVP here:

Online Workshop: Kitchen Skills with Charles Dabah Chicago Market

Finally stopped procrastinating and made focaccia and then had to eat for lunch with all this other good stuff like amazing piquillo peppers and parmesan. Renewing love for food, as much as I can.

Burnt honey and tea cake. use of science to explain why food tastes and reacts the way it does is a dream. Check out his blog and start cooking/baking!

Chai kills despair

Finally baked something post being a dad! Thanks to the Greek grandma, wherever you are, for offering up this amazing recipe for Koulourakia.

New blog post up on the website. Finding joy in this new bundle of hope, and wondering where to take this small business (2 years old today!), along with so many others. Read up and I would love your feedback/ideas!

https://www.thelevantinekitchen.com/musingsandrecipes/2020/3/18/business-as-unusual-celebrating-2-years-in-times-of-upheaval

Business as Unusual: Celebrating 2 Years in Times of Upheaval | The Levantine Kitchen I couldn't have imagined how much the world would have changed since my last post. Yes, I am talking about coronavirus and the everyday anxieties it brings to all of us. But even more than that, I have joined the ranks of fatherhood! My partner Hannah gave birth to our beautiful son Aylan Chabetaye

So much gratitude for everyone that came out to yesterday's fundraiser supporting فريق ملهم التطوعي Molham Volunteering Team. Special thank you to Wendy Pearlman for leading the discussion about what is happening in Syria and reading from her inspiring book, We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria. Between ticket sales and other donations that came in, we raised $2,000 that will support displaced persons in Syria and Syrian refugees. So humbled to be in community with and share food with people that are civically and politically engaged ❤❤❤

This Sunday's Syrian lunch and fundraiser benefitting is sold out! Thanks to everyone who bought a ticket. Preparations have commenced!

Musabaha. The best variation on hummus. Come try this and so many of my favorite foods on Sunday, 2/9 and help me raise money for and the important work they do to address the Syrian refugee crisis.

Link to tickets:

https://withfriends.co/event/3667892/benefit_lunch_for_syria

Thank you Jewish Food Society for telling the story of my family's recipes through your pictures and words!

A Grandmother’s Syrian Legacy Wrapped Up in Grape Leaves — Jewish Food Society Shared by Charles Dabah Recipe Roots: Aleppo > Istanbul > Paris > Manchester, England > Brooklyn > Marlboro, NJ > Chicago, IL  When Charles Dabah’s grandmother Julie Chraime was alive, “the kitchen was her domain,” Charles, a caterer in Chicago ,