José Andrés helps feed Beirut during a time of crisis

“Today we made food for 800 people,” Kamal Mouzawak said on Friday, calling from one of his Tawlet restaurants in Beirut. The meals went to overcrowded hospitals, homebound elderly and rescue workers responding to the devastation after the...

A fork slips through Lina Georges’ mehshi koussa — zucchini filled with rice and richly spiced ground beef — with the ease of slicing room-temperature butter. Stuffing vegetables is a sacrosanct category of Lebanese cuisine. Cooks heap hollowed...

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the life and career of Anissa Helou, the cookbook author (among many titles) who is one of my favorite people on the planet. She turned 70 this week. For anyone needing inspiration to persist through...

At year’s end, with the all-consuming project — our annual guide to L.A.'s 101 best restaurants — behind me and some holiday downtime forthcoming, it’s a pleasure to turn my attention briefly from restaurants to excellent, recently published...

Samke harra means “spicy fish” in Lebanese Arabic, though the dish — usually flavored with some variation of garlic, cilantro and nuts — rarely smolders with anything more than a flicker of cayenne. Originally a staple of Tripoli, Lebanon’s...

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