2019-10-01_Bon_Appetit_UserUpload.Net

(John Hannent) #1

48 – OCTOBER 2019 PHOTOGRAPH BY ELIZABETH CECIL


Away – The Road to the Hot 10

Youssef Akhtarini Fled

Syria. His Baklava Recipe

Came With Him

OUSSEF AKHTARINI CAN’T SIT STILL. During our
interview at Aleppo Sweets, his new Syrian restaurant
and bakery in Providence, he gets up every 15 minutes.
To rearrange baklava in the pastry case. To drizzle
syrup over mabrooma, haystack-like mounds of shred-
ded phyllo. To sip one of the 20 (yes, you read that right) cups
of tea he averages a day.
It’s an energy born of necessity: The shop is perpetually
packed, serving not just those incredible pastries but a full
menu of savory Syrian dishes—tightly stuffed grape leaves,
chicken kebabs blackened on the grill, herb-flecked spheres
of falafel. But it’s also the result of what Akhtarini has been
through to get here. A refugee from Aleppo, he once ducked for
cover each time he went outside. Now he’s making baklava that
crackles like a potato chip.
His bakery—one of 50 nominees for our list of America’s best
new restaurants (bonappetit.com/50nominees)—already has
a steady slate of regulars, including many Syrian Americans.
At times you can hear Arabic spoken more frequently than
English. “I used to think you can’t get baklava like this outside
of Aleppo,” says Nora Barre, a customer who moved to the U.S.
from Aleppo as a child. For Akhtarini, life without this kind of
baklava would have been unimaginable.
Born and raised in Aleppo—known as the food capital of
Syria and home to every cook’s favorite chile flake—Akhtarini
landed a job as a trainee at the famous bakery Diab by age 15.
With his brothers he opened a few successful bakeries, where
he was known for pistachio fingers—rich nut-coated rolls of
phyllo—and lady’s bracelets (similar idea, different shape).


In 2012 the violent conflict following
the civilian uprising against President
Bashar al-Assad spilled over into the lives
of everyday Syrians, including Akhtarini.
A year later he, his wife, Reem, and their
six children fled Syria for Turkey. After
three years, they sought asylum in the
U.S., eventually landing in Providence.

IN HIS NEW hometown, Akhtarini’s first
instinct was to find the local mosque. His
second was to make baklava. So he took
out his rolling pin—one of the few things
he brought from Turkey—and started to
layer phyllo, cook down a lemon-kissed
syrup, and chop walnuts. He invited peo-
ple he had met at the mosque and volun-
teers at the Dorcas International Institute,
the nonprofit that helped resettle the
Akhtarini family in Rhode Island, and he
and Reem fed them buttery sweets.
With no credit history and not enough
money saved up, he knew he couldn’t
afford to open a restaurant. So he rented
a commissary space in a local pizza shop,
where he’d come at either 5 a.m. or after
midnight to make baklava and pistachio
fingers to take to a nearby farmers’ mar-
ket. They almost always sold out.
In 2018 a friend stepped in. Sandy Mar-
tin, a Dorcas International volunteer, and
her husband, Victor Pereira, a real estate
agent, bought a building on a quiet tree-
lined block and offered the ground floor
to Akhtarini. With local interior designer
Kyla Coburn, they helped Akhtarini make
the space look like a Syrian home: intri-
cately patterned windows, a small foun-
tain, copper teapots, and a handmade
Syrian backgammon board (a lot of it is
from Etsy, Martin says with a laugh).
Akhtarini set about sourcing ingredients
and hiring other Syrian refugees.
“It was a lot of pressure,” Akhtarini
says, speaking through a translator, his
friend Abdullah Kanaan. “Food is the
identity of Syrian people. I wanted to give
the best face to everybody here—not just
me but the people working in the back.”
Akhtarini still has relatives in Aleppo,
though he has no desire to move back. He
has started anew, both with the restau-
rant and in Providence. He and Reem
have a new group of friends. The children
have settled into school.
Making sweets is one of the few activities
that reminds him of being home in Aleppo.
“I take videos and send them to my family
on WhatsApp,” Akhtarini says. “It makes
me feel that everything is okay.”

y WHALEPPO AT MAKES
SWEETS FEEL
LIKE HOME

Backgammon,
Akhtarini’s favorite
childhood game

A stone fountain
to symbolize serenity

Mosaic windows,
common in
the Middle East

14


by PRIYA KRISHNA
Free download pdf