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U.S. NEWS Monday 25 June 2018
San Francisco restaurants open

kitchens to refugee chefs

By LORIN ELENI GILL class she took in California
Associated Press after they tasted some of
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — her food.
At San Francisco’s Tawla Azhar Hashem, Tawla’s
restaurant, Muna Anaee owner, said hosting Anaee
powdered her hands with was part of the restaurant’s
flour and gently broke off mission to broaden diners’
a piece of golden dough understanding of the Mid-
to prepare bread eaten in dle East — a region that in-
Iraq, the country she fled spires some of its dishes.
with her family. “Food is the best — and
Anaee was preparing most humanizing — cata-
more than 100 loaves for lyst for having harder con-
diners Wednesday night servations,” she said.
as part of a program that The four other aspiring
lets refugees aspiring to be chefs serving food in San
chefs work in professional Francisco are from Myan-
kitchens. mar, Bhutan, Syria and Sen-
The Refugee Food Festival egal.
— a joint initiative of the Karen Ferguson, executive In this photo taken June 20, 2018, Muna Anaee, prepares a
United Nations Refugee director of the Northern ball of khobz orouk, a flatbread she would eat frequently in her
Agency and a French non- California offices of the In- native Iraq, at the Tawla restaurant kitchen in San Francisco
profit, Food Sweet Food — ternational Rescue Com- during the inaugural Refugee Food Festival.
started in Paris in 2016 and mittee, said San Francisco Associated Press
came to the U.S. for the was a good city for the
first time this year, with res- food festival.
taurants in New York par- “We have so much diver-
ticipating as well. The es- sity, and we see the evi-
tablishments’ owners turn dence of that in the culi-
over their kitchens to refu- nary expertise in the area,”
gee chefs for an evening, she said.
allowing them to prepare The Bay Area has a high
sampling platters of their concentration of refugees
country’s cuisine and share from Afghanistan, Hon-
a taste of their home. duras, Guatemala, El Sal-
Restaurants in 12 cities out- vador, Eritrea and Burma,
side the U.S. are taking part though exact numbers are
in the program this month. unclear, according to the
“It’s been a big dream to rescue committee. Its Oak-
open a restaurant,” said land office settled more
Anaee, 45, who now has a than 400 refugees in the
green card. Bay Area last year, but the
Anaee was among five number of refugees settling
refugees chosen to show- in the region has fallen dra-
case their food in San Fran- matically since the Trump
cisco — each at a different administration this year
restaurant and on a dif- placed a cap on arrivals,
ferent night, from Tuesday Ferguson said.
through Saturday. Organiz- Pa Wah, a 41-year-old refu-
ers say the goal is to help gee from Myanmar, pre-
the refugees succeed as sented dishes at San Fran-
chefs and raise awareness cisco’s Hog Island Oyster
about the plight of refu- Co. on Tuesday. She said
gees worldwide. she didn’t consider a ca-
It’s important to “really get reer in cooking until she
to know these refugees and moved to California in 2011
their personal stories,” said and got her green card.
Sara Shah, who brought Cooking was a means of
the event to California af- survival at the Thailand
ter seeing it in Belgium. refugee camp where she
Anaee and her husband lived after escaping civil
and two children left Bagh- conflict in Myanmar as a
dad in 2013 over concerns child. Participating in the
about terrorism and vio- food festival showed her
lence. She worked as a kin- the challenges of running a
dergarten teacher in Iraq, restaurant, but also helped
not a chef, but was urged her realize she was capa-
to pursue cooking as a ca- ble of opening her own,
reer by peers in an English she said.q