Maydan: Recipes from Lebanon and Beyond
About this ebook
The debut cookbook from Rose Previte, creator of the Michelin-starred restaurant Maydān and the beloved Compass Rose, explores bold flavors, accessible, shareable recipes, and overlapping foodways, spanning from Lebanon to Morocco, from Oman to the Republic of Georgia—cowritten with New York Times bestselling cookbook author Marah Stets.
Rose Previte introduces readers to the eclectic cultures of the region spanning North Africa, the Caucuses, and the Middle East through food, offering a nuanced, informed, and yet entirely warm and personal way in. Both accessible and delicious, the food in this cookbook is perfectly suited to the home cook because it's not fussy and everything on the table is meant to be shared.
With more than 150 recipes, Maydān offers guidance on how to build our own tables, taking cues from the way Previte’s Lebanese family ate growing up; emphasizing mixing and matching; scaling up or down; making a weeknight meal such as Tunisian Chicken Skewers with Loobieh bi Zeit (Green Bean Salad); creating the ideal spread of Lebanese small plates for entertaining guests; and a project day (the cheesy Georgian bread Khachapuri), all of which can be paired with one of the easy-to-source Georgian and Lebanese wines Rose recommends.
Before opening her Washington, DC, restaurants Maydān and Compass Rose, Previte traveled old spice trade routes to learn from home cooks, and it became apparent how adjacent cooking traditions informed and folded back on one another, creating a constant dialogue. Ancient foodways don’t recognize geopolitical boundaries. For instance, the harissa found in Tunisia is incredibly similar to the adjika used in Georgia, and the lineage of baking bread in clay ovens stretches across the region with strikingly parallel methods.
And in that vein, the word maydān has roots in a number of languages and has been crossing borders for generations, from Tangier to Tehran and from Beirut to Batumi. It means “gathering place” or “square,” often located in the middle of a city, and originates in Arabic, but translates to Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Ukrainian, and even Latin. To Previte, it symbolizes how food brings us together and everyone can add a personal twist.
Previte’s culinary journey began at home with her Lebanese American mother and Sicilian American father. Many of the recipes and techniques in this book were imparted to Previte by home cooks, often grandmothers, whom she learned from on her travels in the Middle East and beyond.
About the author
Rose Previte is a restaurateur, an author, and the chef and owner behind acclaimed restaurants and bars including Michelin-recognized Maydān, Medina, and SOOK, as well as Maydan Market in Los Angeles. Raised in a food-loving Lebanese and Sicilian family in Ohio, she began working in food at her mother’s Middle Eastern catering business and restaurant. Her travels through more than 30 countries inspired her first Washington, DC, restaurant, Compass Rose, followed by Maydān, which opened in 2017. Previte is also the cofounder of Go There Wines, a social-impact wine company that champions underrepresented winemakers. Maydān is her first cookbook.
Marah Stets is a bestselling cookbook writer and editor. Her culinary career began in France at La Varenne, Anne Willan’s acclaimed cooking school, where she helped run culinary courses and provided French-to-English translation. She later moved to New York to work on the 1997 edition of Joy of Cooking. Stets has coauthored New York Times bestsellers and books recognized by the Washington Post, the James Beard Foundation, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She lives in Washington, DC.
