The Lebanese Kitchen

The definitive guide to Lebanese home cooking, with more than 500 recipes covering the full range of the cuisine. Salma Hage, a Lebanese home cook from the Kadisha Valley in northern Lebanon, draws on over 50 years of family cooking to present everything from light mezze and salads to hearty stews, grilled meats, pastries, and preserves. The book won a James Beard Award and has become the standard reference for anyone serious about cooking Lebanese food.

Why Start Here

The Lebanese Kitchen is the ideal starting point because it covers the entire breadth of Lebanese cuisine in a single, comprehensive volume. Unlike books that focus on one corner of the cuisine or present restaurant-style dishes, this is genuine home cooking passed down through generations. Hage learned these recipes from her mother, her mother-in-law, and her sisters-in-law in a small mountain village, and that domestic authenticity comes through on every page.

The recipes are organized logically, from basic preparations like hummus, tabbouleh, and fattoush through soups, fish, meat, vegetables, breads, pastries, desserts, and drinks. This structure means you can start with the simplest mezze and gradually work your way into more complex dishes like kibbeh or stuffed grape leaves. The instructions are clear and written for home cooks, not professional chefs.

With more than 500 recipes, this book will serve you for years. It is the kind of cookbook you can open on any page and find something worth making tonight.

What to Expect

A substantial 496-page hardcover published by Phaidon. The book is beautifully designed with photographs throughout. You will need to stock a few essentials: tahini, sumac, za’atar, pomegranate molasses, rose water, and orange blossom water, but none of these are hard to find. The recipes range from 15-minute mezze to slow-cooked stews, so there is something for every level of effort and every occasion.