A slice of home

BAHRAIN’s cuisine and culture are being elevated on a global stage as one of its rising local chefs highlights the kingdom’s flavours and traditional favourites in the menu of one of North America’s top food and beverage destinations.

Blending the kingdom’s spices and recipes with Canadian ingredients and cuisine, Bahraini chef Suman Ali Sayed recently unveiled a smorgasbord of her culinary creations, ranging from Beef Qheema to Cauliflower Fatteh, Ontario Salata, Harissa Devilled Eggs and more at Toronto-based Bar Mordecai.

“Having Bahraini flavours and local Canadian ingredients was a match made in heaven, and this partnership has put Bahraini flavours on the global culinary map,” the 31-year-old award-winning chef and corporate culinary executive who splits her time between Toronto, Canada and Sanad, told GulfWeekly.

“Bar Mordecai is in a prime downtown Toronto location in the Little Portugal neighbourhood, and had a Spanish, Portuguese and Andulasian menu, but being heavily multicultural, Torontonians have enthusiastically embraced the partnership.”

Owned by Christina Viera, alongside Emily and Joshua Leblanc, Bar Mordecai is currently ranked fifth amongst ‘Canada’s 50 Best Bars’ and 40th in ‘North America’s 50 Best Bars.’

All of Chef Suman’s dishes on its menu are shareable, encouraging diners to ditch the utensils, eat with their hands and communally break bread together.

While most will just see and savour the final creations at Mordecai, the cultural culinary shift came with an evolution in the kitchen.

Working with Mordecai head chef Maria Arispe, Chef Suman adapted homely Bahraini recipes for a restaurant setting, where the team would be able to consistently deliver its rich flavour profile and high quality.

“Bahraini cuisine can be very diverse, and I wanted to curate an elevated, high presentation appeal that reflected my personal roots and heritage, without being too ‘hyper fancy food’... keeping it approachable,” she explained.

“Fine dining can intimidate people, and my mindset has always been to educate and clear misconceptions about our food, making sure that anyone can enjoy it.

“As a chef, for me, the dining experience is about bringing people together, with food being a catalyst to connect, especially at a global level.”

And that, it did - in addition to Mordecai’s regulars lapping up the new menu, the additions drew diners from the vast population of Middle Eastern and GCC residents of Toronto, as well as South Asians who grew up in the Gulf.

“The response has been overwhelmingly amazing… for them, it’s a taste from home and they love seeing their culture and heritage represented with a unique spin, yet rooted in tradition,” Chef Suman added.

When asked to describe that ‘taste from home’, Chef Suman said her flavour profile of Bahrain is seeded in tangy loomi (black lemon), earthy cinnamon, spicy-sweet shatta or sehwag (a local condiment), fishy Mahyawa and almost-ripe fresh dates, served, of course, with a glass of laban or ayran.

But rooted in and branching out from this flavourful foundation is the treasury of stories in each ingredient, ranging from childhood memories of eating dates fresh off the branch to Chef Suman’s version of Mahyawa, called Tiger’s Milk, on the menu.

“In my menu, I wanted to maintain the beauty of the key ingredients and use our spices as well as cooking techniques to elevate the dishes,” she added.

“For example, the roasted whole beef bone marrow is finished with maldon salt and olive-tomato ‘sehaweq’ (a Yemeni origin chutney similar to daqoos) while the Bukhari spice-marinated whole Cornish hen is cooked ‘charga’ style on a flat rotisserie and the sweet batata harra is served with shatta aioli and pickled Anaheim chillis.

And this unique fusion of traditional and modern comes together perfectly, because, for Chef Suman, “Bahrain has always tasted like a blend of old world and new world charm, with spice laden breezes of our sun-kissed shores.”

For more details and to follow Chef Suman’s journey, follow @sumanalisayed on Instagram and YouTube.