Olive Oil in the Plant-Forward Kitchen Interview Series: Anissa Helou

In this interview, Anissa Helou discusses how olive oil is an absolute essential ingredient in the Mediterranean kitchen for its health benefits, richness and wonderful flavor.

Anissa Helou (www.anissas.com) is a chef, food writer, journalist, broadcaster, consultant and blogger focusing on the cuisines and culinary heritage of the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa. Born and raised between Beirut, Lebanon, and Mashta el-Helou, Syria, she knows the Mediterranean as only a well-traveled native can. Anissa is the author of numerous award-winning cookbooks, including Sweet Middle East; Levant; The Fifth Quarter, an Offal Cookbook; Modern Mezze; Savory Baking from the Mediterranean; Mediterranean Street Food; Café Morocco; and Lebanese Cuisine, which was a finalist for the prestigious Andre Simon awards and chosen as one of the Los Angeles Times’ favorite books in 1998. Lebanese Cuisine remains the classic and most comprehensive work on this increasingly popular cuisine. Her new book, Feast: The Food of the Islamic World, was published to great acclaim by Ecco in May 2018. It has been short-listed for the very prestigious Art of Eating award and was on “Best of the Year” lists in numerous publications. It has also won the James Beard Foundation award in the International category and was nominated for the IACP awards in the General and International categories. An accomplished photographer and intrepid traveler, she runs culinary tours to various Mediterranean countries and also teaches cooking classes. Anissa was the featured chef in the travel/cooking Show, Al Chef Yaktachef (meaning the chef discovers), shown on Abu Dhabi TV in 2010. She has also featured as one of the judges/mentors to a team of chefs in Taste Arabia, which aired on Al Nahar TV in Egypt and OSN all over the Arab world and was one of the guest judges in the final of one of the series of Top Chef Arabia. She was also listed in 2013 in Arabian Business as one of the 100 Most Powerful Arab Women and on the 500 Most Influential Arabs. Anissa was also the first ever chef-in-residence in Leighton House during their Nour festival in November 2011. In 2013 she helped a group of Egyptian entrepreneurs open Koshari Street in Covent Garden, where they serve her gourmet version of Koshari, the ultimate Egyptian street food. Koshari Street was chosen by the Financial Times as one of London’s five best street foods. She is no longer associated with Koshari Street and she now divides her time between Sicily, where she will eventually have a teaching kitchen, and London. 

In this interview, Anissa Helou discusses how olive oil is an absolute essential ingredient in the Mediterranean kitchen for its health benefits, richness and wonderful flavor.

This recipe and video were produced by The Culinary Institute of America as an industry service, thanks to the generous support of the International Olive Council.

Learn more about olive oil at https://www.plantforwardkitchen.org/olive-oil-and-the-plant-forward-kitchen