The Heart of Basima's Kitchen

Since childhood, we knew our grandmother’s food was extraordinary. Sitting down to a meal she had prepared was a bona fide event filled with anticipation. Whenever we were fortunate enough to spend weeks on end with her, this would be a daily occurrence - but certainly not routine. Along with our elder brothers, we would eye the various dishes with enthusiasm and wonder aloud what we would go for first. One thing was certain: we would each devour several helpings of our most beloved dishes, and would inevitably be spurred into having more following our grandmother’s unfailing entreaty, “you’ve barely touched anything!”. The challenge was always trying our best to have a plate of everything but ultimately failing because of the variety of scrumptious dishes on offer; we would each usually end up deep diving into our favourites.

For various reasons, throughout our lives we did not have the opportunity to be around our grandmother as much as we would have liked. Growing up in London, we found ourselves dreaming of her food back in Saudi Arabia. Not just because we are huge foodies and her meals were genuinely unparalleled in our lived culinary experience; but because we recognised that her cooking was in reality her way of quite literally bringing her affection to the table. The warm and satisfied feeling we would always get post-meal was not just the mark of a tummy well fed, but of a soul well nourished with love.

As well as our longing for her delectable meals, the distance strengthened our passion and desire to know more about our grandmother, as well as our admiration and appreciation of everything she did. Despite all the years we missed her physical presence in our lives, we feel we are somehow growing even closer to Basima through our endeavour to recreate the sacred, special place she beautifully fostered in her own kitchen.