Sydney’s Aalia a Middle Eastern experience of a different kind

“When people come here [to Aalia], I want them to see Middle Eastern food in a new light. I want them to understand that Middle Eastern food is not just minced meat on sticks, kebabs and stuff like that, but there’s much more to the cuisine.”

“I think it’s not fair that the cuisine of the Middle East, you know one of the oldest cultures with one of the richest of histories is sort of forgotten about in the culinary fine dining scene.”

The chef, who also heads up modern Lebanese restaurant Nour for the Esca hospitality group, says he could’ve easily fronted another French or Italian fine dining restaurant, the kind that does well in Sydney. He points out that these are the kind of restaurants that Sydney diners have come to expect, but Paul really wanted to challenge not just what people think Middle Eastern food can be but change the language of fine dining.

“I want to slowly open up their [diners’] vocabulary, make it broader. Ten years ago, no one knew what dashi was, or all these Japanese terms, whereas now they’ve all come onto the scene and are part of our lexicon, everyone uses those words or you see dashi on the menu and you think cool I know what that is, but then I put “Murri” on the menu and everyone is like, what the hell is that?”

Murri, a condiment traditionally made from fermented barley used in Iraqi cuisine as far back as the 10th century, illustrates Paul’s point perfectly. We are well acquainted with French terms on menus, but most of us have no idea when it comes to Arabic despite, as Paul notes, there being “many more Arabic speaking people in the world than there are French”.

It is not that there aren’t chefs and restaurants who are doing and have done great things for Middle Eastern food in Australia. Paul has a great deal of respect for Shane Delia of Maha fame, who he says has made the cuisine more accessible, and his friend Adam Wolfers at Brisbane’s Gerard’s Bistro, who approaches food with his Jewish background in mind. But he believes Middle Eastern food deserves much more respect than it gets.

Aalia is all about giving it that respect. Within the soft dining space at 25 Martin Place, formerly known as the MLC Centre before its $170 million facelift, Paul showcases not the food of one particular country, nor the food of his own Coptic Egyptian background, but rather is intent on highlighting the lesser known ingredients, techniques and flavours from across the entire region, which includes parts of North Africa, to create a fine dining experience like no other.

To do this, Paul began studying cooking manuscripts which date back as far as the 10th century. He began with Ibn Sayyār Al-Warrāq’s Tenth-century Baghdadi Cookbook and quickly discovered others of Ottoman and Egyptian heritage, which are well over 500 years old.

“It’s not easy to use historic cookbooks. Tenth century cookbooks don’t, number one, have the measurements that we use today, they were written in a very old language and then translated into English in the 70s, so they’re very hard to use.”

Undeterred, the chef, who left school early to pursue his culinary career, was keen to understand more about the culture of the entire Middle Eastern region and bring that to his menu.

“I found out about this book [Ibn Sayyār Al-Warrāq’s Tenth-century Baghdadi Cookbook] two years ago and so I got it and then started reading. It’s not just a cookbook, it’s more a way-of-life book. So it includes stuff like how to make soap, how to make digestives, making wine out of certain fruits, how to clean yourself, what to drink after eating a certain protein because it will aid in your health and digestion.”

He didn’t just find ingredients and spices that are not traditionally associated with the Middle East, such as taro and rhubarb, he saw that the author tackled issues we think of now as modern problems of an industrial food system. Paul, who calls himself a “master recycler”, skills he no doubt developed during his time heading up Josh Niland’s nose-to-tail Fish Butchery, is impressed by what he found.

“That’s the thing in these books that I would really give them credit for. They knew what they were doing. I keep banging on about the whole sustainable movement, but these guys knew about all that. We are so far removed from our food, no one can look at the head of the fish, people freak out when you put offal on the menu, but they [the authors] knew it was both good for you and good for the world to utilise every part of the animal, which is something we do at Aalia too.”

It might seem odd that Paul is now so inspired by the Middle East, given that when he became a chef, he veered strongly away from his Egyptian roots.

“I guess because of the way I look I tried to get away from my heritage from a very young age. I was never someone that was “fully sick”, and I wanted to totally get away from the stereotypes that are put on Middle Eastern people, like the drug dealing sort of stereotypes. That’s why I got away from that by doing completely different food and stayed away from everything that had to do with my culture.”

Paul’s “completely different” food included building an impressive fine dining resume. It starts with finishing his apprenticeship under Michael Moore at The Summit Restaurant, and includes Colin Fassnidge’s Four In Hand, UK experience at Gordon Ramsay’s Pétrus, heading up Brent Savage’s Monopole, and finally, Fish Butchery. When Paul got the call up for Nour, however, the timing was right for something different.

“I think it’s to do with getting older, and my father passing, I felt I wanted to remember my culture or sort of honour him and my culture in a way.”

It’s also got to do with Paul’s desire to never be complacent, always learn and always challenge himself in his career. When it comes to Middle Eastern cuisine on the fine dining table, Paul is asking diners to challenge themselves in the same way and be open minded to the creative possibilities that this rich and historic cuisine has to offer.