Chef who fled Syria cooked for 400 refugees with hotplate on Calais church steps
Food can bring people comfort in the darkest times, and for Imad Alarnab, that time came when he was stranded as a refugee in Calais for more than two months.
A hotplate had been donated, people collected leftovers from supermarkets and, having been a successful chef back in Damascus – with three restaurants, and a string of cafes and juice bars – Imad did what he does best... he cooked.
Night after night, he cooked.
Imad, 45, would feed as many as 400 people at a time. He says: “It was just something I felt like I needed to do, because you get to make a lot of people happy. Especially at that time, they needed something to be happy about.”
The overcrowded camp that became known as The Jungle was close by, but Imad says that it was too terrifying and packed, so he and a group of several other Syrians slept on the steps of a church instead.
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It was here that he cooked the food of home, adapted depending on what they had. The dad-of-three says: “To have a decent warm meal – for people whose lives have been on hold, they can’t cross to safety – was a big deal for all of us.”
Imad fled Syria without his family (Rebecca Dickson/PA)It was the first time he had cooked for large numbers since all of his businesses were bombed within a week in 2012, during the country’s civil war. It was the moment hope returned. In his debut cookbook, Imad’s Syrian Kitchen, he writes: “It restored all of the faith that things could, and would, get better.”
By July 2015, Imad had made the painful decision to leave his wife and three daughters in Damascus to make the treacherous journey via Lebanon, Greece and North Macedonia, to the UK, where they had relatives.
With his children too young to make the journey, the family planned to join him once he had been granted asylum.
He say: “If I had any other choice, I would have definitely taken it. But it was somehow the safest. When I was in Syria during the war, people were saying, ‘It’s not safe to go out of the house because maybe you’re going to die’.
“But I needed to feed my family. If I stayed in the house they would die from hunger. There’s no good choice or bad choice but maybe it’s the only one you can make. When I was leaving Damascus, my oldest daughter made me promise I would see her within one year. I said, ‘I promise’ but I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep that promise.”
And as he travelled hundreds of miles on foot, by train, in the back of cars, on push bikes, at the mercy of smugglers there were moments of doubt.
Gizzi Erskine and Imad Alarnab attend the opening of the Choose Love shop for Help Refugees in Carnaby Street (Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Imad's Syrian Kitchen book (HQ/PA)Like when he was crammed in the back of a lorry in Turkey for seven hours.
He says: “There were about 95 of us. I felt it was a stupid decision, risking my life so much. I believe the driver was so scared, or maybe drunk – the speed was absolutely scary. I thought we were not going to make it.” His moving, often harrowing story is woven into his cookbook, telling how his journey ended when he used a fake passport to cross the Channel in 2015.
He found work illegally in a car wash, where he was also the overnight security guard, and sent money home so he could keep the promise to his daughter and his family were able to emigrate.
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Then someone introduced him to the Cook For Syria scheme, and soon Imad was hosting supper clubs, raising funds for UNICEF’s work with Syrian children.
By May 2021, he had opened his Central London restaurant, Imad’s Syrian Kitchen. His first cookbook is a combination of dishes served at the restaurant and his late mother’s recipes. He says: “Almost every single dish is somehow related to my mother. I keep seeking her approval in everything I do in life, but especially with cooking.”
Syrians fleeing the war wait to enter Turkey near the Turkish border crossing (AFP)It was his mum, Summer, who first taught him to cook. He says: “Even if you create your own recipes, somehow you will be inspired by your first teacher.” She died very suddenly while Imad was living alone in a caravan in West London.
He says Syrian food at its heart is “simple, first of all, and affordable for everyone”. He adds: “We use a lot of mild spices, not very hot spices – cumin, mint, garlic... nothing really special about it. You put it together in a special way.”
Before the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad triggered a war that has left 11 million people displaced Imad was one of the lucky ones.
He says: “We had a comfortable life but most people in Syria were suffering. When you have a dictatorship for more than 50 years, people will be suffering. You cannot explain life without freedom to someone who has lived all of their life with it. People keep asking me silly questions – ‘Why did you have to go to 10 different countries to come to the UK? You could just get a plane ticket straight from Lebanon to Heathrow’.
“No, it doesn’t work like that. As a Syrian, my passport takes me to three countries – war zone countries. Even if I wanted to go to every country supporting Assad, I’d still need a visa.”
Aftermath of an air-strike staged by Syrian regime forces in Duma district in the Eastern Ghouta area of Damascus (Getty Images)Once the fighting started, food lost all meaning. He says: “I don’t know how to describe it, but the food tasted like blood. I know it’s disgusting, but nothing tasted the same. When you live in fear for your family, when your daughters are not safe to go to school, food will taste bad. Nothing can make you happy.”
In London, he says he finally “felt safe”. He says: “Everyone is so different, it makes all of us look alike.”
He is proud of his daughters and how they have adapted to their new life. His eldest is studying at Warwick University after gaining straight As, and his middle child is a talented artist.
Laughing, he says: “The youngest is the naughty one. But you can feel they appreciate their life – they are so happy.”
- Imad’s Syrian Kitchen, by Imad Alarnab, published by HQ, priced £26.
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