PICTURE CREDITS: 1000Londoners.com
on Wheels and is sometimes the only person land that is so accepting and welcoming of her recipients see for days on end. other cultures and cuisines. He also quoted a Syrian proverb: ‘Your eyes need to eat.’ It’s The one frustrating thing about it was there one thing to think about how food tastes but just wasn’t enough time to delve further into within Syrian culture it’s equally important each of their stories. Some of them could how you present and curate food – or ‘offer easily have filled a full 90 minutes and I your art through food’. And so food preswouldn’t have been bored. Others, had me entation, twinned (I suspect) with the emoglazing over after 9 seconds. So here’s a tion that goes into its preparation, is crucial snapshot of the ones who stood out and for the ultimate fulfilment of both cook and who I suspect you’ll be reading more about consumer. somewhere soon. His supper club is also a place where Ahmad Syrian refugee Named Ahmad set up the can help his fellow men and women feel Aleppo Supper Club to ‘raise positive aware- happier, more connected and less lonely as ness of the Syrian culture’. He spoke at the they rebuild their lives here in a safer place, Filmic Dinner about his motivations and it finding work and new homes. Sharing and made for fascinating listening. Sick of the living amongst beautiful food and love can negative media coverage of Syria, and the be found at Aleppo Supper Club with the mainstream media telling only of the plight brave-hearted Ahmad at the head of the taof refugees, he felt his duty as a native was to ble. deliver something more positive, lasting and ultimately more tasteful beyond the sadness James tastes everything he hears. His rare and tragedy. condition, known as lexical-gustatory synaesthesia, is fascinating to witness in this His yearning to tell and allow others to ex- film. What’s beautiful is that he sees it as perience something so life-giving and up- adding a rich dimension to his life that he’d lifting is even more heroic given his back- never want to be without. It means he craves ground story. He lost all of his immediate texture and when he hears something, it family in the war and came to England with sparks his appetite. At the time of filming he nothing. In Heathrow, awaiting his fate from couldn’t stop hearing big juicy burgers and the authorities, he survived on potatoes and I suspect went to devour one shortly aftertea with milk. Adding milk to tea was some- wards. thing he found almost laughable, because no one does it back home. His story is compelling because although it’s natural to smell and taste together, I’d The supper club exists ultimately to remem- never come across someone who feels they ber, celebrate and bring a sense of what the can taste through noise. I’d like to ask him true Aleppo was before the badness. It was so many questions! But perhaps we could awash with sumptuous fresh markets filled ask ourselves, what’s the audio equivalent with bountiful daily produce. Accompany- of carbonara, or steak and chips? Or a nice ing his mother, he learned his craft by watch- fresh crab salad? Maybe the ocean’s crashing her endlessly create wonderful feasts to ing waves, or a sandy beach crunching becelebrate and consume together with his neath your feet. loved ones. Little he knew of the tragedy that would unfold. Watching the film made me ask myself – what does food mean to me? What does it Perhaps he was subconsciously being pre- mean to you? So many of us take food for pared for this, being here in this foreign granted. With such busy lives it’s increas-