First I would like to thank Celia Sack of Omnivore Books in San Francisco and her wife, Paula, who were both behind the birth of this book. A few years ago, I had wanted to do a book on Arab sweets but I worried about the calorie count as I tested the recipes, and I abandoned the idea. Then over dinner in London, Celia, Paula, and I discussed the idea of a book on Middle Eastern sweets; they urged me to do it, saying that the market was crying out for such a book. So I wrote a proposal, and Bill LeBlond at Chronicle Books, encouraged by Celia, commissioned it.
I would like to thank David Black, my agent, and Susan Friedland for her help with editing the manuscript. And a special thank-you to Amy Dencler for testing all the recipes so brilliantly to make sure they worked in a U.S. kitchen the way they had worked for me in my U.K. kitchen. I am also grateful to Amy for taking such good photographs of each recipe she tested so that I could see her results across the Atlantic. Thank you to Jane Levi, who also tested a few recipes, and to Jerome Henry, who perfected the delightful Saffron-Caramel Wafers.
I would like to thank Sheikha Bodour al-Qasimi of the United Arab Emirates for introducing me to Emirati food and for arranging to have the most wonderful ladies cook a wide range of dishes and sweets for me to taste and learn to prepare.
My appreciation goes out to my wonderful friends in Qatar, Aisha al-Tamimi and Maryam Abdallah, two sisters and eminent Qatari cooks. Most of what I know about Qatari food and sweets comes from them. I am also grateful to Nadia Mohamed Saleh, who sent me her mother’s brilliant sago recipe.
Syria is a tragic story now, but before the uprising, I visited often to lead culinary tours and to see friends and family. The highlight of each trip was a visit to Pistache d’Alep, where the owners, Majed Krayem and Bassam Mawaldi, always received me with open arms. They had their sweets makers show me all their secrets, and every visit was thrilling. The same goes for the wonderful owners of İmam Çağdaş in Gaziantep, Turkey. Thank you to Filiz Hösükoğlu, my guru for all things in Gaziantep, and Hande Bozdoğan and Nevin Halıcı in Istanbul. Hande took me to what has become my favorite kazandibi place, and Nevin has taught me through her books, personal advice, and lovely companionship almost everything I know about Turkish food.
At Amal Bohsali in Beirut, my favorite place for kunafa bil-jibn and other sweets, I would like to thank Mr. Bohsali senior for inviting me to their kitchen and getting me an industrial quantity of soapwort root to experiment with in making natef. Also in Beirut, the late Hanna Mitri made the best-ever Arab ice cream, and even though he wouldn’t part with his recipes, eating his ice cream was a revelation and helped me with the development of my own recipes. From Ozgüler in Gaziantep, who makes his wonderful ice cream with goat’s milk, I learned to do the same.
A big thank-you to my very lovely mother, Laurice Helou, whose talent in the kitchen has been a constant inspiration, and whose knowledge and advice have been invaluable to me.
Finally, I would like to thank all the other people who have given me culinary inspiration and have helped make this book a reality. I am eternally grateful.