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lifestyle TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016 FEATURES Omer Eltigani (center), a young British Sudanese pharmacist, and his relatives eat the Sudanese ‘Mahshi’ (stuffed Omer Eltigani vegetables) serves that he Sudanese prepared at “Mahshi” his aunt’s (stuffed house in vegetables) Khartoum. that he —AFP photos prepared. In a Khartoum kitchen, a pharmacist serves up a Sudanese rarity: A cookbook Omer Eltigani prepares Sudanese “Mahshi” (stuffed vegetables), at his Omer Eltigani prepares Sudanese “Mahshi” (stuffed vegetables), at his Omer Eltigani serves Sudanese “Mahshi” (stuffed vegetables) that he aunt’s house. aunt’s house. prepared. reparing vegetables in a quiet Khartoum Manchester to study pharmacy. “I was living at family recipes, cooking with his two aunts, and Sudan’s cuisine will win it fans around the world. olive oil-in restaurants but they will never try neighborhood, pharmacist Omer Eltigani uni and I really missed my Mum’s food, so I visiting restaurants, markets and museums to “What grows in the area, that definitely shapes the best unless they eat with a family, he says. Phopes not just to serve up the dish an would go home and ask her for recipes that gather background he hopes to include in the what is made here,” he said, heading back to the Eltigani’s aunt Salwa, dressed in bright tradi- aunt is teaching him, but also the first cook- were my favorite things,” the lean, unshaven book. “It’s about placing the food in its context,” kitchen in his aunts’ house. In the troubled tional robes, has been happy to help out, and book to bring Sudanese cuisine to the rest of 31-year-old said, taking a break in the kitchen. Eltigani said. The book will include around 40 Darfur region, the locally grown sorghum grain is thinks the project is “excellent”. the world. Straddling Africa and the Arab “I just got the idea of writing down what I was recipes and is aimed at foreigners and also milled to form assida, a porridge-like lump “It’s a strange thing, something nice,” she world, Sudan’s cooking has not tickled foodies’ taking with me and making it while I was at Sudanese looking to learn more about their served with stews, while groups living along the smiled. With the stuffed vegetables cooked, palates as much as its Ethiopian neighbors or uni.” He learned to cook from scratch, starting country’s cooking. But his insistence on tying Nile eat tilapia and Nile perch caught from the Eltigani carried them on a tin dish to his young Levantine rivals. But with his aunt Salwa watch- with the dish he missed the most the local vari- cooking to Sudan’s turbulent history has made river, marinated and often served with a rocket cousins and aunts sitting round a table in the ing on from the corner of the kitchen in his ant of lamb meatballs popular across the difficulties in finding publishers in Britain, who salad. house’s communal courtyard in the early grandparents’ house as he stuffed courgettes, region, served in a thick Sudanese tomato and would prefer just a book of plain recipes, he said. evening light. They helped themselves to the aubergines and tomatoes, Eltigani said he garlic sauce. He started sharing his recipes with “You can’t really not talk about politics and ‘Made for sharing’ dish in appreciative silence, as Eltigani said he hopes to change this with his cookbook, the cousins, eventually setting up a website and talk about Sudan,” he shrugged. Mixing Arab and The importance of cooking with his family is hopes to finish the book around April. As the country’s first not written in Arabic and aimed found people from all over the world were African influences, Sudan was colonized in the that Sudan’s best food is not to be found in family ate from the shared tin tray, he admit- at foreign diners. interested in trying his recipes. In October, he 19th century by the Ottomans and then by restaurants or at food stalls lining the capital’s ted that his favorite part of Sudanese cooking The project-dubbed Sudanese Kitchen-was decided to dedicate himself to writing the Britain and Egypt jointly until 1956. Its post-inde- streets.” For me Sudanese cooking is from the will be hard to convey in his book. “The dishes originally born of his homesickness. Eltigani, book, quitting his job and travelling to pendence history has been blighted by civil war, home,” Eltigani said after he had finished stuff- made are made for sharing,” he said, wiping his who was born in Dublin, then lived in Khartoum in January for a 10-day research visit. military dictatorship, unrest and poverty. Each ing the vegetables with rice, minced meat, fingers after taking a bite from a stuffed pota- Khartoum until he was seven, when he moved period has affected the way Sudanese people dried coriander and raisins. Foreigners in to dripping with red sauce. “When you’re eat- to Britain. Wherever the family went he had his Politics at the table eat, Eltigani said, a fact he wants to be central to Khartoum can enjoy delicious Nile fish or fuul- ing together you feel like you’re part of a com- mother’s home cooking until he went to From his aunts’ house, he has been collecting his book. But he also hopes the richness of cooked fava beans flavored with cumin and munity.” — AFP Michelin crowns Paris hotels under cloud of top chef’s suicide rance’s Michelin guide gave the country’s most famous chef a much-prized third Fstar but stripped another of his establish- ments of its top ranking yesterday as the restaurant world reeled after the apparent suicide of the “world’s best chef” Benoit Violier. Alain Ducasse, 59, picked up the highest rating for his restaurant at Paris’ swish Plaza Athenee hotel while he lost a star for another of his tables in the French capital at the equally opu- lent Le Meurice hotel. But with the pressure top chefs face high- lighted by the death of French-born Violier on Sunday-just two months after his Swiss restaurant was named the best in the world-the guide raised eyebrows by stripping a star from another restaurant whose founder had also This file photo taken on March 15, 1984 in Saulieu, central France, shows late French chef killed himself. Bernard Loiseau shot himself Bernard Loiseau in front of his restaurant, as France’s Michelin guide reduced “Le Relais with his hunting rifle in 2003 after another Bernard Loiseau” from three to two stars yesterday. — AFP photos guide, the Gault & Millau, lowered the rating of his renowned establishment in the Burgundy ners in the new Michelin ratings, going rude good health. Paris-long criticized for the region. straight in with two stars for his Grande quality and value for money of its cuisine in Loiseau’s widow Dominique said yesterday Maison restaurant, which opened in Bordeaux comparison to the provinces-has made partic- she was “shocked and disappointed” by the 18 months ago. Ducasse said it had deserved ular progress, he claimed. “Of the 380 tables decision to reduce the Relais Bernard Loiseau three stars. Ellis said the guide’s feared army of that have entered the guide for the first time, to two Michelin stars after 25 years at the top In this Dec 17, 2015 file photo, French Swiss Chef Benoit Violier of the restaurant Hotel de anonymous inspectors notorious for punish- 100 are in Paris. It is proof that the city is more of the table. But the guide’s US-born interna- Ville in Crissier, Switzerland, poses with his trophy for the best restaurant of the World dur- ing the slightest slippage in its exacting stan- than ever a place where chefs want to cook,” tional director Michael Ellis defended his ing the award ceremony of “La Liste” (The List) at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris. dards, had found French gastronomy to be in he said. — AFP inspectors’ judgment. “It was a difficult decision but it is part of the job,” he said. “We made stone’s throw from Ducasse’s Plaza Athenee numerous visits to be absolutely sure.... I hope outpost. But Le Squer told AFP he was not in a the Relais Bernard Loiseau gets the star back mood to celebrate after Violier’s death. “The as soon as possible.” whole gastronomic world is in tears because we lost a great colleague and friend,” he told Ramsay loses out AFP. Ellis praised Ducasse for his “brave deci- Big name British chef Gordon Ramsay’s sion to come up with a style of cooking Trianon restaurant at Versailles was also down- around the idea of ‘naturalness’” at the hotel, graded, dropping to just one star. Police are while he described Le Squer as “a real virtuoso. still investigating the circumstances of Violier’s “Every dish by Christian Le Squer is a real work death near Lausanne in Switzerland. Like of art, a shining example of what French gas- Loiseau, he was found with his hunting rifle by tronomy does best,” he added. his side. Several of France’s greatest chefs have pulled out of the Michelin in the past, claiming Robuchon on the up the pressure it puts on them and their staff While Ducasse has built a global restaurant was too great. Violier retained his three brand on the reputation he has won in France, Michelin stars for the Restaurant de l’Hotel de the British-based World Best Restaurant list Ville at Crissier when its Swiss guide was pub- has been skeptical of his genius.

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