COVID-19


IMAD ALARNAB CHEF


IMAD’S SYRIAN KITCHEN LONDON


“I am always lucky”. These may be surprising words to be uttered by a man who has been through more hardship than most people, and restaurateur Imad Alarnab is a living reminder of the saying that you make your own luck. Through his determination and positive attitude he has gone from losing his restaurant business and fleeing civil war in his home country to opening his restaurant in London, recently awarded a Bib Gourmand by The Michelin Guide. Opened during the pandemic lockdown,


Imad’s Syrian Kitchen can be found on a piece of prime real estate in the famous Carnaby Street in the English capital city. The story of how this vibrant restaurant came to be is life affirming and inspiring in equal measures. Alarnab, originally trained as a fashion designer in his native Syria, following a family tradition, but his heart was set on gastronomy. “All my uncles and my father were against me being a restaurateur – just because it is not something accepted in our society and especially in my family, but I eventually started my first restaurant in 1999,” he recalls. “When you cook, you only consider what you are cooking, and you can transfer this love to the people around you and to your cooking. If anything is bothering you, it can wait until you finish cooking.”


“All my uncles and my father were against me being a restaurateur – just because it is not something accepted in our society and especially in my family”


Having found success with his first


restaurant, Alarnab opened another two, only to see his work disintegrate as the Syrian civil war escalated. “I lost my restaurants in March 2012, but I stayed until July 2015; for those three years I worked in human resources for a law firm,” he says. “I did not like it but I had to do something to support my family.” However, staying in Syria became too


dangerous and like thousands of other migrants Alarnab set out on the treacherous journey across Europe to reach safety. For three months, he traveled any way he could – by bus, train, boat, on foot – and spent 64 days sleeping rough in Calais, the French port town that connects mainland Europe with the UK, while trying to make it across the Channel. “I tried so many times to make it across and in the end, I traveled in the back of a lorry,” he says.


His wife and three daughters joined him in London as part of a family reunion program the following year. “My daughters are doing great at school here. They are my super heroes; I am so proud of them.” Upon arriving in the UK, his ambition was always to have his own restaurant again, however, first he worked as a car washer and salesman. “I didn’t like it at all, I might be a


good driver, but that is it. Working with 57


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