FOR THE PURE LOVE OF FOOD
The Rabbaths are sharing the Lebanese dishes they grew up with
A TINY Lebanese bistro at Burleigh Heads was the light at the end of a long road for Patrick and Pascal Rabbath.
The brothers arrived in Canberra to escape the Lebanese civil war of 1975 and it wasn’t until 2009 that they made their way to the Gold Coast. Careers in technical engineering, then a tiny cafe at the back of a church were the final stepping stones to Rabbath. “The bistro was created as an extension of the love that goes into food,” Patrick says.
“We witnessed how much Mum and Dad had influenced people by coming to our home. They could taste the love.
“Doing something like this I had no idea how successful I was going to be in terms of communicating that love through the food, but when you see someone’s face transform into a smile and they say ‘My goodness you can taste the love,’ it feels like success.”
Unlike other cultural cuisines – Italian and Mexican spring to mind – Lebanese has not yet saturated the food market, so what are the distinctive elements first-timers can look out for?
“Lebanese food is known for its extensive use of lemon, garlic, green leafy herbs such as parsley and coriander, and earthy spices,” Patrick says.
“We have something called Lebanese seven spice, which is world renowned for mixing with lamb dishes to give it that nutty flavour.
“Then there’s tabouli, our refined Lebanese salad made with parsley and mint, and that’s a very big feature too.
“The other element is our meat. Lamb and chicken are the predominant meats and we do use a little bit of beef.”
Patrick says the depth of flavour is another feature of the fare. “It’s the amount of effort and time that goes into preparing it,” he says.
“It’s even like Indian cuisine, their attention to spices and grounding and flavours, Lebanese is very similar.
“It’s like a good wine – the longer you leave it in your mouth the longer the flavours explode and you think ‘Oh I can taste that, now this,’ the flavours keep developing.”
Patrick designed Rabbath’s menu to balance tradition with contemporary culture.
“After WWI there was a French mandate that defined the borders between Turkey, Lebanon and Syria and as a result there was a huge French influence in Lebanon ... that’s why there are some French words on our menu,” he says.
“What we did to modernise the cuisine is rather than creating huge individual dishes, we made them fun and user friendly. Smaller dishes to share, so two people might get the falafel, tabouli and some fresh flat bread that we make here. People can pick and choose how to eat.”