Tanoreen: Palestinian Home Cooking in Brooklyn; A new and extended edition of Olives, Lemons, and Za'atar

by Rawia Bishara, Peter Cassidy (Photographer)

Overview

Recipes from the iconic Brooklyn restaurant.

It has been 10 years since the publication of the beloved cookbook, Olives, Lemons and Za’atar by Rawia Bishara, chef and owner of the iconic Brooklyn restaurant Tanoreen. In this new extended edition Rawia shares the flavors of her Palestinian childhood in Nazareth—with recipes passed down from her mother and recreated with Rawia’s creative flair, as well as dishes influenced from summers spent in Spain, and from living and cooking in the historically Italian neighborhood of Bay Ridge.

The result is a sensational cross-cultural mix and gives you everything you need—pickles, yogurt, bread, mezze, salads, stews, desserts, and more—to enjoy the best of Middle Eastern home cooking and share in the most convivial Arab hospitality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623716301
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/08/2025
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.75(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rawia Bishara opened the restaurant Tanoreen in 1998 as a way to share with the world the rich culinary heritage of her native Nazareth. Located in Brooklyn, New York, Tanoreen has received praise from publications that include The New York Times, The New Yorker, Travel & Leisure, and the Michelin Guide. In 2017, Rawia was nominated for the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef, New York City. She is also author of Levant: New Middle Eastern Cooking from Tanoreen.

Peter Cassidy is an experienced food and lifestyle photographer based in london. Shooting advertising, packaging and editorial commissions both in the studio and on location, his clients include Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Asda, Dairy Crest, Baxter's, Tilda Bloomsbury, Quadrille Publishing, Kyle Books and RPS. He has also shot for Harrods Magazine, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Red, Food & Travel, Good Food, Olive and Delicious magazines.

Editorial Reviews

Bishara's cooking combines Middle Eastern techniques with Mediterranean flavors. But she takes cues from other cuisines, too. An eggplant napoleon is an ode to its principal ingredient, as well as an inspired marriage of textures: layers of feathery fried eggplant rest daintily between smears of baba ghanoush. Musakhan—flatbread topped with sumac-spiced chicken, slow-cooked onions, and almond slivers piled high, and sliced like a pizza—is a near-perfect harmony of sweetness and pungency.

Katherine Stirling

When Tanoreen, one of New York’s best and longest-running Middle Eastern restaurants, opened in 1998 in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, none of Rawia Bishara’s customers had heard of za’atar or dukkah; cumin was still exotic. Ms. Bishara’s new book, Olives, Lemons and Za’atar, charts the evolution of her cooking from strictly traditional to personal.

Julia Moskin The New York Times

Everything about Ms. Bishara's evocative new book made me want to run to the kitchen or get on a plane and wander in the Old City. Instead, my family and I hopped in our car and drove to Ms. Bishara's acclaimed restaurant, Tanoreen, located in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. All praise bestowed upon it by my colleagues rang true about the excellent, sometimes transcendent, food Ms. Bishara serves.

Rozanne Gold The Huffington Post

I have long been a fan of Tanoreen, Rawia Bishara’s Palestinian restaurant tucked away in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where her inventive mezze, like fried Brussels sprouts drizzled with fresh tahini and pomegranate seeds and eggplant napoleons slathered in babaganoush cream, make the forty-five minute trek from Manhattan well worthwhile. So, I was thrilled when I finally got my hands on her cookbook, and the secrets behind the delectable dishes I’d eaten at her restaurant. The recipes for my favorites turned out to be shockingly easy, 5-ingredient affairs, and as I flipped through the pages of mouthwatering photographs and lovely asides about local culinary folklore and her own food memories, I also discovered simplified recipes for many Palestinian classics. For example, her recipe for Musakhan, a complicated festival dish of sumac-rubbed roast chicken served on rounds of fresh-baked taboon bread, is transformed from weekend project to weeknight meal with a simple pizza-like flatbread recipe and smart substitutions like quick sautéed boneless chicken breast. Bishara’s modern, approachable take on classic Palestinian food makes Olives, Lemons, & Za’atar a book I’m glad to have on my shelf as a source for doable, exciting dishes and tried and true favorites that I will be reaching for again and again.

Felicia Campbell

I know it sounds over the top to say a recipe was life-changing, but Eggs with Za'atar? Life-changing. You see, I often find eggs totally unappetizing yet force myself to eat them because they give me energy. Choking down eggs is not fun and I've really been struggling with breakfast lately. But as soon as I tasted these eggs, I wanted seconds. I think about them all the time! The recipe is basically eggs in a basket topped with savory za'atar and tangy sumac—so simple yet so flavorful. Eggs with Za'atar captures what I like most about the cookbook: the easy ways that everyday, home-cooked ingredients can be transformed with a sprinkle of herbs, spices, and Middle Eastern condiments. Roasted cauliflower is dressed up with tahini and pomegranate molasses. Sautéed kale gets an aromatic hit of coriander and cumin. Boiled beets become exciting with pesto and fresh herbs. Za'atar, sumac, pomegranate molasses—these are things I already had in my pantry and it was fun to discover new ways to use them. With its focus on home cooking, the scope of this book goes much deeper than typical Middle Eastern restaurant fare in the US. I really appreciated Bishara's approach, which is not “rigidly authentic” but rather defined by 'creative flourishes.' The recipes in her book honor tradition while keeping things fresh. As a result Olives, Lemons & Za'atar may be useful to a range of cooks who are more or less familiar with Middle Eastern cuisine, looking for classics as well as new inspiration.

TheKitchn.com

The Best Food Books of 2014 - More Mediterranean cooking you’ll want to use, particularly if you’re one of Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem and Plenty adherents (and who isn’t), is Olives, Lemons & Za'atar: The Best Middle Eastern Home Cooking by Rawia Bishara, the chef-owner of Tanoreen, a Palestinian-themed cult Brooklyn restaurant. She adds spice to what her mother in Nazareth already used, so you’ll use more of the sumac, thyme, rosemary, sweet and hot peppers Ottolenghi accustomed you to, and of course, and za'atar, the blend of oregano, sesame seeds, and sumac that varies cook to cook. Start with eggs and za’atar, which has already transformed many readers’ breakfasts.

Corby Kummer The Atlantic

Ms. Bishara's translation of Middle Eastern cooking has Mediterranean accents, and occasional North American ones from her decades in the United States. And so the tang of cilantro enlivens some of her dishes, and the musk of basil, the welcome zing of jalapeño.

Sam Sifton