donald trump: i'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical islamic terroris out of the united states of america. we don't want 'em here. lara kiswani: there's a stigma of arab people, muslim people in this country designed to perpetuate and justify the war on terror, and that's what a lot of arabs and muslims are facing today, sort of a really undignified struggle to just live. dr. ramzi salti: it takes courage to be able to stand up to racism, turn it into a positive moment a moment of learning where you actually use that moment to educate, to let people know about the rich diversity of your culture. lamees dahbour: we want our

community, like, san francisco bay area, to understand that there is a tradition of authentic palestinian dishes that nobody knows about it. like musakhan,ike maqloubeh. reem assil: my hope is that when people walk into the reem's space and they experience our food and they experience the hospitality that surrounds our food maybe something shifts. we're creating some alchemy in people's consciousness that when they walk out the door they're just a little bit different in the way that they relate to the world. salti: arab americans post 9/11 started feeling singled out, started feeling different, started feeling shunned, ostracized. it changed the whole idea, the whole

experience of being an arab in america. kiswani: it was actually physically dangerous to be seen or understood as an arab walking through the streets of anywhere in the u.s. there were hate crimes happening all over the country. assil: there was a time in my life in which i felt like maybe my life was at stake being outspoken about my arab identity. i really wanted to educate people, but i didn't know how to find my voice. i feel like i lost it. for me, the backlash against me being palestinian led to a deeper calling. kiswani: i remember in that while she was a leader at aroc she talked about wanting to shift from paid work as an organizer to actually getting paid to doaking. assil: originally, i just wanted to put arabs on the map. i thought my palestinian activism was here on the side, i'm always gonna fight for palestine, and here's my food activism. it's about the culture, it's about the arab world, and little did i know that actuly those two things are very connected. the simple act of claiming foods, calling

them palestinian, celebrating them, telling the stories behind them--they're political. kiswani: it was amazing to see the shift in sort of her energy where she'd be on the streets mobilizing people, inspiring people to fight for their lives and dignity, and then to be in the kitchen and be so, like, scientific. so it's not that far-fetched to take the science of organizing and politics into the kitchen. assil: as i started to get more and more into studying the food of my people, i discovered all these amazing techniques. i wanted to mainstream the concept of arab street food. we've been part of the cultural fabric of this country for so long, but because of the anti-arab and xenophobic sentiment, we've never been able to sort of mainstream. leticia landa: i think that activism and fd are connected in reem's business in the same way that they're connected, like, in reem's soul. when she decided to, like, go out on her own, she wanted to do it in the

right way and in a way that really spoke to her values and spoke to her history. assil: what la cocina gave me again was a sense of purpose. i was doing everything in my business, and i was making no money, and it was the poorest i had ever been, and i didn't know if i could sustain it. landa: la cocina is a business incubator, and we work with low-income food entrepreneurs with the goal that people will be able to become economically self-sufficient. assil: being with other immigrant women, who had less resources than i did and were able to make a living for themselves and their family, it was inspiring to me. it made me--it gave me hope that i could keep going. landa: reem, you know, at her application, like, made the most incredible breads. really had such a refined vision for what she wanted too. kiswani: she had the longest line at any farmer's market she was in. it's like a tourist destination for them. "i'm going get a man'oushe in san francisco or in oakland." sooner or later, it just spread

like wildfire. assil: there you go. enjoy. woman: it's hard to find. i miss it so much. assil: oh, yeah. i think the man'oushe is the gateway food. ha ha ha! it's something super accessible. it's the gateway to learn something a little bit different. salti: the man'oushe to the arabs is like a little piece of heaven. assil: this is ubiquitously, like, the thing that you see all over from lebanon to syria to palestine to jordan. it's the lifeline of street food in that region. landa: she really wanted to show us, like, exactly what this bread tastes like and is like in the middle east. she had a special saj made so that she could properly make the man'oushe. assil: it's convex so that when you slap the bread on you sort of get that nice char crisp, like, similar to what you would taste on a pizza. the main component of this bread is the

za'atar, which is an herb found all over the fertile crescent. it tells the story of my peoples from palestine all the way up to damascus. we blend it up with olive oil, which is to the palestinians a very important thing but also a very important ingredient in california. so finding the commonalities between the region where my family's from and the region now that i call home and blending those two kind of creates this man'oushe a la reem style. mmm. ha ha ha! mmm. tastes like home. [lamees speaking arabic]

lamees: i was 13 years old when i start to cook for the family. i got this chance when my mom she got admitted to the hospital for a c-section. i have 5 sisters and 4 brothers plus my dad plus my uncle. he was living also with us in kuwait. oh, my god! it waan amazing opportunity. i was, like, able to do whatever i want inside the kitchen, produce whatever i want, and feed the family whatever i want. lupe gomez: so my office is really close to her wdow, and every once in a whe, i'd get a whiff. i would smell a bunch of spices, spices that i wasn't used to. i would call her, and i'm like, "you need to stop. it's, like, around lunchtime, and i'm really hungry. yeah. i can't concentrate," and so she would bring me down a little something. i just immediately

fell in love with her food. heh. lamees: it is really tough to be a single mom. in the beginning, all my kids, they failed in school. i lost my job. i wasn't able to pay the rent. gomez: she had thought that she wanted maybe to open up her own restaurant. she--there's no way it was even on her radar. she felt like it was a dream. especially in san francisco she felt like it was impossible. i told her about this organization called la cocina--"they can help you find your own dream." landa: when i first met lamees, she was really shy and, i think, just really kind of nervous about the idea of doing something for herself. lamees: i never, ever thought i'm gonna rua food business. landa: she was a single mother, she'd gone through a divorce, and i think that in arab culture, you know, that was really challenging for her very

devout traditional muslim family. salti: it takes a lot of courage for an arab woman to get a divorce, to declare her independence, to go against the family unit. she has to be able to survive, and she has to have that determination within herself. lamees: husbands, they--they do not like me because i'm giving green light for every single woman to ask for her freedom and her rights to open her mouth and speak. landa: the different challenges that she's had in her life starting with, like, the persian gulf war, hearing the bombing. she would at night dream about fish and, like, all of the different ways that you can cook fish. that's what would help her fall asleep is, like, just thinking of all the different preparations for

fish, and then, you know, the same thing when she was in jordan. when she was in a really abusive marriage, she would just go to the kitchen and cook. lamees: there is a mystery between me and the kitchen and food and cooking. it's something inside my heart from the lord that i love to cook. landa: i think for her it's really kind of, like, a primal thing, food and cooking and part of what helps her survive. kiswani: wheneem's first ened i doors, didn't start out with us just being able to come together, enjoy a man'oushe, be in communi. it was a little more difficult than that. assil: i woke up one morning, and our yelp account had 700 one-star reviews. people from all over the world were trying to attack my bakery. another

time in my life where when i assert my identity i have to be scared again. woman: we are nostanding around and letting this hate take over. different woman: do not. do not patron this cafe, please. this is horrible. man: i can't be 5 enemies of something. kiswani: on a regular basis, racists started to come show up at her business and try to disrupt people from coming in. woman: ...this hate take over. reporter: protesters are calling on an east bay bakery to take down a mural. kiswani: she had a mural of rasmea odeh, an elderly palestinian refugee woman who was a political prisoner. assil: i wanted something that represented a vision of strength. i want an elder. i want a woman. i want her to be arab. kiswani: she was imprisoned by the state of israel, was forced into a confession. their point of contention is that of course because she's a political prisoner, she's a terroris after about 20 years of being here in the united states, the

federal government decided to target her. assil: she was sentenced to deportation. we knew that clearly the government wanted to make an example out of her and to scare other palestinian activists like myself from being outspoken about our palestinian identity. salti: there was a movement that sought to countera islamophobia, and it sort of came about at the same time that reem was facing some of these demonstrations and some of these threats. oakland continues to be sort of a cradle for civil rights. kiswani: reem's was under attack, reem's team was under attack. the model and the values that reem's was built on was under attack, and so we formed a rapid response network of people, our allies, other communities we work with, and people naturally just stepped up without hesitation, and we drowned out the voices of the racists, and you'll see reem

right there joining us as she took part in the dabka dancing as a way to just say, "we're here, we're here to stay, and we're gonna continue to fight for our people, and we're not gonna be scared off by racists, and we will always cebrate who we are." assil: i can't even explain how it felt when we had people, i mean, lines around the door of people having our back. they were coming to reem's, they were doing eat-ins. salti: this was a moment that was really something to see how people rallied around her, and those weren't necessarily all arab americans. kiswani: we really put into practice the values of community defense in this political moment, and we did it knowing that if we were able to support reem's and set the precedent there that we could do it elsewhere. creating spaces for all communities to feel protected and safe. assil: i wanted to put her there to say, "i'm not scared," and even in times that i'm scared, i wanted someone to be up there to say, "you n't

have to be scared." salti: when you're faced with racism, it's really important that you break the stigma by putting forth a different narrative, a different image of yourself, an image that is authentic to you but that is so often dismissed. landa: just in this last year, reem was featured in the "new york times," one of the 10 best new restaurants in "food & wine" magazine, and she was nominated for a james beard award. i mean, just to have that much recognition of a bakery in fruitvale is both, you know, a testament to how incredible that food is but also to how incredible and how powerful she is. assil: i'd much rather have a history of struggle than to not have it. i would not trade being palestinian for a heartbeat because that's how i found my path. i'm choosing to lead with being sort of controversial, so to speak, and to say the things that maybe i was scared to say 10 years ago.

lamees: can you check... [speaking arabic] this is the most famous dish in palestine. when you hear t word musakhan, you'll understand that this dish is from palestine. zyad dahbour: that goes back to my great-great-great grandma, the same spices are being used, the same cooking method. it was all just passed down from my palestinian roots. lamees: i don't know. like. in arabic way, we love to force people. even if you're full, you have to eat, whether you like it or not. you're gonna eat, you're gonna eat. it's a habit, it's a culture, it's a nature, you know. leave the portions to me. i'll take care of you. blake kutner: we have a lot of family businesses here at la cocina. lamees' might be the familiest of the family. [lamees speaking arabic]

kutner: two sons, a daughter, a sister, a brother, sometimes another sister, another brother. this is an entire family working together on one project on a daily basis. zyad: my mom works really hard. like, honest to god, the amount of work she does, i couldn't accomplish it myself. lamees: in my business plan, i'm planning to pass this business down to my kids. this guy is planning to be a doctor, but i told him that doesn't mean you can't own a company, so hopefully one day we reach our goal. zyad: i have been working with my mom for such a long time that i can actually go ahead and dabble in these recipes and things like that, trying to re-create the same flavors as my mom. i want to do what my mom always does, which is share her experiences through food. landa: in addition to the fact that they're cooking, they're also doing the books, they're also thinking about the next catering job, they're sending invoices. when you're a small business owner, you're wearing

every single hat. when people cook food in our kitchen, they have to pack all that food. [lamees speaking arabic] lamees: we have to go. i'm leaving. landa: they have to load into a car. [lamees speaking arabic] zyad: ok. landa: and drive it to wherever they're selling. then they have to unload everything again. then they basically have to set up a kitchen where they're going to heat the food and serve it. woman: come get your chicken shwarma, chicken shwarma. landa: it's backbreaking. lamees: 34. woman: thank you. landa: it's the work that you have to do in order to get to a place where you can have your own space. zyad: 72, your order is up. falafel wrap. lamees: sometimes when i feed people, they said, "what flag is this?" and we tell them this is palestine flag. they said,

"what is palestine?" salti: when the u.s. is one of those countries that does not recognize any kind of palestine or state of palestine, it poses a feeling of being erased from the map altogether. lamees: this is our hummus dip with a fried pita bread, and the other one is mutabbel, which is the baba ghanoush. people, they ask what is mutabbel? and then we explain it that mutabbel is baba ghanoush, but i insist to serve my customer the right thing from palestine. everyone has to get start knowing what's palestinian food. they're gonna love it, don't worry. and so it's giving us a chance to introduce my country. it's my homeland. it's my culture. it's my food. it's my peace i'm bringing to the world. [train whistle blowing]

assil: i had connected with the alta group, which is a group of daniel patterson, who's a michelin star chef. i pitched the idea of arab hospitality, the cuisine of the levant, where my family is from--syrian, palestinian, lebanese, and jordanian cuisine--in a fine dining setting. this is samaka harra, which means spicy fish in arabic. on every arab table, you can't go without a whole roasted fish. we're right here on the waterfront in oakland, and so we wanted to use pacific ocean fish, so this is a rock cod fish. daniel patterson: she had this kind of emotional intensity that jumps off the plate, which i think very, very few chefs have. so, like, the second i went to her restaurant and i

started eating, i'm like, "ok. this is awesome. i really want to work with you." assil: daniel has really built a name for himself and has found kind of similar to m path of a calling through his work, which is to level the playing field of systematic racism that has happened in the industry. patterson: i think the more places that you ve that ar focused on a sense of healing and a sense of outrch and a sense of openness, i mean, that just ripples through the community, changes everything. kiswani: reem opening up another restaurant in even a more prime location... ass: 1, 2, 3. kiswani: i'm not sure what it means, but i know how it's seen for us as a community. you can be uncompromising, you can hold onto your values, you can hold onto yourself and what you stand for, and you can still be successful. patterson: wow! that's really interesting, and then when you

put it back in it, crisps up a little bit? assil: this part crisps up. yeah. daniel patterson: wow. this is super cool. assil: fire a labneh muhammara. fire a lamb shank and maklouba. bar 6. i really wanted to show that our cuisine is not just falafel and shwarma. fire a seasonal. two seasonal all day. that our cuisine is very sophisticated, it's playful, it tells the story of all the travelers that have come through the region. this is zidbiyit gambari, and it's a traditional shrimp dish most often eaten in gaza where my mom is from. we wanted to kind of really elevate that sort of rich tomato broth with the stew, cook it down until it's nice and thick, so then you get all those flavors that are even more defined. our food has been homogenized to one-dimensional, and it's so

much more than one dimensional, so at dyafa, we really want to elevate that. maklouba is a traditional palestinian dish. it literally means flipped upside down in arabic, and every village you go to, people have their own take on it. that's what's so cool about it. we make it as a vegetarian dish, and so we use it as an opportunity to showcase all the different seasonal vegetables in california. it's a quintessentially palestinian dish from the west bank all the way to gaza. it's the thing that unifies us. salti: the success of dyafa, i think, is going to instill a sense of pride within a new generation of palestinian americans who may have found that their cuisine and their culture has been underrepresented. assil: all right. we have the musakhan here. this is the chicken confit palestinian style, and the maklouba, which

is a festive rice dish. salti: i think it's sending a message that we can have fine dining that is able to stand up to our world standards in terms of its culinary values. kiswani: she's gone through so much in her life, andvery time she goethrough anything, she comes out that much more committed to her people, to her community, to her culture, and to hersf, right, to being her full self. it's a good reminder for folks who feel oftentimes that they're too scared to take those risks. it's much easier to ce in, and reem's didn't and that's why people are paying attention. landa: without further ado, i want to introduce reem assil, who is goi to be our opening speaker. [applause] assil: it's kind of amazing and surreal to be here as a keynote. when i joined the la cocina program, i remember my husband telling me "one day, that's going to be you up there." salti: reem became emblematic

of a larger struggle, one against oppression, one against being silenced, one against sexism. assil: i often ask myself "what is my role as a food business activist? what roldo i have in brehing life into places that i feelike life has been depleted? what would happen if we could create space where marginalized communities could actually feel at ease?" it's creating a space for healing and growth, and we do it through food. salti: i don't think it would have been possible for second-generation palestinians to be able to express themselves freely were it not for that first generation that came here, that sacrificed. the first generation is crucial in terms of being that bridge. gomez: in thinking about lamees, it's really impacted me. how is it possible that you have a food business but you're still a part of each one of your children's daily lives? it's very motivating.

lamees: my son, he got accepted to the ucsf to work with them. zyad: it's my dream. lamees: another doctor, another doctor! congratulations! zyad: thank you. lamees: that's good news! landa: lamees really has changed. like, i wouldn't describe her as shy now. she's always talking about her business, and she's always handing out her menus and her business cards, and she feels so proud. lamees: if i love you, i choose this dish to serve you. if i respect you, i serve you this dish. traditional dish, the mansaf finally. man: absolutely. thank you. lamees: enjoy it. man: looks amazing. lamees: enjoy it. i'm praying that as a family to own a commercial kitchen this is my heaven. zyad: i would love this catering company to flourish. i want it to grow. i want us to have, like, restaurants down the whole coast. assil: on a day to day, black and brown communities are

suffering at the hands of white suemacy, at the hands of patriarchy, but they continue to live in dignity, to work hard to share their food, to hare their culture, and so i hope as we transition to a more just economy, we can hear those voices and make space for those voices. thank you. [applause]

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