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Homebaker Amal Elhani never thought anyone would buy the traditional Lebanese ma’amoul she had so often handmade for friends and family over the past 38 years, since moving from Beirut to Sydney. But she was wrong. It turns out a lot of people were keen for the date-filled shortbread semolina cookies.

Within two weeks of launching Instagram account Smeed al Ma’amoul in March 2022, Elhani’s daughter Serena Tajjour received more than 2000 orders for the buttery biscuits, and the business has steadily grown since. This week, after demand outstripped the capacity of their home kitchen in Condell Park, the family opened their first cafe in Belmore.

At Smeed, Tajjour serves ma’amoul and kahweh (cardamon-spiced Lebanese coffee) in a small shop with scalloped green awnings and Lebanese artwork on Burwood Road. There’s a retail section with imported rose and orange blossom water, and merchandise designed by Tajjour (a graphic designer by trade).

“Ma’amoul is nostalgic, it reminds people of their mothers,” says Tajjour, who recounts fond memories of gathering around the kitchen table during Eid to make cookies with her family. Tajjour oversees most of the baking for the retail store but says her mum still makes ma’amoul sometimes, because it makes her heart happy.

“Mum and her friends are the face [of Smeed] because that what it’s all about, passing down traditions. They’re the ones who have been making [ma’amoul] by hand, putting their love into it.”

But not everything at Smeed adheres to tradition. Tajjour has taken the multi-generational family recipe and modernised it with fillings such as marshmallow and raspberry, Nutella and roasted hazelnut, and lotus and salted macadamia.

Smeed is one of Sydney’s growing number of modern Lebanese Australian businesses finding success over the past year. Newcomers, such as Concord diner Shareef’s Shawarma Social Club, pop-up kitchen Lebanese Cherry Pie and Merrylands restaurant Iftar, weave tradition with innovation to appeal to the next generation of diners.

Meanwhile, mother-daughter duo Sivine and Karima Hazim of popular Instagram account Sunday Kitchen launched their first recipe book, Sofra, off the back of their sold-out cooking classes held in Rosebery.

Established Lebanese businesses have also expanded their reach. Last year, Lebanese restaurant Al Aseel moved into its 11th venue, a 300-seater at Accor Stadium in Homebush; former Al Aseel co-owner Charles Obeid launched the third location for his upmarket restaurant Jbeil in Wetherill Park; and charcoal chicken chain El Jannah, which began in 1998 as a single store in Greenacre, is expected to make $300 million this financial year.

“In Lebanese families our parents expressed their love for us through food, and I think our generation is coming to appreciate those skills we’ve been taught and the ingredients we grew up with,” says Christiana Daaboul, founder of pop-up Lebanese bakery Ard.

Daaboul is part of the next generation of Lebanese Australian food entrepreneurs using traditional ingredients, including sumac, orange blossom water and pistachio to create beautiful custom cakes.

Lebanese Cherry Pie chef Leila Khazma says it’s about taking “timeless flavour profiles and age-old spices, flavours with so many stories built into them” and “reworking them slightly and putting them in a new setting they hadn’t been before in Sydney”.

“It used to be hard to find a good falafel sandwich or charcoal chicken in the city, but now there are places like Henrietta’s [Surry Hills’ charcoal chicken shop], [hatted Surry Hills restaurant] Nour and even Baba’s Place [in Marrickville], which uses Lebanese ingredients in a less explicit way.”

The Cherry Pie pop-up kitchen, co-founded with Lina MacGregor from hospitality production agency Buffet Digital, kicked off last year with a takeover at Cafe Freda’s in Darlinghurst, and has since had sellout events at venues across the inner west.

“We want to smash those stereotypes and bring Lebanese food into new spaces and make people look at it a different way,” says MacGregor.

“Food is storytelling and it’s wonderful to see a community trying to transform while still holding on to their immigrant history, using the food to tell stories of the past while paving the way for the future.”

The next generation of Lebanese Australian hospitality

Smeed, Belmore

At Smeed, owner Serena Tajjour sells ma’amoul (Lebanese shortbread semolina biscuits) made with her mum’s recipe, and says it’s a real labour of love. “It’s a big, big process,” she explains. “You have to wait for the dough to rest a few hours before you can work with it, and every piece is handmade and filled with something different.” Tajjour says everyone claims their mum makes the best ma’amoul but “one customer told us her mother stopped speaking to her after she said ours was better”.

422 Burwood Road, Belmore, instagram.com/smeed.almaamoul

Dayaa, Guildford

Justine Youssef and mother Siham have teamed up to launch Dayaa School and Kitchen, teaching family recipes from their home kitchen in Guildford. “I was raised to see food as a love language, a means of communication and a way to connect with our ancestors,” says Youssef. “The cooking school is a way of bringing energy to those traditions and keeping the recipes alive.” Together, they’re writing a cookbook to preserve hundreds of family recipes, and plan to pop up with a cooking class at Redfern’s Magenta House in March. Keep an eye on socials for further information.

dayaa.com.au

Iftar, Merrylands

“In terms of the combination of flavour, experience and feel, I honestly don’t think there’s anything like it in Sydney,” says Iftar owner Jeremy Agha regarding his restaurant’s food. The young restaurateur has reimagined Lebanese cuisine with dishes such as minty garlic yoghurt pasta with burnt butter, pine nuts and minced lamb, and a sausage sizzle with pomegranate molasses and fried onion.

Main Lane, Merrylands, instagram.com/iftarmerrylands

Lebanese Cherry Pie, various

Within three hours of popping up at Marrickville’s Village taproom, Lebanese Cherry Pie had sold out. The response to their menu (featuring bread with spiced fig butter, lamb skewers with cherry hot sauce, and blue mackerel) was “insane, incredible”, says co-founder Lina MacGregor. They’re at it again in March, at an undisclosed music venue in Marrickville. Keep an eye on social media for further announcements.

instagram.com/lebanesecherrypie

Ard, Sydney

Plant-based microbaker Christiana Daaboul draws on her Lebanese heritage to create custom-order cakes and baked goods for her pop-up stall, Ard. Over the past six months Ard has made regular appearances at The Rocks markets, where the menu has included baklava ice-cream sandwiches, anise tea fig cake and pistachio cookie buns. Daaboul says her next pop-up will be in May, but she’s taking online orders in the meantime through Instagram.

instagram.com/ardsydney_/