Sam Wehbe

What type of food doyou serve?

Traditional Lebanese cuisine, but it’s really authentic Lebanese food with lots of fresh dips and really healthy grills.

How long have youbeen a chef?

About 10 years, off and on.

Where did you learnto cook?

In Lebanon. I worked in a number of restaurants when I was younger. We opened this restaurant just over a year ago.

What is your specialty?

I suppose we’re best-known for our 100 per cent authentic shish tawook (grilled chicken skewers) and our shish kebab (grilled lamb skewers, but our hummus (chick pea dip), baba ghanouj (grilled eggplant dip) and tabbouleh (spicy salad) are also very good – they are all made by hand every day.

Where do you source your ingredients?

Sydney Markets at Flemington are only five minutes’ away, so a lot of our ingredients come from there. We use a lot of spices – these come from Sydney Spice in Punchbowl. Our meat is from Happy Family Butcher [Burwood] which supplies really tender meats.

What is your signature dish?

Our mixed plate, which contains char grilled lamb or chicken, tabbouleh, falafel, pitta bread and various dips. We also do a vegetarian mixed plate which is very popular.

LEBANESE CHAR-GRILLED LAMB