Today we bring to you a special spotlight episode about Lebanon.

I was in Beirut August 4th when the worlds 3rd biggest explosion happened - it killed more than 200 people, injured over 5,000 and 300,000 were made homeless. The collective loss is estimated between $10-15 billion.

The devastation of the blast compounded with a failing government and a collapsed economy is what makes this horrible incident even more catastrophic.

One of the ways I thought I could help is to bring you the story of how one of the most loved Lebanese restaurants in London came to be. I'm talking of course about Comptoir Libanais. When I contacted Tony Kitous, the founder, he was delighted to come on and chat with us.

Kitous brought Lebanese food to the masses with Comptoir Libanais. His vision was to make Lebanese food as popular as the Italians made pizza. In this episode you’ll learn of how an 18 year old moved to London from Algeria with nothing and worked the equivalent of 10 years in 4 to save enough money to open up his own restaurant. You’ll hear about how he built his empire but also what changes he had to make to save the company when they hit trouble a few years back.

Kitous has also written and released 4 cookbooks. In fact he has so kindly offered to donate 15 signed cookbooks to help raise money for Lebanon. If you are interested in buying a signed copy please email me carol.haidar@gmail.com or DM me on instagram -@yourtablesready.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/your-tables-ready.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.