Inspiring story of a Syrian refugee mechanical engineer turned star chef.
Syria has been under devastating wars that have led several to be homeless. There are enormous number of refugees who found it utterly difficult to get themselves employed. Wareef Hameedo had a small restaurant in the city of Aleppo but it was bombed during the civil war. And this led him to move from Syria to Turkey. And thankfully, some good came out of it.
Mechanical Engineer Turned Star Chef (Source: AJ+)
He stayed in Turkey for a few days and then he moved to Egypt. Unfortunately he had to live there without an income for nearly eight months. Think how difficult that might have been. But against all odds he chose to live in Gaza and it immediately felt like home to him.
Mechanical Engineer Turned Star Chef (Source: Dalia Mortada)
He had a degree in mechanical engineering, he is a mechanical engineer by profession. But he did not have the heart for it at all. He wanted to do something creative out of his life. He was just bent on becoming a chef and pursued his dream eventually. He found that the place that he had ran off to had no creativity in cooking and there were only few places that cooked some non-conventional dishes. This is when Wareef thought he might have a chance to make it big especially when the food is Syrian oriented. The people of Arab fell head over heels in love with Syrian food. He started experimenting with the ingredients and even with the national dish and everybody just loved it.
Mechanical Engineer Turned Star Chef (Source: Reuters via Haaretz)
Fans started pouring in demanding him to create other Syrian dishes. He became really famous and that is when he was invited to host a cooking show which was broadcasted during the month of Ramadan.
He named his restaurant Soriana which basically means “Our Syria”.
He is a proof of the fact that a struggle never goes in vain
