By Paula Pyzik Scott
Creator of a Michelin-starred restaurant. World traveler who has researched the cuisines of the Middle East and North Africa. Entrepreneur from Ada, Ohio. That’s Rose Previte, daughter of Jeanne and Peter Previte.
Rose is making news these days with her first cookbook, Maydān: Recipes from Lebanon and Beyond. Having established three restaurants in the Washington D.C. area, she is now sharing favorite recipes with home cooks. Her recent book tour included stops on network news as well as at Greenhorn restaurant in Bluffton.
If you’ve enjoyed Peter’s Italian and chicken-feta sausage from the Bluffton Farmers Market or the international dishes featured at Jeanne’s Kitchen, a turn through the pages of Maydān is a natural next step.
The cover welcomes the reader-cook with a sample tray: hummus, grilled carrots, tabbouleh, kebabs. The introduction tells Rose’s story including how Lebanese and Sicilian family food traditions as well as visits to restaurants and home kitchens in more than 30 countries shaped her food knowledge and interests.
It’s interesting to discover that Rose didn’t approach this career directly. She earned a masters degree in public policy but when her husband David Greene was assigned to an National Public Radio post in Russia, she was not allowed to work there. An extremely long trans-Siberian train trip provided many hours for soul searching. When the couple returned to D.C. in 2014, she proceeded to open her first restaurant, Compass Rose.
The recipes in Maydān may have unfamiliar names, but on closer inspection they have enticing yet familiar ingredients. Batata Harra are Lebanese Spicy Potatoes. Khachapuri–a signature dish from Compass Rose–is a Georgian cheese bread with mozzarella, feta, ricotta and egg. As Previte points out in the recipe for Tomato Cucumber Salad, this is a popular combination in many countries and there are many different ways to make it.
Herbs and spices are key to creating the dishes in this cookbook. Basil, cilantro, dill, garlic, lemon, parsley and mint are among the fresh seasonings that repeat in the recipes. Spices including allspice, cinnamon, mint, paprika, parsley, sumac (a lemony dried and ground berry), turmeric and za’atar are dried ingredients used frequently.
For a preview of the book and a sampling of Rose’s interviews and media coverage, visit her Instagram page. It includes a video showing how she makes Koosa (squash stuffed with lamb) using what she calls “grandma methods.”
A long format interview with Previte recently appeared on the NPR program Fresh Air, HERE.
