Reem Assil at Feast Portland

Dana Cowin welcomes Oakland baker/chef Reem Assil to the StreamPDX trailer to talk about her amazing journey from community and labor organizer to owner of Food + Wine’s Best Restaurant of the Year 2018. They discuss some of Reem’s signature street food dishes, Arab hospitality and why “revolutions are born in cafes and bakeries.”

Reem Assil is the owner of Reem’s California – Food & Wine‘s Best Restaurant of the Year 2018 – a tribute to Arab street-corner bakeries and the vibrant communities that surround them. She is also owner and Chef of Dyafa, a fine dining restaurant that celebrates the breadth and depth of Arab culture and cuisine. Reem’s restaurants are inspired by her Palestinian-Syrian upbringing surrounded by aromas and tastes of food from the homeland and the connections they evoked of her heritage, family, and community. Before dedicating herself to a culinary career, Reem worked for a decade as a community and labor organizer, and is dedicated to social justice as a core value of her businesses. She has worked with Bay Area’s esteemed cooperative bakery Arizmendi Bakery & Pizzeria, Grace Street Catering, Penelope Bar & Lounge, and several other local Bay Area chefs. Reem was a James Beard Award nominee for Best Chef: West 2018 and San Francisco Chronicle’s Rising Star Chef 2017.

Thanks to our engineer, Aaron Parecki of Stream PDX.

Music by Breakmaster Cylinder

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