William Leece discovers the Bluecoat team getting to grips with Middle Eastern cookery

BEN HOUGH is a man on a rapidly rising learning curve. As the acting head chef at the Bluecoat, in Liverpool city centre, he will be part of the team laying on the catering for the Arabic Arts Festival’s Arabic Weekender, starting on Friday.

All sorts of Arabic and Middle Eastern delights are promised, from the familiar hoummous and stuffed vine leaves to the intriguing potato harra and chicken tawook.

The trademark of a modern chef is his versatility, but Ben has not been afraid to look for advice from wherever he can get it.

“Fortunately, a friend of mine lives and works in Bahrain, so he’s given me as much advice as he possibly can, and many of the recipes are quite generic in style.”

And there’s even more expertise closer at hand. Liverpool’s Arabic population is mainly Yemeni in background, and there are the beginnings of a thriving restaurant community in the city.

Finoon Saleh is typical, born to Yemeni parents, yet as much Liverpudlian as she is Arabic, and co-ordinator of the Arabic Weekend.

“My mum said that when she first came in, you couldn’t even get halal meat. You’d have to travel far to get spices and things, yet now everything’s so readily available.”

Previous dining events connected with the Arabic Arts Festival have been held at the Palm House, in Sefton Park, but this year the Festival is largely based around the Bluecoat, before a big relaunch as a stand-alone event next year.

Hence the teamwork between Arabic cooks and the Bluecoat’s own chefs to keep the food on offer this weekend as authentic as it possibly can be.

“Just on Lodge Lane, in Toxteth, there’s about six different Middle Eastern restaurants,” explains Finoon. “Now you can get all the spices and all the meat just as if you were in Yemen; you don’t miss out on anything.”

Arabic and Middle Eastern food is famed for the delicacy of its spices, and should not come as too much of a culture shock to those used to dining out at Greek restaurants in Liverpool.

Greece was part of the Islamic Ottoman Empire until the mid-19th century, which also took in vast tracts of the Arabic world.

The Ottomans left their very distinctive stamp on Greek cooking, and even now some restaurants branded as Greek are actually run by exiles from neighbouring countries like Lebanon, Syria and Turkey.

“I think the way in which it is different from other foods is that it’s so many things at once,” says Finoon.

“You wouldn’t just have one course on its own, you’d have a plate of olives, salad, meat, all served at once.

“That’s as opposed to a western meal where, for example, you have a starter on its own, then move on.

“There’s a kind of focus to the meat, too, mainly chicken and lamb, and there’s quite a lot of sweet and savoury mixes as well, like the baklava sweets with the nuts and the honey.”