Reem Assil, Arabiyya
Saturday, August 27, 2022, 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm
Stop by the Foodwise Classroom for a cooking demo featuring the seasonal bounty of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, followed by a book signing hosted by Book Passage at their shop inside the Ferry Building Marketplace.
Reem Assil is a Palestinian-Syrian chef based in Oakland, California, and owner of Reem’s California, a nationally acclaimed restaurant in Oakland and Reem’s California Mission in San Francisco, inspired by Arab street corner bakeries and the vibrant communities that surround them. Reem has garnered an array of top accolades in the culinary world, including back to back James Beard Semifinalist nods for Best Chef: West (2018-19) and Outstanding Chef (2022). She is a graduate of the competitive food business incubator program, La Cocina, business leadership program Centro Community Partners, and Oakland-based business accelerator program ICA: Fund Good Jobs.
Before dedicating herself to a culinary career, Reem spent over a decade as a community and labor organizer, building leadership in workers and residents to fight for living wages, affordable housing, and a voice in their jobs and their neighborhoods. Reem was a 2021 Emerson Collective Fellow in the Recover & Renew Cohort to incubate Sumoud, a replicable worker-ownership apprenticeship program equipping food-service workers with the tools they need to make meaningful, systemic change in the restaurant industry and beyond.
Reem’s newest book, Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora, is a collection of 100+ bright, bold recipes influenced by the vibrant flavors and convivial culture of the Arab world, filled with moving personal essays on food, family, and identity and mixed with a pinch of California cool.
All demos take place in the Foodwise Classroom (under the tents in front of the Ferry Building) and are free to the public, with recipes and samples for all.