Female Syrian refugee offers taste of homeland to royals and others in the Netherlands

Zina Abboud escaped the civil war with her three children and now serves specialties such as yabrak and ouzi to the Dutch

Zina Abboud conducted cooking sessions at Sharjah International Book Fair in 2021. Photo: Zina Abboud

“The kitchen is my kingdom,” says the spirited Zina Abboud, founder of Zina’s Kitchen, a catering business that specialises in Syrian cuisine in Amsterdam.

Abboud is beloved in the Netherlands for being the first female Syrian refugee to register her own business in the country. Her bright smile and vivacious personality mask any signs of the horrors she experienced on her journey from Aleppo to Amsterdam.

Abboud, a business studies graduate, was working as a sales manager in Aleppo when the civil war began in 2011. As the conflict escalated, she feared for the lives of her three children and fled Syria with them in 2013. After enduring a harrowing journey across Europe, she finally arriving in the Netherlands in 2015, where she was housed at an Amsterdam refugee centre.

To cope with the feelings of depression she was experiencing, Abboud began volunteering at the centre’s kitchen. “Cooking was a way for me to tell myself I’m still alive,” she tells The National.

To mark special occasions at the refugee centre, she led a team of volunteers and cooked for as many as 800 people. To this day, cooking remains therapeutic for Abboud. “When I’m tired or sad or stressed, I go to the kitchen,” she says. “Then I forget about everything.”

Abboud credits her culinary skills to her maternal grandmother, with whom she spent most of her summer vacations. “My grandmother is the best cook ever because she put a lot of love into her cooking,” she says. “I’ve learnt that from her.”

Soon after Abboud received her permit to stay in the Netherlands, she registered her own catering business – Zina’s Kitchen – in 2016, with the support and encouragement of her Dutch friends and well-wishers,

“My first big [catering] event was for the Dutch royal family,” she says with visible pride. She recalls meeting with Princess Beatrix, mother of the present king Willem-Alexander, at that dinner, as well as other members of the royal family. “After that event, I began to receive a lot of catering requests,” Abboud adds.

Since then, she has become an ambassador for Syrian cuisine in the Netherlands and has been feeding the Dutch with the specialities of her beloved home-country at parties, weddings, events and festivals.

In the early days of the business, Abboud would follow her grandmother and mother’s recipes to the tee. But these days, she has been experimenting to “add my own touch,” she says.

Abboud attributes this change in her cooking approach to the preferences of her Dutch clientele. After about nine years in the catering business, she knows their likes and dislikes. “The Dutch don’t like sour food, but some Syrian dishes have to be sour, otherwise they are not delicious,” explains Abboud. So she began to change the recipes little by little to temper the flavours. “The difficult part is retaining the original taste and still keeping it delicious,” she says.

Abboud’s favourite dish is yabrak – grape leaf stuffed with rice, minced lamb, Aleppo pepper and other spices – which needs to be cooked for eight hours on a very low fire. “It takes me nearly 12 hours to make and it’s usually gone in less than an hour,” she says with a hearty laugh.

With about 80 per cent of her clients ordering either a full vegetarian or vegan menu, Abboud offers a vegan version of yabrak called yalanji, replacing the meat with vegetables. “The Syrian kitchen is very rich,” says Abboud. “We can have a full vegan menu – the mezzes, the salads, the snacks and the warm food – all vegan, but very tasty,” she adds. “Our food can fit every taste and preference.”

The next milestone for Abboud was publishing of her book Mijn Syrische Keuken (My Syrian Kitchen) in early 2018. The elegantly designed title comprises 64 recipes, each with a personal story accompanying it.

“The part about Syrian spices includes a story about my father, who was a spice merchant. The aroma of spices from his jacket would fill the air when he returned home each evening,” Abboud recalls affectionately. The book was highly appreciated and even received praise from outgoing Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte.

Even during the difficult pandemic period, Abboud was determined to stay busy. With no gatherings and events allowed in Amsterdam, she offered online classes for those interested in learning Syrian cooking.

In 2021, Abboud was invited by Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, to participate in the Sharjah International Book Fair. Abboud conducted live cooking sessions alongside several other celebrity chefs for over a week. Her sessions were well-received and the organisers requested her to offer two more sessions than originally planned.

More recently, Abboud has been making an effort to expand her repertoire and learn different cuisines. “I now offer Turkish and Spanish dishes in my menu as well,” she says. Her team consists of eight regular staff with more hired for large events that can go up to 350 people.

Following the success of her first book, Abboud is putting together a second one, this one focusing on Syrian desserts.

She is excited about the future and has many dreams, including hosting a cooking show on a Dutch or Arabic TV channel, launching her own brand of herbs and spices, and starting an academy to teach Syrian cooking, among several others.

Statistics indicate that only one in 10 refugees in the Netherlands finds employment after getting residency. Female refugees in particular find it hard to become financially independent. By becoming the first female Syrian refugee to establish her own business in the Netherlands, Abboud has not only defied the odds, but also become a symbol of hope for others like her.

“A woman can do everything a man can do,” is her parting advice to her peers. “Don’t keep your beautiful ideas inside your mind. Show the world what you can do.”