Neyla's chef celebrates the good life 

Abdel Hash Housh could be a poster child for the American dream. The Lebanese chef of Neyla, tucked away on N Street just off Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, is in love with the United States and the opportunities he has found here.

“How beautiful it is!” he enthuses. “We have freedom to work for ourselves. We have education.”

It’s the schooling he has received in America that he believes is his greatest gift. When Hash Housh arrived in Washington 10 years ago, he was unable to read or write. Growing up in Lebanon with five brothers and four sisters, he didn’t get the chance to go to school, a privilege that went only to his oldest brother. From as early as he can remember, Hash Housh went to work with his father, a chef. And at 15 he went into the army. But In Washington he discovered the Washington Literacy Council on 18th Street, and caught up on his missed education two mornings a week before coming in to work. “School! It is the best thing I had in my life!” he says.

His English is sometimes halting, but he is justly proud of his grasp and where he came by it. “First school is here,” he emphasizes. “I learn to read here.” He adores his two teachers, calling one of them “a big gift from God. She took me from the floor to up. Go see my school,” he urges. “You will feel what I am talking about. The first day I was in the class, 12 Americans sit with me at big table. I think, all these Americans, they are teachers. But this is people like me exactly! They speak but don’t read and write.”

Once Hash Housh was demobilized, he followed his father into the culinary world, joining the first and largest catering company in the Middle East. Then he moved on to the Royal Abjar Hotel in Dubai, working on every aspect of food from gourmet cuisine to weddings. He also cooked dishes to be photographed. “Everything I learn, I learn from life,” he says.

A little over ten years ago a family friend urged him to seek his fortune in the United States. Now, he boasts, “I am DC boy.” He went to work for José Andrés, who was opening Zaytinya, and stayed there for four years. Then came his move to Neyla. The cuisine at his restaurant, which calls itself “Neyla, A Mediterranean Grill,” is similar in style to Zaytinya’s, with mezze dishes like hummus, kibbe and tabbouleh, kebabs and soujouk sausages off the grill, and ingredients like Halloumi cheese, labneh yogurt, cilantro and spicy harissa paste.

But Hash Housh likes to take a sideways step from the traditional application of some of them. “I put a little hummus with a little steak — good meat, good sauce. Every country love to mix culture.”

He admires the Middle Eastern approach to food. “Back home, we eat family style together at the same time at the same big table. We need this. What we eat, it depend on what ingredient we have. Fava beans and a little meat one day. Then one day, more vegetables and not so much meat. It’s more important to be healthy than how much we can be rich.”

His mother was always cooking — to eat or to preserve. During the tomato season, she would buy bushels of them to sun dry or turn into tomato paste and sauces. Hash Housh remembers with a wistful smile her stuffed eggs and her walnuts marinated in olive oil.

He says his guests are adventurous eaters. “This is the good thing in America — people like to try. If you don’t try, you don’t know.” He prefers to describe diners as “guests.” “I don’t like to say customers. They are guests when they come to you.” On request, he will give cooking lessons at the restaurant. “I love to teach and I love to learn at the same time.”

Hash Housh is ebullient about his life. But he nurtures another ambition. “I want to do cookbook for my school. I have enough for my life, I only want to do appreciation for my school.”

Neyla, 3206 N St NW, 202 333 6353.

This article by Julia Watson first appeared in the Northwest, Dupont, Foggy Bottom and Georgetown Current Newspapers. Photo Bill Petros/The Current.

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