Hi there! I am Charles Dabah, a personal chef and caterer in Chicago with a passion for good food, healthy eating, and all around culinary adventure.
You = Out of dinner ideas. Eat too much takeout. Want to destress and chill.
Me = Reads cookbooks for fun. Will feed you too many vegetables. Want to marinate and grill.
Let’s face it, the choices we make about food—from shopping to cooking to how to prepare wholesome meals—can seem limitless. And it can be hard to prioritize preparing healthy, home-cooked meals. One week you are a health nut and the kitchen is a source of relaxation and joy. The next week the kitchen is your worst enemy and you are Grubhub’s best customer.
Let me do what I love, so you can do what you love.
The Levantine Kitchen celebrates the foods and flavors that have emerged after generations of food sharing across Middle Eastern, Asian, and European cultures. More personally, it is a culmination of years of joy, history, and food that came out of my family’s kitchen, tracing all the way back to when I was a kid and would watch my mom and grandma prepare my favorite Syrian dishes or bake my favorite desserts. They taught me how to find joy in cooking, to be proud of my culinary traditions, and how food could be used as a tool to bring people together.
I believe that:
There is no “right” way to eat. We all deal with health challenges and food sensitivities, and what worked last year may not work today. Eating well is all about balance and checking in on the connection between food and our bodies. I am happy to accommodate special diets and food sensitivities and will work with you to plan menus that help you meet your health goals.
The choices we make about food matter. The ingredients we buy at the grocery store, how we prepare and cook them, and ultimately how we eat them all make up how we experience food. I like to menu plan and cook with the seasons in mind, for instance making more salads in the summer and more soups and stews in the winter. I like to use farmers markets and local ingredients during the growing season in Chicago because I believe we can taste the difference on our plate. I look forward to working together to determine how my approach to food, from ingredient to a finished meal, can reflect shared values around food.
