Former Marin chef Michael Mina dishes on ‘My Egypt,’ first cookbook in 20 years – Marin Independent Journal

For his first cookbook in almost 20 years, the former Marine chef Michael Mina goes back in time to combine his mother’s original recipes with the latest trends in Egyptian street food.

Mina, who was born in Egypt but moved to the US as a toddler, rose to fame in the 1990s as executive chef at Aqua in San Francisco, where he won a James Beard Award in 1997 and his career took off.

Today, Mina and his partners run 30 restaurants, including San Francisco’s Pabu Izakaya, International Smoke and Clock Bar, and Tiburon’s Bungalow Kitchen, each representing a wide range of cultures. (For years, this has included football culture through the popular Bourbon Steak and Tailgate at Levi’s Stadium in Mina.)

But in the past decade, he began making annual trips to his native country with some friends who are Egyptian chefs. He combined what he learned there with the memories of his mother, Minerva, into a cookbook where classic Egyptian flavors meet modern cooking innovation.

“My Egypt: Cooking from My Roots” (Voracious, $40), out Oct. 8, is billed as a “sincere tribute to his legacy.”

Among the recipes in this book is Mina’s twist on a watermelon and halloumi salad, his mother’s classic koshari and a chicken in brine with feta it’s that simple, Mina says anyone can do it.

The award-winning chef recently sat down with us to share recipes, his five favorite Middle Eastern restaurants in the Bay Area and discuss what led to the creation of this cookbook.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q Where did the title come from?

A I moved to the US when I was 2 years old, to a town in central Washington state. I loved where I grew up. It was a town of 8,000 people. My mother was a chemistry professor in Egypt and my father headed the business department at Central Washington University.

Growth is part of “my Egypt”. I didn’t make many trips to Egypt growing up. But my mother had nine brothers and sisters and most of them all lived within 40 miles of us. So the culture, the food we grew up eating – everyone brings food and everyone has their own way of making it. You have 30 people eating together. Everyone’s laughing and happy, then everyone’s crying and fighting, then they’re happy again. The table is full of food all day. That’s where my love for hospitality started, that piece of it.

Q How connected did you feel to Egyptian food?

A Honestly, one of the things I avoided was bringing my friends over. You grow up in a town like that, you eat spaghetti, tacos, burgers when you go to the other kids’ houses. The food smells in my house were a bit strange for the kids.

(But) boldly flavored food shaped my palate. Middle Eastern food, because it is rich in acid, sweet, spice and fat – a kind of Asian food – helped me bring my taste. Then, when I went to culinary school, I became obsessed with European cuisine. That’s what you learn in culinary school.

Q When did you start gravitating towards Middle Eastern food again?

A Over the past 10 years, you’ve started to see how much Middle Eastern Mediterranean food is becoming more and more popular. But Egypt gets no love here. What I really wanted to do is a book that told my story a little more. I wanted to pay homage and really learn the roots of what I grew up eating. Where did it come from? How was it made? I wanted to use my skills to keep the foundation of the food, but innovate with more modern flavors, techniques, equipment. That’s how the journey began.

Q How did you reconnect with those Egyptian roots?

A When I was in Detroit, I encountered this Egyptian chef, Moustafa Elrefaey. He’s in the book and he’s a great cook. He has a line of restaurants called Zooba – one in New York and a bunch in Egypt. I told Moustafa that what I want to do is go to Egypt. He is not only a chef but also a historian.

Moustafa knew everyone. I ended up with this group of young chefs – we’ve been seven times and we’d travel together. We would go to different places, different restaurants, villages and learn a lot more history about food.

Q What surprised you the most?

A I think the one thing I never understood—that really blew my mind—was that Alexandria, right on the water, and Cairo. Many of the foods I grew that I thought were 100% Egyptian? Egypt was invaded by so many people, but the one person and culture that had the greatest impact was Alexander the Great. The Greeks had (Egypt) for 300 years. The amount of Greek influenced food I grew up eating was just as heavy if not heavier than Egyptian food. It’s a really interesting crossover. This amazes me. I wanted to go deeper with this.