While this operation continues under the leadership of Mr Mouzawak’s business partner Christine Codsi, Mr Mouzawak is rebuilding in France, with Tawlet Paris, a canteen and grocer that opened this month in the 11th arrondissement.
During the restaurant’s opening week, Mr Mouzawak spoke about his journey from one market to many, his feelings about leaving Lebanon – a former French mandate – and how food can unite.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What was your goal when you started Souk el Tayeb?
I tried to change the world. I still want to change the world! It’s not that I decided to do it, I was just following a stream. I haven’t done anything with long-term planning in my life. During the war, Lebanon was divided into small parts, each inaccessible from the others. But when the war ended, the whole country opened up. I traveled for over a year to write a guidebook about Lebanon and discovered this country I heard about but never got to visit. I was amazed not only by the natural beauty, but also by the bond between the people I met. Whether we were Christian, Muslim or Druze, we were all the same. I went to meet people with open arms, and they had even wider arms. Then I wrote about travel and food, learned about macrobiotics and slow food, spent several years on the board of the Slow Food organization and knew that food was the way to unite.
Why a farmers market?
I always dreamed of a farmers market for Lebanon like the one I visited in Trabzon, Turkey, with only female farmers. They bring everything they have or have harvested in their garden. It’s very simple. Wherever I go, I visit farmers’ markets, because that’s where you discover the people. The products would not exist without the people who grow them. It was the same idea with Tawlet. What’s behind a restaurant? People who have grown the ingredients, who brought them to you, who cleaned, cooked and served them. Everything I do is about inclusive human development and improvement.
Why do you think it got off the ground?
Maybe because we spoke to something that people lacked: Simplicity, authenticity and truth. It was food, without all the stories and marketing. It’s a person selling their food and that’s all. Also, we never stopped running Souk el Tayeb even during conflicts. For us, resistance wasn’t fighting, resistance held the farmers’ market anyway. Because if the producers didn’t sell on Saturday, they wouldn’t have money for the coming week either.