Ruba and Mhiar Khatib - La Petite Syrienne

While, each summer, they travel to the music festival Solidays, in Paris, and the Eurockéennes de Belfort, Ruba and Mhiar Khatib, founders of a restaurant and catering business named ‘La Petite Syrienne’, have lived in Lyon when they arrived in France, in 2016. The couple started their food business very soon following their arrival, with the help of Mhiar’s mother and brother, renting spots at pop-up venues and festive events. With the help of a crowdfunding campaign, they purchased and fitted out their first food truck. Their fleet was then expanded to two vehicles, enabling the pair to cover the whole of France, providing catering for festivals and concert venues.

In 2019, Ruba and Mhiar created a central kitchen in Villeurbanne, enabling them to offer a comprehensive, professional catering service. They also established a presence in Lyon’s 7th district, with a spot at the food hall La Commune, and in the 6th district, where they moved into a former newspaper kiosk on Cours Vitton.

Food: a universal language

Impressed by the culinary curiosity of the people of Lyon, the couple learned the local lingo through their exchanges with customers and France’s famous bureaucracy! Today, heading up a team 16 strong, they are keen to create links and promote exchanges between the food here and over there. The aim is to build bridges between food, social action and solidarity, by offering the same opportunities to young people looking to enter the job market as they enjoyed after leaving Aleppo. 

There are more original and socially engaged projects in the works that will come to fruition in the coming months (see page XX). They will offer two additional opportunities to taste their specialities (including mezze, shawarma chicken, burak and falafels) and talk cooking with Ruba. She likes to tell how the Syrian equivalent of ratatouille differs only in the use of spices, like cumin and sumac, or how, when it’s out of season, she replaces aubergine caviar with a mix of broccoli and pistachio. She also likes to use morello cherry instead of pomegranate in the essential sauce for Fattoush salad, and has created a new take on the Paris-Brest: the Paris-Brest-Damas, with pistachio and rose jam. These are just some of the ways they are opening up new avenues to explore food.

  In Syria, we can eat aubergine every day, but cooked a different way each time!

© Romane Vilain

EXPRESS BIO

2016: Arrived in Lyon.
2018: Catering for their first festivals.
2019: First business premises in Villeurbanne.
2021: Opening of Le Kiosque (Lyon 69006) and arrival at the food hall La Commune (Lyon 69007).