The Lebanese Kitchen

Reviewing the book for The Washington Post, Jane Touzalin praised the recipes as "solid and satisfying". She criticised the lack of headnotes and the scalloped cut of the book which resulted in pages being stuck together.^[3] She felt the timing of the recipes preparations were over optimistic writing "Twenty to 30 minutes to make the caramelized onions, wilted spinach, egg filling and candied nuts, and to butter and arrange 96 squares of phyllo dough? Maybe if you’re a Lebanese grandmother" but concluded the "results were more than worth the effort".^[3]

Chef Shaun Hill reviewed the book for The Caterer.^[2] He wrote that it was "more reference book than short inspirational read" and likened the scope of the book to the Italian cookbook The Silver Spoon.^[2] Hill described Malouf's recipe for chickpea battered courgette flowers stuffed with goat's cheese and mint as "like the essence of summer".^[2]

The Metro newspaper praised the book as a "really generous compendium that rewards the committed cook" but critiqued the lack of introductions and authorial voice with an "otherwise useful preamble" written in the third-person perspective which made Hage "[feel] like a stranger".^[5]

Writing in The Times, Alex Renton felt that the book should "restore one of the great crossover cuisines to its rightful place" and that Hage deserved to be a "Lebanese national hero".^[4] He felt the hummus was "luscious ... blindingly better than the bland, over-processed stuff you get in the shops".^[4]