This month in The Press, we head to Rumi in East Brunswick Village to speak with chef and owner Joseph Abboud. Since 2006, Joseph has made Rumi a home for generous food from – as he refers to it – a borderless Middle East, shared across a table full of people you love. Joseph trained in classic French kitchens before turning to the flavours of his Lebanese heritage and named the restaurant after the 13th-century poet who belonged to no single country. That idea still shapes the cooking: a common thread running from Beirut to Istanbul to Tehran, rather than one strict tradition.
It is also why Joseph makes sense to us at Mount Zero. His cooking is honest and unshowy, led by vegetables, grains and good fats, and built on the belief that food is better when it is shared. Dishes like eggplant and freekeh sit at the heart of the Rumi table, and they only work with care and plenty of beautiful olive oil. Cooking that respects its ingredients and the people eating it is the kind we want to keep supporting.
Here, Joseph shares some of his favourite things, from the underrated ingredient in his kitchen to the dish of his mum’s that he is still chasing.
Describe your cooking style in three words.
Satisfying, simple, generous.
Where’s the last place you dined out, and what did you order?
Freyja on Collins Street. I had the gurnard with lovage, kohlrabi, Sichuan pepper and makrut lime.
If you owned a restaurant that cooked only one dish, what would it be?
It wouldn’t be consistent with anything about me, but pizza. It’s the ultimate.
Most underrated ingredient in the kitchen?
Care…and tahini.
What’s your favourite dish on the menu at Rumi at the moment?
I can never answer this one, as the dishes can be put together in so many different combinations that it’s a different experience every time.
What do you cook when you can’t be bothered, or after a big shift?
Toasted sandwiches.
Favourite Mount Zero oil and way to use it?
The Frantoio; its balance suits our cooking, and it’s just as good in a generous pour over our dips.
Who’s your biggest culinary influence?
Sam and Sam Clarke from Moro. When Rumi became something I wanted to do, there was no internet to lean on, and their first book was huge for me.
What recipe have you chosen to share with us and why?
Eggplant m’nazleh. It needs a lot of beautiful olive oil, and it’s a generous dish. It’s the only recipe of my mum’s that I make, though I’ve never quite nailed hers. I don’t know what she bloody does.
Do you play music in the kitchen?
A lot of Spanish music at the moment. Half the staff in the kitchen are Spanish.
Rumi is open for dinner daily, 5.30pm to 9.30pm, at 2 Village Avenue, East Brunswick Village.
https://www.rumirestaurant.com.au/
As told to Hilary McNevin
