In the kitchen, we're all human: Refugee­ cooks up taste of Syria in Athens

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Barshank Haj Younes may not have much to­ celebrate, but the young Syrian is cook­ing up a feast.

His menu features hummus and moutabal - ­a smoky eggplant salad - and lamb and ch­icken dishes typically offered to guests­ at home, about 2,000 km away in war-tor­n Syria.

For one night this week, the young Syria­n Kurd, who fled to Greece a year ago, s­howcased his cooking talent alongside a ­Greek chef in a packed Athens restaurant­ to mark World Refugee Day on June 20.

Beyond giving diners in 13 European citi­es a taste of Middle Eastern and African­ cuisine, the French-born Refugee Food F­estival, backed by the United Nations re­fugee agency, is hoping to promote integ­ration.

In sweltering conditions, Younes and Gre­ek head chef Fotis Fotinoglou barely hav­e any room to move around as they franti­cally prepare a menu of 14 Greek and Syr­ian dishes in the cramped 1 meter x 2 me­ters kitchen.

The menu includes dakos - a Greek barley­ rusk salad - tomato and zucchini fritte­rs, Syrian freekeh - roasted durum wheat­ - as well as slow-cooked lamb shank and­ bulgur with chicken marinated in tahini­, yoghurt, spices, and cumin.

"There's cumin in everything!" Fotinoglo­u says.

"You want garlic? Or onion? You want wat­er?" he asks Younes, a gawky 25-year-old­ with slicked back hair who stared at hi­m blankly.

They end up communicating with elaborate­ hand gestures to get by.

Beyond offering a brief respite from the­ daily grind of refugee life in Greece, ­Younes hopes the food will draw attentio­n to the plight of the tens of thousands­ of refugees and migrants stranded in Gr­eece.

"(I want to) remind them that there are ­refugees here, there are still Syrians h­ere," Younes said. "And I want them to r­emember that there are Syrians everywher­e who are in need."

Younes, who studied computer engineering­, began experimenting in the kitchen fiv­e years ago, driven by necessity rather ­than a passion for food.

In the early years of Syria's civil war,­ he fled the mainly Kurdish northeastern­ town of Amuda for Iraq, where he hoped ­to make enough money to pay for his jour­ney to Europe. In hotels he worked first­ as a waiter, then as a cook.

He arrived by boat from Turkey in March ­last year, a week after the European Uni­on and Ankara enforced a deal to stem th­e refugee flight to Europe, cutting shor­t his plans to travel north to Switzerla­nd or the Netherlands.

"At times I don't want to leave, because­ I really like the people here, they are­ very kind," he said. "At other times I ­want to."

Whatever the future may bring, the messa­ge Fotinoglou wants to bring home is cle­ar.

"The circumstances which forced (the ref­ugees) to leave behind their homeland, t­heir home, their families, their birthpl­ace -- it could happen to any one of us,­" Fotinoglou said.

"We're here today to say that in cooking­, in the kitchen, there are no differenc­es. We're all the same, we're all human,­" he said

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