Exploring the tastes of Lebanon: The journey behind the flavours
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Posted January 29, 2025 4:55 pm.
Last Updated January 29, 2025 5:56 pm.
Back in August 2020, when a deadly explosion took place in Beirut. Nadim Hammoud owned multiple restaurants that were all impacted.
Rather than rebuild in Beirut, Hamoud decided to bring all his staff to Canada and opened Mezzmiz in the heart of downtown Montreal, showcasing the flavours of Lebanon.
“When I went down and I saw that all of our businesses were shattered to the ground, we thought that instead of rebuilding during that sensitive phase where Lebanon has to go through a big rebuild-building phase, it was better for the children and for our executive team to come to Montreal and to build in a solid stable market,” explained Hammoud.
“We had the gourmet hamburger business, we had the Lebanese concept, we had a New York-style deli, we had the Italian pizzeria, we had the lobster concept, and we had a huge catering business. What happened is basically our restaurants were core downtown Beirut. The big explosion of the port took place and it wiped out most of the city center of Beirut.”
Throughout his various businesses and restaurants, one thing remained the same for Hammoud, and that was his executive chef Dory Masri.
“It wasn’t very hard for me because I’ve already emigrated before, I used to live in the UK before and then I decided to go back to Lebanon and then we decided to come to Montreal,” said Masri.
“So it was very straightforward, it was very easy. The two languages as well that we got to speak here which makes life a lot easier and there’s a huge community of Arabs, there’s a huge community of Lebanese that you kind of feel a little bit at home.”
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Hammoud wants to share more than just his Lebanese cuisine with his customers.
“So MezzMiz, we brought the generosity and the culture of Lebanon which is hospitality and generosity to Montreal in terms of offering that Lebanese food in this way. We’re not only here to provide the service, we’re here to provide an experience,” Hammoud explained.
“Hospitality comes at the forefront of what we do. The staff, they smile, we have very high reviews, they love what they’re serving. The guests, everybody stops before leaving to come back to the kitchen to tell them that you guys are doing an exceptional job. We’re transporting a culture and not only food as a service.”
Hammoud has one secret weapon; his nine-year-old daughter Sama, who creates all his social media content.
“I love camera. And like ever since I was a kid, I like, always used to imagine I was in camera and all,” said Sama.