Smiling wistfully as he talks about his homeland, Jordan, Abdul Hashhoush, the executive chef of the exotic Neyla restaurant in Georgetown, talks about his years growing up at his mother’s side in the kitchen. A Lebanese transplant, for Hashhoush’s mom, her kitchen was her life. “She helped out my dad, who was also a chef,” said Hashhoush. “I started work when I was very young, only 9 years old. I was helping in my mom’s kitchen. It’s something I love.” By the time he was 15, he was an army cook. Soon after, Hashhoush worked as a line cook in the Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad, where he also was in charge of the prep kitchen. From there, the young man moved to Dubai, filled with the passion for the kitchen. “I love [cooking],” he says. “It was a good career choice.”
When Hashhoush moved to the United States about 10 years ago, he landed a job with Jose Andres, helping open Andres’ iconic Zaytinya, D.C.’s go-to restaurant for Mediterranean fare. “I made everything from scratch, even the phyllo dough,” he recalled, a thin-as-tissue-paper pastry that defines Hashhoush’s attention to detail and his reverence for traditional cooking techniques.
