About
I’m a Lebanese-American with a heart-felt love for Lebanese cuisine. From my early childhood I have spent hard-time watching and learning via osmosis the art of food preparation, cooking and preserving from my perfectionist Teta (Nan), vivacious dad and colorful aunties. I grew up during the Lebanese civil war, in the mid eighties, and even during these darker days of Lebanon’s history my family created luscious food and Lebanese mezza spreads, all cooked ensemble, bringing us together and helping to create a fun, nurturing environment. This definitely influenced me and encouraged me to learn and understand more about the culture and history behind these processes driving me onto the dizzy heights of sous-chef to my easy-target siblings. From the tender age of 14, I began to regularly use family and friends as forced test subjects. In an effort to manage my failing memory and remember what I “just did”, I started documenting my trials and tribulations in the domestic kitchen in a word document, with the hope of one day publishing my own cookbook.
I am lucky to have traveled extensively in my lifetime, having the opportunity to live in such places as Beirut, Miami, Maui, Montreal, Houston, London and most recently Brighton. Along the way, I’ve eaten raw sheep’s liver, sold Real Estate and Mortgages in Miami, escaped a few deadly bombs, managed the operations of an award-winning restaurant on Maui, Hawaii, represented my beautiful country Lebanon in the Miss World pageant and worse of all, been subjected to the awful taste of Marmite.
My blog ‘Dirty Kitchen Secrets’ launched in 2008, upon my move to the U.K. Dirty Kitchen Secrets is a sensuous journey through my food-loving mind. My kitchen is my playground, food is fun, and senses are there to be scintillated. DKS has worked to bring together my childhood memories of Lebanese dishes while fusing it with a fresh, modern approach incorporating my traveled palate with adaptations to classic Lebanese dishes. Ingredients are kept simple, with a wide diversity of delectable flavours inspired by my travels over the last eight years. Lebanese flavours play an important role- after all, there’s no place like home.
Through my blog, I have met thousands of people online; it has been truly inspiring. In October 2009, several food bloggers and I, founded the first international food blogging conference Food Blogger Connect. FBC is a conference bringing together bloggers from the U.K, Europe, Canada and India as well as other food industry folks while offering workshops by award-winning speakers on topics like photography, social media, blog monetization, and networking.
And life goes on…
Press Mentions
Roaming Tales “Best of The Web”
Ina’am Atalla- Author of Simply Lebanese and Restaurateur says: “I absolutely love Dirty Kitchen Secrets!”
About the photography
Unless otherwise stated I take all the photos on this site. I use a Canon 450d or Rebel XTI and alternate between a 100 mm macro lens and a fixed 50mm f/1.4 lens.
My food photography style is simple, natural and minimal. I like to take pictures using natural light when available and at close range in order to best capture the textures of the food and entice your appetite. During the winters, when us poor British residents are limited with natural light, I fall back on my Lowel EGO lights. They have been one of my most fruitful investments and really helpful when used in the kitchen at night to help give more light for my step-by-step picture process.
I create, I photograph, I eat, I expand. And the vicious cycle continues.
Go on, have a bite…
Contact me
Follow me on Twitter
Email me: bethany@dirtykitchensecrets.com
Hire me
I am available for recipe development, food photography and styling, food related articles or commentary, culinary related reviews as well as catering in the Brighton area. For more information you can email me.
I am extremely blessed to have an amazing support system; my family. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to smack my husband across the head with a heavy bottomed pan!
Love,
Bethx
Credits:
Banner: The design and illustration is done by Lama Khatib Daniel. She is an extremely talented artist, illustrator and designer. It’s very hard to come across an individual that grasps your vision and makes it a reality. Lama is that person for me and I have worked with her now on several projects. You can see more of her work on her website. Below is her contact information.
| Lama Khatib Daniel
illustrator/designer |
Website design- Jason Lee comes highly recommended. He can be reached at jason.p.lee [at] gmail [dot] com.
Legal
The contents of this website are protected under a creative commons license. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without my permission. If you want to use any of the photography or recipes, get in contact with me and always be sure to link back. Please NO SPAM! If you wanna be a jerk then you leave me no other option but to send Freddy from Lebanon after you.
The most important thing I think I can take away from this blog is to connect with you, my readers. Please feel free to leave your comments, suggestions or thoughts. I really appreciate all the feedback.
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