Loading ...This Wichita Restaurant is Long Gone, but Now the Owner is Sharing most of Its Recipes
SOURCE: KANSAS.COM
BY: DENISE NEIL
Ilham Saad misses her restaurant — Byblos, which she ran until 2016 at 3088 W. 13th Street.
She misses her customers. She misses cooking.
But now, she’s found a way to reconnect with the life she misses and make her former customers happy at the same time.
She printed the book herself, and now she’s working on getting it out around town.
The all-color book, which is printed in hardback and includes lots of photos, is available on Saad’s website, cookingwithinspiration.com. A hardcover version costs $35, or a down-loadable PDF version is $21.95.
Saad said she wrote the book for her customers, but she also did it for her family — particularly her 12 (almost 13) grandchildren. The younger generation, she said, needs to learn how to eat good food.
She had a big collection of recipes, but they were mostly in her handwriting, which only she can really read. She decided she wanted to “put them in the computer” and turn them into a book her family could always keep.
“My grandkids tell me, ‘I can’t believe that you did this for us,’” she said.
Saad said that the feedback she’s received so far has been positive and people tell her that the book is easy to read and the recipes are simple to follow.
Her customers always quiz her about what’s in it. They’ll rattle off their favorite dish from when Saad had the restaurant and say they’ll buy it if it has that recipe.
“It does” is almost always Saad’s answer.
Saad is working on getting the book in stores around town, and she’ll be selling it from a booth at the annual Women’s Fair in February (along with some of her signature spices.)
In the meantime, those who want a book can contact her through her website.