Habeeb Salloum (March 9, 1924 - December 4, 2019) was a prominent Arab-Canadian author and freelance writer specializing in food, history and travel.
He was the son of Syrian (Bilad al-Sham) immigrants who arrived from Qaraoun to Canada in the early 1920s and who homesteaded in the western prairies, in southwest Saskatchewan, hoping to establish a new life in a new land.
During his extensive travels to the Arab world, he experienced the cuisine of most of the Arab countries and wrote numerous articles about each country’s food fare. Along with his writings on food, he focused many of his writings on Arab history and travel. His writings were especially passionate about the historic period when Arabs were in Spain and about contributions of the Arabic language on English and Spanish vocabularies.
Among his most important published books are: From the Lands of Figs and Olives: Over 300 Delicious and Unusual Recipes from the Middle East and North Africa (Interlink Publishing, 1996); Journeys Back to Arab Spain (The Middle East Studies Center, 1994); Arabic Contributions to the English Vocabulary (Librairie du Liban, 1996); Classic Vegetarian Cooking From the Middle East and North Africa (Interlink Publishing, 2000); Arab Cooking On A Saskatchewan Homestead: Recipes And Recollections (CPRC, University of Regina. 2005) - winner of the Cuisine Canada and The University of Guelph's Silver Canadian Culinary Book Awards in 2006, Bison Delights (CPRC, University of Regina, 2010) and The Arabian Nights Cookbook (Tuttle Publishing, 2010). He co-authored with Leila Salloum Elias and Muna Salloum, two major research studies on medieval Arab cookery: Scheherazade's Feasts: Foods of the Medieval Arab World (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013); and Sweet Delights from A Thousand and One Nights: The Story of Traditional Arab Sweets (I.B. Tauris, London, UK, 2013). His most recent cookbook published in the Fall of 2014 is Asian Cooking Made Simple: A Culinary Journey Along the Silk Road and Beyond (Sweet Grass Books/Far Country Press, 2014).
Habeeb was awarded the 2013 Saskatchewan Tourism Travel Media Award by Saskatchewan Tourism (Provincial Government of Saskatchewan) on April 10, 2014 for his literary work on travel, tourism and the culinary arts of that province.
