ONCE UPON A SPICE: An Heirloom Memoir and Novel of Lebanese Cuisine and Heritage (Fabled Feasts)

PREMIUM COLLECTOR’S EDITION

200+ Full-Color photographs + Memoir + Novel + 60 Recipes — First Edition

A Culinary Quest. A Time-Travel Portal. An Epic Love. A Kitchen Revolution.

A Fabled Feast of Memory, Myth, and Mediterranean Food

“Prose that lingers on the tongue—rich as saffron, sharp as lemon, layered as Lebanese phyllo. A novel to be savored, in the tradition of Madeline Miller, Diana Abu Jaber, and Elif Shafak.”

A NOVEL YOU CAN TASTE.

A COOKBOOK YOU CAN READ LIKE MYTHOLOGY.

What if your family recipes held a secret older than time?

When chef Noura El-Qaysi climbs into her family's Beirut attic, desperate to save her failing restaurant, she discovers a talisman that shatters every boundary she knows.

One heartbeat, she’s drowning in debt and her mother’s quiet nostalgia.
The next, she’s barefoot in the spice markets of ancient Phoenicia — a world where food is power, prophecy, and the only currency that matters.

To survive, Noura must cook her way into belonging.
To return home, she must unlock a divine lineage hidden in recipes she thought she knew.
To understand herself, she must taste 3,000 years of memory — one meal at a time.

WHAT YOU’LL FIND INSIDE

• 60+ heritage recipes that truly work
• 684 pages of full-color storytelling, art & design
• A sensory time-travel novel rooted in Phoenician myth
• A mother–daughter memoir of culture, love & belonging
• Ancient techniques, spice lore & Rouh wa Nafas philosophy
• For readers of Circe, Like Water for Chocolate & The Language of Baklava

A GENRE-SHATTERING MASTERWORK IN THREE ACTS

THE FOOD MEMOIR

A daughter learns identity isn’t inherited — it’s simmered, shared, kneaded into existence.

THE MAGICAL REALISM NOVEL

From Beirut to the temples of Astarte, Noura cooks to survive, barters to belong, and discovers a love older than empires.

THE LIVING COOKBOOK

Recipes travel old sea routes — sesame, sumac, wheat, oil — carrying myth. Guided by Rouh wa Nafas, you cook with stories.
Your kitchen will learn:

• freekeh’s forgotten flame
• the scent-path of sesame
• the bread rituals of Byblos

THIS BOOK FINDS YOU IF YOU…

• ache for a heritage just out of reach
• love immersive novels that read like spells
• want a book worthy of a long conversation and shared table
• believe food is memory, identity, and quiet revolution

INSIDE YOUR COLLECTOR’S EDITION:

• Over 200 full-color photographs & vintage collages
• Heritage portraits & Mediterranean design elements
• Recipes shaped as rituals — food as memory, medicine & myth

EARLY PRAISE

“Myth, memory, and Lebanese food. Rouh wa Nafas is ancestral. This book made me feel seen.”
— Karelle Nasser, Restaurateur, Eden Haus (Lusaka)

“A poetic, precious book of food, memory, and identity. It now sits beside my most loved authors.”
— Dr. Sana Assad, Law & Arab Women’s Studies PhD (Beirut)

Dinah Elmars is a South African–Lebanese author and cultural storyteller whose work preserves heritage through memory, food, and myth.

YOUR STORY IS WAITING— BUT ONLY FOR A LITTLE WHILE

This limited first edition (only 1,000 copies) is a rare gift for those who cherish Lebanese roots, Mediterranean memory, and the stories that anchor us.

Begin the journey — step into the kitchen where time bends and every recipe carries your name.