Anissa Helou’s new book of recipes from Lebanon spotlights villages scarred by war

BALLOUNEH, Lebanon (AP) — Before becoming one of the Middle East’s most acclaimed cooks and food writers, Anissa Helou had no intention of either path. She entered the world of cooking and writing almost by accident when she was in her late 30s.

Now 74, Helou has a wide following in the region and elsewhere and has released nearly a dozen books since the 1990s about food in the Middle East and beyond. Last month she received Britain’s prestigious Guild of Food Writers Lifetime Achievement Award.

The daughter of a Lebanese mother and a Syrian father, Helou was born into a Christian family and grew up watching her mother, grandmother and paternal aunt cooking. It opened her eyes to the food traditions of the two countries, both widely known in the region for their varied and flavorful cuisine.

“I was always fascinated by the kitchen, by their movements (and) by how they put things together, by the chopping,” Helou said about her mentors. “I love being in the kitchen with them and of course I loved eating.”

Helou’s latest book, “Lebanon: Cooking the Foods of My Homeland,” was officially released in late June in Beirut in a ceremony at Lebanon's Tourism Ministry attended by scores of people including food critics and restaurant owners.

The book, which comes as the country has been battered by two wars in the past three years between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, includes a section about food in some of the southern Lebanese villages that have suffered the worst destruction.

During her repeated visits there, most recently in October 2023, she found residents had their own regional variations of traditional cuisine. They include mujadara, a dish mainly consisting of lentils that is often cooked with rice, but in southern Lebanon is more likely to be made with bulgur.

“I discovered more, like, variations and added dishes, rather than something that was a complete revelation,” Helou said.

She has picked walnuts from a tree growing along the giant wall separating southern Lebanon from northern Israel and met residents who have lost their homes and businesses in the Hezbollah-Israel conflict.

Helou recalled Moussa Ibrahim from the southern village of Dibbine, which has been the site of intense clashes between Israel troops and Hezbollah fighters. Fighting there in 2024 caused Ibrahim to lose his business producing mouneh: vegetables, fruits, grains and dairy preserved with traditional Lebanese techniques including sun-drying, salting, pickling or submerging in olive oil.

Helou, who has traveled the world to sample food, said she loves Korean and Japanese in addition to Middle Eastern cuisine.

“Lebanese, Iranian and Moroccan are among the greatest cuisines,” Helou said earlier this month in her late mother's apartment in the Mount Lebanon town of Ballouneh.

“Lebanese cuisine is kind of a little bit more sophisticated, a lot fresher, more vibrant” compared with some other Middle East food, Helou said as she prepared a traditional Lebanese lamb confit called awarma.

Asked for the home of the region’s best food, Helou did not hesitate to move outside Lebanon and name Syria’s largest city, Aleppo.

Famed for its centuries-old covered market, which was badly damaged during Syria’s civil war beginning in March 2011, Aleppo is known for varied and elaborate cuisine with influences from Persia, North Africa and Armenia.

“I think that Aleppo is undoubtedly the gastronomic capital of the Middle East, regardless of me being Syrian,” she said.

Global anti-Islamic sentiments rose dramatically after the Islamic State group took large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate in 2014, launching deadly attacks in the region and the world.

Helou responded with a book of about 300 recipes of dishes from Muslim countries.

“I was thinking, one way of presenting Islam and Muslim people positively could be through their foods,” she said.

Helou, who left Lebanon at the age of 21, holds citizenship in Lebanon, Syria and the United Kingdom and has spent much of her time in Britain and Italy. She still regularly visits Lebanon, cooking and asking people how they make specific dishes.

Helou refused to cook for years while she was a young woman and told her partner at the time not to expect her to make meals.

“I didn’t want to be domesticated. I was like a feminist and so I didn’t cook for a very long time,” she said.

One day a friend prepared a meal at their home and Helou saw the happiness it gave her partner, prompting her to think she should start cooking.

Her decision to become a food writer came in 1992 when a discussion with a group of Lebanese living abroad gave Helou the idea of filling a gap in Lebanese cookbooks with a collection of her mother's recipes. As it happened, there was a publisher looking for someone to write such a book.

“That’s how I started, by sheer coincidence,” Helou said.

Anissa Helou, 74, one of the Middle East's most acclaimed cooks and food writers, prepares awarma, a traditional Lebanese lamb confit, at her late mother's apartment in the Mount Lebanon town of Ballouneh, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Anissa Helou, 74, one of the Middle East's most acclaimed cooks and food writers, signs a copy of her new book at her late mother's apartment in the Mount Lebanon town of Ballouneh, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Anissa Helou, 74, one of the Middle East's most acclaimed cooks and food writers, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at her late mother's apartment in the Mount Lebanon town of Ballouneh, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Anissa Helou, 74, one of the Middle East's most acclaimed cooks and food writers, holds her new book during a ceremony at the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Anissa Helou, 74, one of the Middle East's most acclaimed cooks and food writers, prepares awarma, a traditional Lebanese lamb confit, at her late mother's apartment in the Mount Lebanon town of Ballouneh, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 6, 2026--

Helical Fusion Co., Ltd. (“Helical Fusion”), a Japan-based fusion energy startup developing fusion power plants, and HAZAMA ANDO CORPORATION (“HAZAMA ANDO”), a long-established Japanese general contractor, today announced that HAZAMA ANDO has become an Official Partner in the Helix Program, Helical Fusion’s commercial fusion initiative. The two companies have also signed a memorandum of understanding (“MoU”) to collaborate toward the construction of Helix KANATA, Helical Fusion’s Fusion Pilot Plant targeted for the 2030s.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260706176052/en/

Fusion energy has the potential to shift the foundation of energy from natural resources to advanced technology by reproducing, on Earth, the same principle that powers the stars. It is expected to create a major new industry while providing a long-term solution to global energy challenges. Helical Fusion is advancing the Helical Stellarator approach, a magnetic-confinement fusion concept supported by approximately 70 years of research at national universities and public research institutes. The approach is considered well suited to commercial power plants because it offers a clear pathway to continuous operation, net electricity generation, and maintainability.

Helical Fusion established the Official Partner framework in April 2026 to accelerate the Helix Program, its roadmap to realize commercially viable fusion power in the 2030s. The next decade will be a critical period in which core technologies and industrial capabilities for future fusion power plants move from research and development toward integrated engineering and construction.

HAZAMA ANDO has delivered construction projects for power-related facilities and other social infrastructure that support stable electricity supply. Through this MoU, the two companies will examine construction-related requirements and project execution approaches for future fusion power facilities, including “Helix KANATA”, the Fusion Pilot Plant. HAZAMA ANDO’s participation as an Official Partner is expected to strengthen the industrial foundation.

Under the shared message “Creating a New Sun for Our Horizon,” Helical Fusion and HAZAMA ANDO will work together to build the foundations of a fusion energy industry.

Executive Comments

Kazuhiko Kuniya, Representative Director and President, HAZAMA ANDO CORPORATION

"We are deeply honored to join as an official partner of the 'Helix Program'.
As a construction company dedicated to developing social infrastructure, HAZAMA ANDO has undertaken numerous power and energy projects aimed at ensuring a stable energy supply. We will leverage the expertise and technology we have cultivated over the years to contribute to the realization of fusion energy.
We will build collaborative relationships with Helical Fusion, to create new value together and work toward realizing a prosperous future."

Takaya Taguchi, Co-Founder and CEO, Helical Fusion Co., Ltd.

"The goal of the Helix Program is not only to realize a commercial fusion power, but also to bring humanity a new source of energy that can sustain civilization for generations to come.
For more than a century, our new partner has supported lives and industries in Japan and around the world through its construction and engineering expertise. I am confident that by joining forces with this outstanding team, we can help advance society through fusion energy.
We are deeply grateful to walk alongside our new partner as we take on this grand challenge—one that has the potential to shape the course of human history.
As a first step, our two companies will work closely together toward the construction of Helix HARUKA, our Integrated Demonstration Device, and Helix KANATA, our fusion pilot plant."

About the Helix Program

The Helix Program is Helical Fusion’s roadmap to realize commercially viable fusion power using the Helical Stellarator. Helical Fusion is one of the few private companies applying the long-standing research base of this approach to the commercialization of fusion energy. In May 2023, the company published a peer-reviewed paper outlining the design of its power plant concept: “Development of steady-state fusion reactor by Helical Fusion,” by J. Miyazawa et al., in Physics of Plasmas.

Under the Helix Program, the company plans to conduct integrated demonstration using Helix HARUKA and achieve commercially viable fusion power generation using Helix KANATA in the 2030s.

Development of key components for Helix HARUKA is steadily progressing with the support of industrial partners.

About the Official Partner Framework

The Official Partner framework is designed for companies that will work with Helical Fusion to actively advance the Helix Program, which aims to achieve commercially viable fusion power. Official Partners engage in strategic business and technical collaboration and make capital commitments above a defined threshold, sharing the commitment required to create a new fusion energy industry.

Official Partners will collaborate on initiatives related to the manufacturing and construction of Helix HARUKA, Helical Fusion’s Integrated Demonstration Device, and Helix KANATA, its Fusion Pilot Plant. The framework was launched in April 2026, with NICHIAS Corporation, Hasetora Spinning Co., Ltd., and Seno Kisen Co., Ltd. joining as the first group of partners.

About HAZAMA ANDO CORPORATION

HAZAMA ANDO CORPORATION is a general construction company that focuses primarily on civil engineering and building construction. Leveraging the technical expertise we have cultivated over many years and our advanced construction management methods, we deliver safe, high-quality projects. By creating new value, we aim to realize a sustainable society where people can live with peace of mind and comfort, and to grow alongside society as a company.

About Helical Fusion Co., Ltd.

Helical Fusion is a fusion energy startup founded in 2021 as a spin-out leveraging research achievements from the National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), a leading Japanese public research institute in helical stellarator research. NIFS has accumulated world-class expertise through the Large Helical Device (LHD), including plasma sustainment for 3,268 seconds, plasma temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius, and stable plasma control technologies essential for continuous operation.

Helical Fusion is developing a Helical Stellarator and advancing the Helix Program with the aim of realizing commercially viable fusion power.

Image of Helix KANATA, Helical Fusion’s Fusion Pilot Plant planned to begin operation in the 2030s.

(L-R) Kazuhiko Kuniya (Representative Director and President, HAZAMA ANDO CORPORATION) and Takaya Taguchi (Co-Founder and CEO, Helical Fusion Co., Ltd.) at a press conference in Tokyo on July 6, 2026.