Hello

I am Hisham Assaad and I harvest phrases like “I hate you” “You are making me hungry” “Stop torturing us with those delicious photos”

I have started this blog in August 2013 after spending so much time in the kitchen, playing with ingredients to cook something that can be eaten, and sharing cellphone photos on my personal social media profile. After some support and convincing, Cookin5m2 was created to take my kitchen passion to the next level. Work on the blog is mostly done solo. I am the cook, baker, stylist, photographer, writer, editor, publisher and social media manager. I am learning to make things better.
Photos are taken either in the kitchen or in my made-up studio on our balcony Olly, the cat, makes a cameo without my permission.

My love for food is acquired by food experiences. In the early stages, I was influenced by my family’s passion for food, particularly my mom who, by the word of others who tasted her food, is an amazing cook (traditional Levantine recipes, if I may specify) and my dad who comes from a family of butchers. It is ironic that I rarely have recipes with meat.

I work behind the screen as a graphic designer by day, and behind the apron the rest of the time. I quit my office job in June 2015 and have been freelancing my way around as a guest chef in restaurants in Beirut, hosting at a restaurant, cooking at festivals, private events and private dinner, all while still working as a designer, my original trade, and clowning on the side for fun. In 2017, I started advertising my skills and food stylist and photographer and landed myself a few jobs and things are moving forward from there.

Being in the kitchen gives me a distraction from the outer world. I use the kitchen sometimes as a method of procrastination. But that yields wonderful results, doesn’t it? My kitchen experiments are both sweet and savory, with ingredients I can easily fetch from a supermarket. Nothing too expensive or impossible to get, in most cases.

Recipes posted here are either my creation, adaptation, or documentation of a traditional recipe mom (or someone else) prepared in front of me.

Ask me any question you have about any recipe and I will make sure to answer to the best of my knowledge.

Apart from food, I like outdoor walks in nature, be it on the beach, seaside, next to vineyards, in the woods and mountains, or on the sidewalks of the urban concrete jungle. So I found a perfect job where I can be surrounded by people and food and roam around Lebanon. I am working currently with Taste Lebanon as a guide. I’d be happy to take you around to taste the best foods in the city!

If you want to hire me in any of my work fields be it in Graphic Design, Food Styling & Photography or Tours around Lebanon,shoot me an email at mail@cookin5m2.com.

You can also contact me if you have requests, post sponsoring requests, collaborations, or if you would like to send me free stuff. Find me on the Social Media links below, or on the email above.