A cable channel has seen fit to run episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s first television series that was known as “A Cook’s Tour,” and was set in a time when he was still employed as a cook in the upscale Les Halles Restaurant in New York City, and apparently did not use the title of chef that he would use in his subsequent shows. On one episode from that series a Bourdain who’s clad in a cook’s white attire, enters a crowded restaurant kitchen and asks the cooks there to show him the burns that they have on their hands and arms from exposure to the stove and oven, and he tells of the ones that he has himself acquired and references some scars that still linger from them. And restaurateur Waseem Ahmed of the Kebabish Bites Restaurant of Norman recently told of the number of burns he bore years ago when he first ventured into the hospitality industry as a cook in a chicken fast food place in the Oklahoma City area. And while Ahmad, who is an immigrant from the South Asian state of Pakistan, who began to study business administration at Central State University in Edmond Oklahoma in 2002, and later had a successful career in business, reports that he, like Bourdain, was not deterred by the burns he had endured, and decided to return to work in the hospitality business. When Ahmed first came to the US he missed the food prepared in Pakistan when he first came to the US and when he moved to Norman in 2019 he decided to take over the operations of a South Asian eatery, Kebabish Bites, a tastefully decorated place that is now situated in a strip shopping center off of Interstate 35 that opened when Norman was in the grip of the coronavirus. Oklahoma City native and historian William Manchester wrote in ‘The Glory And the Dream” that detailed America history after the onset of the Great Depression, wrote of how the newly elected Franklin Roosevelt realized after he made his way into the Oval Office in the White House that he could not doing anything by himself, so picked up the telephone and began to call others to assist him. Ahmed recently told of how he had a similar realization when he sat on the floor of his new location during that difficult time and called upon others, including his mother, Shamim Akhtar, who assisted him in putting a new floor in place there and also used recipes from her family in Pakistan to construct the detailed menu that features several items that are now popular with the people of Norman. It has been reported that she has often been observed in the establishment’s kitchen providing affectionate guidance to him and his brother Hamza, who assists him in the preparation of food and the operation of the place. In addition to being a successful restaurateur, Ahmad, is also involved in the food scene of both Oklahoma City and Norman, and recently hosted a gathering at his place that was attended by other chefs, including recent James Beard award recipient and Oklahoma City native Andrew Black, whom he has a close friendship with. He told of how Black, who is African- American heritage, had an Indian grandmother,and that the future award winning chef grew up cooking Indian and Pakistani food under her tutelage, and that their shared love of that cuisine has served in part as the basis of their friendship. Over a large plate of aloo paratha, that is composed of bread, potatoes, and cilantro and strong Pakistani tea, Ahmed told of how his chicken and beef dishes have developed a following among his diverse clientele as has his naan bread. He further detailed how a teacher in the neighboring community of Noble brought a class of forty students to his place where he told them of the history of his native Pakistan and his Islamic faith, and that his presentation was well received and that another teacher has requested he deliver his presentation to one of her classes. And Waseem Ahmed said that he is grateful to the people of Norman for the success his restaurant has enjoyed.
Against the Grain 