DUBAI: Salam Dakkak was born in Palestine and raised in Jordan. She later moved to Saudi Arabia, where she married, had children and began teaching Arabic cooking in a studio. Further relocations followed — to the US, then to the UAE — and with each move her dream of pursuing a professional culinary career was placed on hold, but never abandoned.
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When Dubai became her family’s long-term base, Dakkak decided to pursue that ambition. In 2017, she opened Bait Maryam, naming the restaurant after her mother and the Arabic word for home. What began as a neighborhood restaurant built around family recipes and Levantine cooking has since grown into one of the city’s most respected dining destinations. Bait Maryam has been awarded a Michelin star, and its sister restaurant, Sufret Maryam, expands on the same philosophy of home-cooking-style Arabic food served in a communal setting.
Dakkak’s dishes are rooted in Palestinian cuisine, but draw from the shared food traditions of the Levant — recipes passed down through generations in homes across Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Alongside classic preparations, she has developed signature dishes that reinterpret these flavors, including fattet musakhan and maryam fukhara, which have become central to her menus.
