Wasta Tawla, or how the Wastafarians Fared at Fawda

exc-60c4d93cc21ff2642a435bd9

14 JUNE 2021 • By Fadi Kattan

Chef Fadi Kattan (second from right) and the staff at Fawda restaurant in Bethlehem.

Chef Fadi Kattan (second from right) and the staff at Fawda restaurant in Bethlehem.

Fadi Kattan

 

Until I opened Fawda, I never conceived the idea of wasta in a restaurant.

Having been brought up to look in disdain at the whole concept and been taught never ever to try obtaining anything by wasta, always by hard work and merit, the vague concept of wasta was something I abhorred but never really understood.

Fast forward a few years into opening Fawda in Bethlehem, we had established a budding reputation as being a nice restaurant and then being a few meters away from the Nativity Church, with Christmas approaching, wasta hit!

Our modest space and small team could only accommodate a few diners at a time and we were rapidly booked out for the night of the 24th of December. A total frenzy in getting things ready and my phone started ringing into what I later dubbed the “Wasta Tawla” or the proverbial table by wasta.

People I knew or who claimed they knew me were calling either for themselves or for their friends to get a table, even though they had been told by reservations that we were full! And I made the mistake to try accommodating them all…

Chef Fadi Kattan and Fateen Halahla prepare dishes at Fawda (Photo Corinna Kern, LA Times)

Chef Fadi Kattan and Fateen Halahla prepare dishes at Fawda (Photo Corinna Kern, LA Times)

I discovered that not only does wasta mean producing a table that we don’t really have available, but it seems it also meant that if we said we could accommodate the booking at 21h00, thinking that the guests starting their dinner at 18h30 would have finished by then, you gave yourself the right to walk into the restaurant at 19h30 instead of 21h00 and demand your table right away!

Not only that, but then you wastafarians would treat the team with condescending words and have the nerve to walk up to the kitchen door and tell the chef off (i.e the chef who has been working hard since 6 am to create a nice Christmas gustative experience)!

This evolved into the “Wasta Tawla” being used for tables outside, for tables at odd hours, for telling the chef that you do want to come dine but that the menu and fresh produce idea does not appeal to you but because you have or you are a wasta, we need to cook for you something in total disregard of the restaurant’s identity and ethos.

Very often I laughed it off and accommodated some of the things I could, but often I just thought it totally bizarre.

There are varying types of “Wasta Tawla” — the ones who call you and just impose themselves, the ones who disguise their networking in so much goodwill, and the ones you can’t really refuse! But whatever the situation, I would feel always like Basil Fawlty, trying to balance all those requests while being a pig-headed chef trying not to sacrifice the quality of our cuisine and service.

For the “Wasta Tawla” artists or wastafarians, please remember, we always try to accommodate you but years later when we are asked to write about WASTA! we remember each one of you and relive all the stress you caused.

I’ve saved the best for last here: those who when you use your “Wasta Tawla” to get a table and then complain throughout the meal that this wasn’t the type of cuisine you had in mind, that that you would have been better off going to KFC, etc.

Funny how actually people who genuinely liked the place, the food and got along well with the team got better service than those who plied “Wasta Tawla” … and the “Wasta Tawla” fades into a long throbbing Raga in one’s mind…

 

Fadi Kattan

Fadi Kattan Franco-Palestinian chef and hotelier Fadi Kattan has become the voice of modern Palestinian cuisine. Hailing from a Bethlehem family that has on the maternal side cultivated a francophone culture and on the paternal side, a British culture with passages in... Read more

Join Our Community

TMR exists thanks to its readers and supporters. By sharing our stories and celebrating cultural pluralism, we aim to counter racism, xenophobia, and exclusion with knowledge, empathy, and artistic expression.

Learn more

RELATED

Art

Taqi Spateen Paints Palestine Museum Mural of Aaron Bushnell

11 JULY 2025 • By Hadani Ditmars
Taqi Spateen Paints Palestine Museum Mural of Aaron Bushnell
Centerpiece

Ravaged by Fire

7 FEBRUARY 2025 • By Francisco Letelier
Ravaged by Fire
Essays

Nothing out of the Ordinary: A Journalist’s West Bank Memories

22 JANUARY 2024 • By Chloé Benoist
Nothing out of the Ordinary: A Journalist’s West Bank Memories
Essays

Jesus Was Palestinian, But Bethlehem Suspends Christmas

25 DECEMBER 2023 • By Ahmed Twaij
Jesus Was Palestinian, But Bethlehem Suspends Christmas
Book Reviews

The Fiction of Palestine’s Ghassan Zaqtan

13 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Cory Oldweiler
The Fiction of Palestine’s Ghassan Zaqtan
Book Reviews

How Bethlehem Evolved From Jerusalem’s Sleepy Backwater to a Global Town

15 MAY 2023 • By Karim Kattan
How Bethlehem Evolved From Jerusalem’s Sleepy Backwater to a Global Town
Film Reviews

Palestine in Pieces: Hany Abu-Assad’s Huda’s Salon

21 MARCH 2022 • By Jordan Elgrably
Palestine in Pieces: Hany Abu-Assad’s <em>Huda’s Salon</em>
Columns

Sacred Fire, Profane Fire: From Ritual to Barbecue

15 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Fadi Kattan
Sacred Fire, Profane Fire: From Ritual to Barbecue
Columns

Wasta Tawla, or how the Wastafarians Fared at Fawda

14 JUNE 2021 • By Fadi Kattan
Wasta Tawla, or how the Wastafarians Fared at Fawda
Latest Reviews

Maqloubeh Behind the Wall in Bethlehem

14 MAY 2021 • By Fadi Kattan
Maqloubeh Behind the Wall in Bethlehem
My Favorite Things

Covid and Zaatar

18 APRIL 2021 • By Fadi Kattan
Covid and Zaatar
My Favorite Things

Freekeh, freekeh, freekeh!

16 NOVEMBER 2020 • By Fadi Kattan
Freekeh, freekeh, freekeh!
My Favorite Things

Eating in Palestine in the Time of Corona

20 OCTOBER 2020 • By Fadi Kattan
Eating in Palestine in the Time of Corona

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

1 × five =

Scroll to Top