Lebnani, the Lebanese restaurant in Reigate, will host a one-night-only Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday 26 November, with founder Jad Youssef cooking alongside Iranian-American food writer Anna Ansari.
Ansari is the author of Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing and was named the Guild of Food Writers’ Food Writer of the Year in 2026. Drawing on Silk Roads and Youssef’s own cookbook, Lebnani: A Journey Through Family, Food and the Flavour of Lebanon, the pair will serve a sharing menu that brings the flavours of Lebanon, Iran, the Caucasus, Central Asia and China to the traditional Thanksgiving feast.
The meal opens with mezze and sharing dishes, including Youssef’s hummus Beiruti with confit garlic and charred red chilli, Ansari’s Central Asian slaw with dill, toasted coriander seeds and honey dressing, and aubergine frites with cumin and date molasses, alongside marinated mixed olives and sesame ka’ak bread.
For the main course, guests choose between Youssef’s baharat-spiced chicken moghrabieh, with semolina pearl dumplings and shallot onions in a caraway-scented gravy, and Ansari’s pomegranate and walnut nut roast, an Azeri-inspired take on the British dish, served with vegetarian gravy. Sides include roasted carrots and Brussels sprouts with pistachio gremolata, charred green beans with creamy shiitake mushrooms and crispy onions, labneh mashed potatoes and cranberry tkemali, a tart, Georgian-inspired alternative to cranberry sauce.
Dessert is Youssef’s mhalabieh, a Lebanese milk pudding scented with orange blossom and topped with grenadine and pistachio, and each guest will leave with one of Ansari’s pumpkin-spiced pecan blondies.
Beirut-born Youssef learnt to cook through his family before formal culinary training in Lebanon, and his career has included leading kitchens internationally and founding the London Lebanese restaurant group Yalla Yalla. At Lebnani, his menu centres on mezze, sharing dishes and charcoal grills, using locally sourced seasonal produce alongside Lebanese herbs, spices and pantry ingredients.
Ansari, a former international customs and trade lawyer, draws on her Iranian-American heritage, years spent living in China and extensive travels in Silk Roads, which was shortlisted for the Fortnum & Mason Debut Cookery Book Award, the Guild of Food Writers Debut Cookery Book Award and the Taste Canada Regional/Cultural Cookbook Award, and is a finalist in the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards.
The dinner has two sittings, at 6pm and 8.30pm, and is priced at £65 per person, with an optional wine pairing at £35 per person and drinks charged separately. Lebnani is at 11 Church Street, Reigate, and opens Tuesday to Saturday.
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