Muhammad Sbaita (Arabic: محمد اسبيتة), also known as Abu Julia (Arabic: أبو جوليا), is a Palestinian chef and social media star. He is notable for his cooking videos, and was described by Al Jazeera as "the most famous Arab chef on Facebook".[1] As of January 2021, he had 6.1 million followers on Facebook, and over 1 billion views of his videos.

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Life

Sbaita was born in Gaza, Palestine, and lived there continually until the age of 27. His father is a blacksmith, with whom he worked for around 12 years.[1] He learned to cook at the age of thirteen, with the help of his grandmother, during a period where his mother was unwell.[2] He has a degree in English literature, and has worked as a translator and editor.[1][2] He moved to London in 2017, to be with his wife, who is a doctor completing a postgraduate medical degree in the UK.[2]

During his time in London, he has worked as a translator, though his interest in cooking led him to work in one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants for a year and a half.[2]

Online career

Sbeita published his first video under the pseudonym Abu Julia to Facebook on August 17, 2020.[3][4] He describes video editing as a skill he had learned during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom.[1][5][2] Prior to this, he describes experimenting with short phone-recorded videos on a personal account.[2]

Many of his videos demonstrate dishes from across the Arab world, with a particular focus on Levantine cuisine, though he also cooks a range of European and Asian dishes.[3] He said he was initially encouraged to focus on Palestinian cuisine, but he decided otherwise in order to broaden his audience, saying that the biggest propaganda for Palestinian cooks would be for him to reach notoriety through cooking a range of foods.[2] He has discussed the tension between preserving traditional recipes and techniques, and adapting new versions, particularly with regard to allergy sufferers, and people living in the diaspora without access to traditional ingredients.[1] He has also described the difficulty he has faced in publishing videos on traditional dishes such as tabbouleh and mansaf, both of which garnered criticism from Lebanese and Jordanian followers respectively for being insufficiently authentic.[1]

Sbeita's followers are international, with the greatest number from Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq, and are predominantly women.[1][2] He has been interviewed and profiled by a range of Arabic-language media platforms, including Al Jazeera,[1][6] Sky News Arabia,[5] Al-Quds Al-Arabi,[2] Amman TV,[7] Al-Arabiye[8] and Al-Mamlaka.[9] He is known for using the phrase "our dear ones" (Arabic: "حبايبنا اللزم", romanized: ḥabaibna al'lazm) in his videos, a term of endearment and affection in the Gazan dialect,[1][7][4] and for a light-hearted and spontaneous style.[10] He also often speaks about living conditions in Gaza, and to support the Palestinian cause, as a prominent member of the diaspora[4][6][11]

In October 2021, Sbeita worked with the World Food Program to promote its work in Palestine.[12]

References