From Memory to Plate, ilili Stuffed Grape Leaves Tell a Story of Love + Perseverance 

How a restauranteur keeps his family’s heritage alive through delicious bite-size parcels.

Phillippe Massoud’s first memory of grape leaves was looking up at them as a kid in wonder as they wove around a trellis, framing hanging grapes in the gardens of Lebanon. His first experience eating grape leaves was when visiting his maternal grandmother’s house also in Lebanon. 

“I probably was 6 or 7 years old,” Massoud recalls. “The grape leaves were stuffed with rice and meat cooked with lemon juice, a touch of cinnamon, a touch of allspice, and then she put two cloves of garlic within it. She layered it with potatoes at the bottom and then that cooks for a good couple of hours, flipped upside down and served with yogurt, dried mint and Aleppo pepper.”

Now, as the restauranteur behind ilili in New York City and at The Wharf in D.C., Philippe Massoud uses dishes from his childhood to preserve his family’s heritage and provide a platform for Lebanese culture. As a refugee who left Lebanon and later attended Cornell University’s School of Hotel Management, Massoud longed for the food from his childhood. 

“When I came to the U.S., I missed the food tremendously,” Massoud says who struggled to find quality Lebanese food stateside. “I started cooking food because of necessity because I missed it so much.”

While ilili’s menu boasts many beloved dishes from Massoud’s past, the stuffed grape leaves dishes are especially dear to him. At around 14 or 15 years old, Massoud began to attempt rolling grape leaves. He had no family recipes written down but was determined to create a grape leaves dish similar to the ones he grew up with and tried to reproduce them based on what he remembered observing and tasting.

“I started rolling grape leaves and I failed miserably,” Massoud says. “I wasn’t putting enough liquid, and I didn’t cook them long enough. And I overstuffed them. And the ratio of rice to vegetables was not right. And the ratio of rice to meat was not right. It took a lot of failure before I found the right balance.”

Once Massoud felt confident in the recipe, he began to find ways to streamline and speed up the process. Notoriously, stuffing grape leaves is a slow and methodical process saved for special occasions due to the laborious steps and preparation. 

“Rolling grape leaves is like fishing,” Massoud says. “It is a meditative process where you have to take your time and roll it correctly and put the right amount of filling.”

To now fit the demands of restaurant service, Massoud has three to four people prep the leaves and filling in an assembly-like pattern at both ilili locations. With training, his staff can stuff and roll one grape leaf in 10 seconds, with the New York kitchen producing 2,400 to 3,000 stuffed grape leaves a week. While the process may have quickened, one key tradition remains. 

“When we make a batch we all sit around the table, we place everything and then we start rolling together. If you’re alone and you to have roll grape leaves, you’re going to hand in your notice relatively quickly, so [with multiple people] it becomes a social affair. The staff chats amongst themselves, just like if you were in a family setting and catching up on all the family gossip.” 

Massoud sets a high standard for the leaves to be uniformly stuffed and shaped. Unlike the more well-known Greek dolmades or Middle Eastern dolmas version where each leaf is heftly filled with stuffing, the Lebanese version — and Massoud’s preference — calls for smaller, bite-size poppable parcels.

At The Wharf location, guests are welcomed to order two versions of stuffed grape leaves: the vegetarian warak enab bil zeit stuffed with rice and garnished with tomato and parsley oil, or the lamb and rice stuffed grape leaves layered and baked in a cast-iron pot with tomato and garlic confit topped with mint yogurt. Both dishes are must-tries with the former better suited as a bright and briny mezze, and the latter an indulgent hearty entree. 

“In Lebanon, they say that the food has soul when you’re working with it,” Massoud says. “You’re giving so much of yourself to it that you can taste the difference.”

Although D.C. is far away from Lebanon, at ilili the sentiment of the saying holds true for both stuffed grape leaves dishes: there’s care in every meticulously rolled leaf and love in every bite.

ilili: 100 District Square SW, DC; ililirestaurants.com // @ililirestaurants

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Nicole Schaller