BEIRUT: The goal: food that nourishes the body and soul. The secret ingredient: chefs who absolutely love to cook.The Good Food Collective, based out of Zico House’s Café Awwal in Sanayeh, launches Wednesday to give amateur chefs the opportunity to share their creations on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

“There are many people who love to cook. Mostly they aren’t chefs, but they love to cook,” says Firas Abi Ghanem, the chef behind “Firas Yatbokh” (“Firas Cooks”) events and founder of the Good Food Collective.

Abi Ghanem himself began as one of these cooks. A switch to vegetarianism 10 years ago forced him to begin experimenting with food to find satiating and creative dishes without meat. It began with his first attempt at mujaddra and, soon enough, Abi Ghanem was hosting dinner parties for friends out of his parent’s home every other weekend.

“Then 20-30 people started coming,” says Ab Ghanem, referring to casual dinner parties. “I was putting everything in from my [own] pocket so after that, people started paying LL5,000 each to contribute toward the cost.”

This inspired Abi Ghanem to start cooking for large groups on an event basis. In 2008, he approached the managers of Zico House with the idea of hosting dinner parties and musical events – “Firas Yatbokh” was born.

The Good Food Collective is an extension of this idea and will feature the culinary stylings of Firas Yatbokh in addition to a number of other participating cooks.

“I want people who are passionate about what they are doing and they really want to share … so they do it lightly and they do it happily. And they have good support system from us – two or three people are always here to help chop,” Abi Ghanem says.

The collective will serve food Monday through Friday at Café Awwal between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. and will begin local food deliveries beginning Monday, “if all goes according to plan.”

The launch event Wednesday night will feature a few of the chefs already participating in the collective: Mustafa Tuqan, Kokebe Tsefaye, Najah Barakat and Maguy Badawi.

The buffet, which is all you can eat for LL20,000, will be accompanied by a performance by the Walkabout Drum Circle.

Meat lovers need not fear: In addition to vegetarian options, the collective will offer non-vegetarian versions of Lebanese and Ethiopian cuisine at the launch, among others on a daily basis from Café Awwal.

Diversity – of cuisine and music – is an important component of the collective, Abi Ghanem explains.

“This country has an amazing variety of food because of all the people who are living here and working here who are not of Lebanese origin.”

For instance, one of the collective members, Tsefaye, is Ethiopian.

But access to a variety of food around Beirut is generally limited, adds Abi Ghanem.

“If you want to tap into it then you go eat Indian food in a hotel for $30 a plate and it’s Indian food made for Lebanese tastes – not something new or different. If you want to eat real Indian food you go to Dowra where Indians are cooking for Indians.”

Many people cannot afford the fancy restaurants and others are afraid to venture to more diverse neighborhoods to restaurants that can be hard to find – the Good Food Collective aims to be “a middle-way,” Abi Ghanem says, making different cuisines more accessible.

“There are great Indian cooks here and they’ll cook for you in a place that you trust, and we deliver it to you as well,” Abi Ghanem says.

But the most important inspiration for the collective – and any “good food” according to Abi Ghanem – is love.

“Why does everybody think their mother makes the best food? Their mother doesn’t make the best food, she just a regular person, but because she’s their mother then she’s making it with a lot of love for her child. Fast food restaurants are not like this. Even many good restaurants [are not like this].”

The Good Food Collective launch event is Wednesday at Zico House (174 Spears Street, Sanayeh. Tel: 01746769). Buffet for LL20,000 opens at 8:30 p.m. followed by the Walkabout Drum Circle performance at 10:30 p.m.