It started with a FIRE.
Before there was a queue out the door. Before the 45-minute drives. Before “Australia’s best charcoal chicken” was a thing people argued about.
There was a boy in a small village in Lebanon, cooking over an open wood fire – birds caught that day, flat bread his mother made, wild oregano picked straight off the hill.
That boy was Andre. The village was a handful of houses, dirt tracks, a lemon tree, and a forest that doubled as his pantry and his playground. They had nothing and everything at the same time. To him, it was paradise. El Jannah.
Then came Sydney.
War took Andre out of his paradise and a plane brought him to Western Sydney. He did the usual things – fell in love, raised three kids, drove a taxi for years. But the tastes and smells of that childhood never left him. So he and his wife Carole set about doing the hardest thing in food: turning memories into recipes.
Months of trial and error. A few simple ingredients. One charcoal chicken taste that would eventually have people queuing out the door. He found his happiness back at the pit – because the smell of charcoal smoke took him straight home.
In 1998, the legend was born.
The first El Jannah opened its doors in Granville. One restaurant. One obsession. Nearly 30 years later, that obsession hasn’t budged – we’re still family founded, so watch your tongue.
We’re still built different.
Not chooks. Charcoal chicken. Cooked right on the pit like we did in Lebanon. Served with toum, not “garlic sauce.” The other dip’s babaghanouj. Juicy and crispy at the same time, part pickles, part charcoal, three parts garlic.
The best food was never complicated. It’s simple, made the right way, with real ingredients and a bit of magic that’s really just decades of caring too much.
“Obsession leads to perfection. And perfection leads to paradise. And paradise is, El Jannah.”
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EL Jannah Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded El Jannah?
El Jannah was founded by Andre and his wife Carole, who turned Andre’s childhood memories of wood-fired cooking in Lebanon into the charcoal chicken recipe El Jannah is famous for today.
When did the first El Jannah open?
The first El Jannah opened in Granville, Western Sydney, in 1998 – one restaurant, one obsession, and eventually one very long queue.
What is toum?
Toum is Lebanese garlic sauce – garlic, oil, lemon and salt whipped into something between a sauce and a cloud. It’s the only thing we’ll ever serve with our charcoal chicken. You either love it, or you haven’t tried it yet.
What makes El Jannah charcoal chicken different?
It’s cooked right on the pit over real charcoal, the way Andre learned in Lebanon – juicy and crispy at the same time, and always served with toum, pickles and fresh bread.
What does “El Jannah” mean?
El Jannah means “paradise” in Arabic – the word Andre used for the village where he grew up, and the feeling we’ve been chasing on the plate ever since.