Hello! We are Benedetta Jasmine Guetta and Manuel Kanah, and Labna.it is our four-handed food blog: since 2009, we have been writing about recipes on these pages, covering a little bit of all topics, but with a special interest in Jewish cuisine, both Italian and from around the world. If you haven’t realized it yet, it’s better to say it now: we are Jewish, and we like it a lot!
Our families come from Libya and Egypt respectively, and although we have lived in Milan for a generation now, we are proud to cherish not only the faith but also the precious recipes of our ancestors.
We are very passionate about our religion, with its thousand-year history, which is why you will often read stories here on Labna about our festivals, customs, and traditions.
We do our best, however, not to bore you only with the Middle Eastern recipes of our grandmothers: we will also share with you mains, salads, desserts -everything you may need to answer the fateful question, “What shall I cook for dinner tonight?”
The blog is a valuable opportunity for us, not only to express our creativity but also to tell our stories to the outside world, building very beautiful projects and weaving relationships that enrich us greatly from a human perspective.
Among those projects, we should surely list our cooking classes, as well as the many collaborations we have had over the years with magazines and brands.
Benedetta Jasmine Guetta
I majored in literature, worked in digital marketing for 10 years, and then I did something crazy – I quit my career to focus on the one thing that makes me happy: cooking.
I work as a freelance writer and photographer in the food industry, for magazines and brands in Italy and abroad.
As a food writer for both digital and offline publications, I tell stories about food and recipes, and then as a photographer and food stylist, I enrich my stories with evocative images that I hope will make your mouth water.
My work, especially on Italian Jewish cuisine, which is my specialty, has appeared in numerous newspapers, such as Corriere della Sera, the Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Elle a Table, Saveurs, Vogue, and many others. In 2022 my first English-language book, Cooking alla Giudia, came out.
I like to cook just about anything, but my absolute favorite recipe is challah, the Jewish Shabbat bread. I am so in love with it that I opened a place in California, where I live, called Café Lovi, specializing in sandwiches made with my special challah.
Manuel Kanah
I was born in ’77, I tried to get a degree in architecture, but my passion for computer science took over, so I became a development manager.
For Labna, I am mostly in charge of the site design these days. I have three wonderful children for whom I cook a lot of delicious things, but time to write and photograph what I cook has been scarce lately.
When we created Labna we had a payoff that we have decommissioned over the years, but I still like to remember: love in the kitchen. I believe in an emotional approach to cooking. I think everyone can become a master chef with a little patience and commitment, as long as they want it with all their heart.
As for my taste in food, I am omnivorous: my only Achilles’ heel is cauliflower, while my favorite food is – of course – labna, after which the blog is named.
Our presentation ends here, but with a small appeal to those reading.
It is important for us to know that you are there, out there, behind your computers: writing a blog would be meaningless without the vibrant community that buzzes around us! So if you like Labna, stay in touch with us: your participation gives us the energy to continue!
Follow us on social, subscribe to our RSS feed or newsletter, and feel free to write us in the comments or via email when you have questions for us!
Oh, and before we close, one more request. Labna’s recipes are made, photographed, and published by us specifically for our readers: therefore, we ask that you respect our work and distribute it only as indicated on the page regarding Labna’s copyright, basically, always adding our link when you share a recipe!
