Mariana Chedid never planned to be a chef. At 27, nearly a decade after relocating to Australia from Lebanon, she was inspired by Julia Child’s late-in-life career change (her monumental Mastering the Art of French Cooking wasn’t published until she was 49). Chedid, who was working as an operations manager, moved to Paris to study at Child’s alma mater, Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. “Julia Child inspired me not only on the culinary level, but as a human as well,” Chedid tells Broadsheet.

After earning a Grand Diplome and completing six months at Michelin-starred La Tour d’Argent in Paris as a commis chef, she returned to Melbourne and started French bakery Brulee in 2020 in her mum’s garage before moving to a corner building in Port Melbourne. Brulee quickly outgrew the space and, earlier this year, Chedid relocated it to a larger venue down the street. She has since transformed Brulee’s former home into French Lebanese bakery Salam.

The hero of Salam’s menu is Lebanese flatbread. “I never found a piece of flatbread that makes me happy in Melbourne, so it was always in the back of my mind that I needed to satisfy my cravings,” Chedid says.

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Chedid’s yeast-based dough is made fresh each morning and baked to order for just a few minutes in a scorching Neapolitan-style oven. The soft bread is rolled into falafel wraps and served with fried eggs and beef mince and awarma (lamb confit) hummus. But the best way to eat it might be when it’s transformed into manakish (topped flatbread) with toppings including akkawi (a Levantine cheese similar to haloumi), spiced beef kafta, and Chedid’s za’atar blend.

Lebanon gained independence from France in 1946, but the influence remains in the architecture and some of the food found in both countries, including the za’atar-dusted croissants that Chedid says are popular in France. At Salam and Brulee, she puts her own spin on the pastry with cheese and her house-made spice blend (which contains a generous amount of toasted sesame seeds) folded through laminated dough made with Pepe Saya butter. Other French Lebanese hybrids include almond croissants with orange blossom and rosewater, and crepes topped with everything from ham and cheese to labneh.

To give Salam its own identity – and a nod to her Lebanese roots – Chedid repainted the venue in a rich olive green, evoking the landscape of her home country.

Salam Bakery
40 Crockford Street, Port Melbourne
(03) 9646 3790

Hours:
Mon to Fri 7am–3pm
Sat & Sun 7am–4pm

salambakery.com.au