A Doctor's Recipe for Fast Food.

• Author: Luxner, Larry
• Position: Brief Article

Habib's, the world's largest Arab fast-food chain, isn't a product of Egypt, Lebanon, or Saudi Arabia--but of Brazil, where the restaurant's famous logo is becoming almost as ubiquitous as dental-floss bikinis on Copacabana Beach.

At last count, there were 135 Habib's franchises throughout Brazil. making the chain second in importance only to McDonald's (which has 384 outlets) and far more numerous than Pizza Hut, Burger King or Wendy's. And in March, Habib's became a true multinational with the inauguration of its first outlet in Mexico City.

Interestingly, the man behind Habib's isn't a real-life Mr. Habib, as many people think, but a doctor, Alberto Saraiva, who was born in a small farming village in Portugal and emigrated with his parents to Brazil when he was six months old. Saraiva recalls that as a child in Parana he often accompanied his father on his rounds as a candy vendor. The turning point in his life came tragically in 1973, while he was a first-year medical student at the prestigious Hospital Santa Casa de Misericordia in Sao Paulo.

"My father had just opened a small bakery," recalls the forty-six-year-old entrepreneur. "One night, he was assaulted and killed by robbers. I was the oldest of three sons and had to support my family."

Saraiva decided to stay in school while running the bakery--but gradually came to the conclusion that he really wanted to be a businessman, not a doctor.

"After eight years, I finished my studies and entered the restaurant business," he says, "At first, we didn't have money to buy new equipment. There was a restaurant that had closed, so we bought the equipment and opened a new restaurant in another location. We invested 600,000 reais and sold it for 1.7 million. With this money, we built a second restaurant a lucheonette called Casa de Esfiha."

At that time, Sao Paulo had only two or three Arab restaurants, even though the city boasted one of the largest Arab immigrant communities in Latin America. Saraiva befriended a Lebanese chef, Paulo Abud, from whom he learned a variety of succulent Middle Eastern recipes.

In addition to esfihas--hot Arab pastries stuffed with ground beef or cheese, lemon, tomato, chopped onion, and seasonings--Saraiva's original menu featured kibbe, kafta, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, and tabouli salad. Less adventurous diners could choose more predictable fare: hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, pizza, french fries, and ice cream.

"I decided to create an Arab fast-food menu...