Most perceptions of Venice are that its exclusive, expensive and out of reach for the ordinary person.

This is understandable; where else in the world is the chosen mode of transport from the airport a water taxi, and gondolas act as bus and rail replacements? Located in Northern Italy, millions of tourists flock to the capital of the Veneto region each year to have their own experience of the canals, cliches and Italian dolce vita. But you already know that.

What you might not know upon arriving in Venice is its intricate, and appropriately fitting, history.

Having been fortunate enough to spend six months living and studying in Venice, and with my naturally inquisitive approach when making friends, I learnt a thing or two about the supposed origin of the city of Venice. In a cringe-worthily romantic and fairytale, but perfectly Venetian way, the locals love to tell the legend as to how the first inhabitants came to Venice. Legend has it that Venice was founded in 421 when people fled hoardes of barbarians and hid in the islands in the lagoon. After they escaped, they stayed put and began the origin of Venice – effectively the first Venetians were refugees.

Flash forward to modern day, and the global refugee situation hasn’t improved. On a recent trip to Venice, I was fortunate enough to meet with one refugee, who shared his inspiring and uplifting story with me.

Hamed Ahmadi, the owner and founder of Orient Experience, sought asylum in Venice in 2006 following negative press he received on his films entered in the annual Venice Film Festival. Originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, Hamed was placed in a refugee centre for eight months, which is where the inspiration for his restaurant business was born.

Effortlessly, Hamed began by explaining the importance, yet simplicity of food: “Food is a very simple language, particularly when you don’t know the real language. It’s a universal language.”

Orient Experience is a restaurant that offers a fusion of foreign recipes gathered, cooked and served by refugees, taken from their journeys to Venice.

When Hamed was in the refugee centre he became involved in a language exchange with the Municipality of Venice, and helped translate and teach Persian, his native language, alongside Arabic, Turkish, Hindi, Urdu.

It was during his time in the centre that the first traces of Orient Experience came to life.

He told me: “Every Sunday, there was nobody in the office and we were by ourselves. I began using the wasted food from Saturday night as I became friends with the chef from our centre.

“For the exchange of a bottle of wine or packet of cigarettes, he would leave me the leftover food. For Sunday lunch then, I took people from the centre for these lunch parties.

“The centre did find out and when they asked me to work for them, we are aware of your ‘illegal parties’.

“Actually it was a very positive thing, this time we would like to be your sponsor, to do it officially.”

Once these parties became more regular, Hamed told me how he was presenting meals ” from Iraqis, Arabs , Kurds, Turkish, Iranians, Bangladeshis, [people from] Pakistan.”

He explained how they all had the common ground and understanding of food and travel, as they were all united in their experience of travelling to Italy illegally.

During our conversation, Hamed explained that as every refugee has their own native cuisine, naturally, when you are travelling, these recipes will change. However, it is in doing so that he saw the potential for Orient Experience to tell these people’s stories.

“So, what were you eating along the way because you were probably 15, 16, and it was probably your first culinary experience? Taking that idea, we understood that lots of maybe original recipes during the trips, for different reasons, were changing, so they are a specific experience for one specific person.”

The interior of the restaurant reflects this perfectly. The sense of travel, with struggles and also hope is evident with murals painted across the walls with messages in different languages from different refugees. Without explicitly stating anything each guest is aware that there is something more to Orient Experience than just a restaurant serving foreign cuisines.

Hamed explained how typical Afghan recipes, that would often use lamb as a core ingredient, required an adaptation to be cooked in Italy, as differing costs for the produce means they’re not always as accessible. This seemed so obvious, but was something that until you give it thought, would perhaps pass you by.

The time finally came for lunch. Accompanied by my mother, Hamed and I sat down for a taster into what Orient Experience has to offer.

After much contemplation we settled on a platter of falafel, borek (filo pastry rolls filled with feta, spinach and black sesame seeds), malfouf (steamed cabbage leaves filled with rice and meat), hummus, mutabhal (a smoked aubergine, tahini with yogurt and garlic alternative), mixed vegetable samosas and pakora (deep fried vegetable balls).

Satisfied entirely, but definitely with room for more we moved onto the mains. Here we shared: Kofta (meatballs with walnuts, prunes and potatoes in a tomato sauce), yogurt vegetables made up of aubergines and courgettes served with yoghurt and mint, qorma kadu (courgettes in a tomato sauce with chickpeas and mint) and polò rice with potatoes and saffron and finally aashak steamed vegetables with red lentils and yoghurt. 

We ate well, let’s just say that!

Accompanied nicely with a bottle of red wine and some rose water tea to clear the pallet at the end. I can only urge you to visit and try it for yourself should you ever find yourself in Venice. You will not regret it.

Hamed’s passion is clear. The origin of the name of Orient Experience and their different menus has an almost storybook feel: “The first name that we did for the menu was the contemporary menu of silk roads. Because the Silk Road was starting in Venice and going until China. The last country in the middle was Afghanistan.” Throughout our conversation, I felt oddly proud of the man that I had only met an hour before and the work that he has done for refugees in Venice.

Hamed humbly stated how he has expanded to four other restaurants in Venice, and has plans to open 20 other refugee run restaurants across Italy to continue his mission.

With the restaurant’s ethos being that each member of staff will join the company as a business partner and therefore become an even more integral part of their mission there is a very inclusive feel amongst his staff.

Aware of how the global refugee situation develops daily, Hamed explained how his restaurant expansions could provide 200 new opportunities for refugees across Italy.

“Before the pandemic, all group between like business partners and workers we were in 65 and now we are around 43, 44 and I think in these ten years, almost like 300 persons came in and out.

“This idea, we reached to 15 different business partners, our colleagues like Hussein, that guy from Bangladesh, he was just 18 years old and now like four years ago he became our business partner.”

In his naturally endearing manner, he told me how despite his ambition he believes in the project wholeheartedly. With a grin he told me: ” We would like to share it with the others. It’s a benefit for us and a benefit for others.”

To put it simply: Orient Experience is a wonderful venture, restaurant and community. The food is delicious and the flavours from around the world are overwhelmingly perfect together. The atmosphere is captivating and as you enjoy a meal you really are aware of the journeys that take place daily and the power that food can have in retelling and communicating these journeys.

To watch the short documentary I made on my trip please click the link below: