Meet Masah Habibeh, the real secret ingredient behind Ammatolí’s spectacular sweets

The masterful desserts and baked goods at Ammatolí created by Masah Habibeh—the daugher of owner and Chef Dima Habibeh—are nearly impossible to go unnoticed. Lines of baklawa, both walnut and pistachio. Ka’ak cookies. Lemon olive oil cake. Cookies lined with dates or infused with tahini. Date cake drizzled slathered in a bath of salted caramel.

And though Masah has been there since day, lining trays of phillo dough for bakalwa and circling ka’ak into bracelet-like shapes, it isn’t until the past year that she has really turned both Ammatolí’s bakery and dessert menu into works of their own.

Family and the Levant are the roots of Masah Habibeh’s love of baking.

Born in Jordan—where they would visit the States every summer when Masah was younger—raised in California—where her passion for baking ignited—and Palestinian in heritage—Levantine food will always, in some way, influence her approach to sweets—Masah’s journey is one anchored by her grandmother and mother, Chef Dima. Whether it was carrot cake from grandma or ka’ak from mom—a not-too-sweet bracelet-shaped cookie filled with date paste, topped with nigella seeds, and one of the original sweet offerings from Ammatolí—the love of food grew from the women in her life.

“My mom would always be making simple sweets and desserts,” Masah said. “But as I got older, I realized how creative one could be with them… But when we opened Ammatolí [in 2018], I was there from the get-go making baklawa. I love food and I love cooking—and I was more involved with my parents from the start than my brothers. It was all quite fitting in nearly every sense. I was in my last year of high school when we began the design of the space, so in a sense, I was always meant to be a part of Ammatolí.”

With that, Masah extends what Chef Dima considers Ammatolí: an extension of their home, both the one they literally cook in and their Motherland. As anyone who has experienced food at Ammatolí—a far cry from its beginning days with television screens as menus and counter service only—when you eat with Chef Dima, you eat in her home.

Traditional Levantine cooking might be Chef Dima’s strong suit in what has become a culinary love letter from Jordan to Long Beach. But with its continual expansion across the years—from its bakery and bar on the east side to the Hayati Room on the west—Masah masterfully blends the traditional with uncomplicated Californian sensibility when it comes to sweets.

Expanding Ammatolí meant expanding its abilities—including a deeper focus on baked goods.

Long before Ammatolí had the comfort of its expanded eastside bakery, it was Masah who, almost daily, was making the space’s baklawa. And its ka’ak. And its knafeh, where creamy, stretchy white cheese is covered in kataifi and drizzled with rose water syrup.

“We had a core kitchen staff but it was mainly me handling the desserts,” Masah said. “But I had an educational background in business: I have a degree in fashion business and then I got my masters in innovation and entrepreneurship. So while I was at Ammatolí, I also had this side that was aesthetically driven and financially driven and creatively driven. I know it sounds strange, but they all work in the world of desserts.”

Works indeed: Fashion involves an eye for beauty—or, how Masah puts it, “your eyes eat first.”. Entrepreneurship is just as much about the idea as also having the right measures to make that idea work. And creativity? Well, that clearly runs in the family. On top it all, graduating from the Institute of Culinary Education in Pasadena.

Come one Valentine’s Day dinner, Masah was tasked with offering the dessert for the prix fixe menu. And that is where she truly proved her talent with the space’s now beloved “Date with Cake,” a date cake that is drizzled with a salted caramel sauce.

From cookies to cakes, Chef Masah Habibeh’s creations have helped defined Ammatolí’s overall aura—and simultaneously tie and separate her from Chef Dima.

“When I want to create something new, I always start with what I love,” Masah said. “And then I figure out what I can do with that ingredient. Or, even more, put ingredients you don’t expect to be together and find them to work.”

Tahini and chocolate cookies, for example—a win on the menu since day one, where the saturated sesame-ness of tahini, the buttery nature of cookie dough, and the sweet earthiness of chocolate meld into one of the city’s best cookies. (Though I would venture to say that her date’n’walnut cookie remains a personal fave.)

And ultimately, it separates her from Chef Dima in a very particular sense: Baking in scientific as much as it is artistic. Cooking often goes, yes, precise in many measures but completely driven by heart when driving outside the recipe with nothing but heart and gall. For Masah, heart is important, sure, but the precision is what is key.

“My mom will oftentimes say, ‘Add a bit of this, habibti,’ and in my head, all I can think is, ‘That’s not how this works,'” Masah said, chuckling slightly. “Like my olive oil cake: I, of course, add lemon juice—but too much acidity can affect the entire cake, even turning it bitter and altering the texture. I would love to make it more lemony, but there are funny moments where I have to tell everyone, ‘This is where I draw the line.'”

In the end, Chef Masah Habibeh does one very important thing for Ammatolí: makes it a bit sweeter while honoring her history.

And Masah drawing the line has resulted in some of the best desserts in the city. Take, as a final example, Masah’s gorgeously crafted carrot cake.

Inspired by Massah’s grandmother in Amman, Jordon, this cardamom-forward take is topped with a wonderfully salty toffee buttercream frosting and walnuts. Not too sweet, masterfully complex, and nostalgic for anyone who was lucky enough to have a family member make them a carrot or zucchini cake. It is a nearly perfect carrot cake that also shows restraint—something Masah finds herself loving when it comes to baking.

“Expanding the bakery has been one of my biggest blessings,” Masah said. “But it is also really defined by love of both the creative and the controlled. I love the freeness of beauty and I also love the fact that a number is a number. Baking combines those two things; it forces me to restrain myself in my creations. And that can open the door for far more consistent execution—because after all, most people end on dessert. It is the freshest thing in their mind when they step out of a restaurant. And it can be sweet or it can be bitter to the point where you never want to come back. I consistently try to ensure, through my desserts, they come back.”

Ammatolí is located at 285 3rd St.