Hearing their family history shows three generations of the Abercia family how values are passed down from their forebears.

Chef Ali El Sayed’s son, Esmaeel, is just beginning to understand how his father’s Egyptian heritage fits in with his own identity as a native-born American living in ethnically-diverse Queens.

The family recipes Kamal Al-Faqih learned from his mother led him to his calling as a chef and cookbook author.