Kelvin Cheung Brings His Third Culture Cuisine to Egypt's North Coast

CairoScene

4 days ago

Cheung is best known for Jun's in Dubai - No. 7 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025 - a restaurant rooted in what he calls 'third culture food'.
By late afternoon, Ramla by Marakez had settled into a kind of hush. The tide traced its path softly. Sunlight clung to the limestone ledges, collecting in shallow bowls of shadow. Inside the open kitchen, Chef Kelvin Cheung was sorting through the day's findings - flesh-heavy figs, tight-skinned pomegranates, olives still dusted with earth. He had arrived less than 24 hours earlier. He hadn't asked many questions. 'I didn't even ask where it was,' he says. 'I was just like, yeah, I'm in.' The invitation came from Hoda and Sherif, the co-founders and masterminds behind Egypt's Flavor Republic. There was a shorthand to it. He trusted them. And now he was here again- but this time on Egypt's North Coast, watching the land ease into water - preparing to cook in a place he'd never seen before. The dinner - taking place from August 3rd to August 5th - is part of WHEN WE EAT and Ramla's Signature Dinner Series: a month-long culinary project that brings global chefs to the Mediterranean shoreline, one course at a time. Ramla - Marakez's sand-draped beachfront destination designed for the art of slow living - is the stage. From July 15 to August 15, it will host four chefs over four weeks. First came Mads Refslund. Kelvin follows. Brando Moros and Alex Atala close out the season. Cheung is best known for Jun's in Dubai - No. 7 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025 - a restaurant rooted in what he calls 'third culture food': a borderless, autobiographical cooking style shaped by his Chinese heritage, North American upbringing, and French training. 'All my food is based on flavor memories,' he says. 'Even though I grew up halfway across the world, the hope is that somewhere in the meal, we connect. That something I tasted then is something you feel now.' The kitchen still smelled of citrus and salt. Outside, the sea folded into itself with quiet persistence. 'I try to keep the menu fluid,' he says. 'What's hyper-local, what's in season, what we can get nearby.' So he went inland, to a small farm growing only what their family had always grown: figs, pomegranates, olives. 'That makes me want to take extra care.'
For bookings head to: https://ramla.stitchrsvp.com/home