Latest news with #SignatureDinnerSeries
CairoScene
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Chef Brando Moros Came to Egypt & Cooked Its Camels (The Michelin Way)
'The beauty of cooking, is when you can share - not only with your guests, but with other chefs as well. And here in Egypt, people connect with you instantly through cooking.' 'Cooking with this view is just such an amazing experience,' Chef Brando Moros of 11 Woodfire said, standing in Ramla by Marakez's open kitchen, the North Coast's limestone edges dropping away to a tide that moves slow and silver. 'Beautiful beaches, beautiful nature, beautiful sea… I'm in paradise cooking.' From tonight through August 12, the Colombian-born head chef of Dubai's Michelin-starred 11 Woodfire joins WHEN WE EAT and Ramla's Signature Dinner Series - a gathering that brings world-class chefs to one of Egypt's most striking dining rooms. Ramla's long tables stretch beneath the open sky, the hum of conversation folding into the rhythm of the waves. Moros's style is rooted in clean, honest plates, where ingredients take the lead and flame becomes a storyteller. 'Barbecuing or grilling is a worldwide culture,' he said. 'Every culture has its own ingredients, its own spices. This allows me to experiment, to explore different traditions and combine flavours.'His week began with a trip to the camel market - heat pressing in, the scent of hay in the air - a moment that would follow him into the kitchen. 'It completely blew my mind. You start cooking with intention. It's not only about creating dishes, but about transmitting feelings.'Over the next three nights, each course will carry something of that intention: a trace of Colombia, a nod to the markets and spices of Egypt, and the unifying warmth of woodfire. 'The beauty of cooking,' Moros said, 'is when you can share - not only with your guests, but with other chefs as well. And here in Egypt, people connect with you instantly through cooking.'
CairoScene
03-08-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Kelvin Cheung Brings His Third Culture Cuisine to Egypt's North Coast
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:
CairoScene
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Renowned Chef Mads Refslund Loves the Chaos of Egypt's Food Culture
In this Scene Eats exclusive interview, Refslund takes us through what it takes to create a dining experience that speaks to the people, place and culture of a space. Jul 16, 2025 On Egypt's North Coast, where the Mediterranean softens into a salt breeze and the desert exhales into design, Chef Mads Refslund is doing what he does best: starting from scratch. 'Everywhere I go,' he says, 'I'm trying to tell a story from the time and place I'm at.' That place, for now, is Ramla - Marakez's sandy beachfront escape, built for the art of slow living, is now the refined stretch of shoreline hosting the opening act of WHEN WE EAT's Signature Dinner Series - a month-long culinary project bringing global chefs to Sahel's coast from July 15 to August 15. First to arrive is Refslund, the Danish-born co-founder of Noma - one of the most influential restaurants in the world - and the chef behind Brooklyn's genre-defying ILIS, named Best New Restaurant 2023 by Esquire and Most Important Restaurant Opening 2024 by La Liste. A pioneer of the New Nordic movement, Refslund is known for his fire-and-ice cooking philosophy, his obsession with fermentation, and a forager's respect for the natural world. His three-night residency - running July 16, 17, and 19 - reframes coastal Egyptian ingredients through his singular lens. Think seafood, fruit, salt, flame. But don't expect a menu printed in advance. 'Everyone wants a menu up front,' he says, 'but I want to create it when I get here - when I can smell and taste everything.' That meant a 4 a.m. trip to Alexandria's oldest fish market, where chaos and tradition mingle in a salt-stung air. 'It felt like walking into something that's been happening for 60 years. Very hectic. But I loved it.' From those stalls to the seaside table, Refslund builds his menu in real time: hyper-local ingredients transformed through fire and intuition. 'It'll be a mix of the way we cook and all the ingredients from here,' he says. 'It has to feel rooted.' And though the flavours may be unexpected, his hope is human. 'Hopefully a lot of these people will become friends,' he says. 'Sharing a good meal is something that talks to the heart.' Refslund is just the beginning. He'll be followed by Kelvin Cheung of Jun's in Dubai (ranked No. 7 on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants 2025), known for his vibrant takes on diasporic Indian-Chinese flavours, and Brando Moros of Michelin-starred 11 Woodfire (No. 28 on the list), whose food draws power from char, smoke, and the purity of a single flame-kissed ingredient. The season's final supper takes place on August 15th, when Alex Atala - chef of D.O.M. in São Paulo (2 Michelin stars) - prepares a one-night-only multi-sensory dinner beside Ramla's tidal pools. For bookings head to:
