Latest news with #CairoFoodWeek
Condé Nast Traveler
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Condé Nast Traveler
The Supper Clubs and Pop-Ups Revitalizing Cairo's Food Scene
It's a weekday night in May in downtown Cairo and chef Dina Hosny is pulling together a seven-course meal in a makeshift kitchen. The Kodak Passageway, once a warehouse, garage, and Kodak store, has been transformed into The Corner Shop, a two-week pop-up celebrating Egypt's culinary culture. Hosny, who has a diploma from Le Cordon Bleu London, is serving up duck with kumquat doum jus, smoked aubergine areesh ravioli with roumy cream, and a dessert of date paste kahk pie with shay be laban (tea with milk) gelato and hibiscus syrup. Innovation is the order of the day, with local ingredients at the fore whenever possible. Cairo's food scene has seen a surge in such events, from pop-ups and farm-to-table lunches to fine-dining supper clubs, offering diverse and innovative alternatives to the capital's more mainstream restaurants. The chefs span from self-taught to culinary school alumni, and the food is Egyptian, international or a blend of both, while the venues are similarly varied, encompassing homes, restaurants, and outdoor spaces, to art galleries and, even, clothing shops. 'It's going wild. Everyone's doing it,' Hosny says. 'I think it's great that people are looking for new experiences.' Kodak Passageway is an initiative by Flavour Republic, the mastermind behind the annual Cairo Food Week, which will take place for the third time in September. Hoda El Sherif, the founder of the event, says the post-COVID era has fundamentally reshaped the city's dining landscape. Diners 'craved more intimate and immersive experiences,' she says, while 'a new generation of chefs—eager to carve out their identity and bypass the traditional barriers of the industry— embraced the model as a launch pad for their careers.' This sense of experimentation is exciting, especially for Cairo, where the culinary scene is not known for eagerly embracing the new. Another pop-up chef, Kareem El Nagdy, who hosts his 12-person Comida by Ken supper club in his Maadi apartment goes so far as to call the trend a 'kind of food revolution in Egypt.' If you're hungry for something new, here are Cairo's best new culinary experiences to have on your radar. On the table at NatureWorks, the decor incorporates local flora. Courtesy NatureWorks NatureWorks, a hydroponic farm in the Sheikh Zayed suburb, offers lunches. Courtesy NatureWorks NatureWorks NatureWorks, a hydroponic farm in the Sheikh Zayed suburb, offers a true farm-to-table experience using its homegrown products such as leafy greens and edible flowers. Founded in 2017, the farm has been putting on its pop-up lunches and dinners for the past four years. The first event with New Zealand-born Egyptian-Chinese celebrity chef Bobby Chinn was hugely popular. Since then, NatureWorks has collaborated with Italian chef Giorgio Diana, Peruvian Martin Rodriguez of Izakaya Cairo, physician-turned-chef Wesam Masoud and Khufu's executive chef Mostafa Seif, among others.
CairoScene
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Cairo Food Week Returns for Third Edition This September
Cairo Food Week Returns for Third Edition This September 'Our objective is to be able to place our Egyptian food and our Egyptian chefs on the global gastronomy map.' Egypt's culinary heritage has undoubtedly always been rich, but when Cairo Food Week by Flavor Republic honoured that heritage in 2023 with a week of gastronomic revelry, it ignited, perhaps for the very first time, a global culinary conversation where Egypt was the main course, and in the process, marking a significant moment for Egypt's food scene for the years to come. The inaugural edition of Cairo Food Week brought together some of the world's top chefs alongside Egypt's finest culinary talents, engaging in - an often unspoken - dialogue that celebrated culture through food. In 2024, for Cairo Food Week's second edition, this vision was taken, amplified, and executed with such prowess that left foodies from Cairo and the world craving more. Now, in September 2025, Cairo Food Week returns for its third edition, promising to deliver an even more immersive celebration of Egypt's diverse gastronomic landscape. Taking place from September 25th to October 2nd, Cairo Food Week, the multi-disciplinary platform of immersive experiences celebrating the stories that influence human experiences around food and culture, will present its biggest edition yet, showcasing the unique intersections of food, culture, and storytelling through exclusive dinners, myriad culinary events, and innovative pop-ups. 'Our objective is to be able to place our Egyptian food and our Egyptian chefs on the global gastronomy map,' Flavor Republic CEO and Co-Founder Hoda El Sherif tells SceneEats. 'Egyptians have stories to tell, but with no platform, and that is the driving force behind Cairo Food Week.' This year's edition is set to be the most ambitious yet, expanding its scope with an array of collaborative culinary showcases designed to offer attendees a truly unforgettable experience, further igniting deep conversations and placing Egypt ever-more prominently on the global culinary map. Stay tuned to SceneEats for more exclusive news leading up to the upcoming third edition of Cairo Food Week by Flavor Republic.
