Eight days. Over 40 events. Dozens of chefs, global and local, convening across Cairo to cook, talk, experiment, and narrate what food means here now.
At the heart of the week lies “The King’s Feast (II): Tables of Eternity”, an immersive dinner scheduled in collaboration with Palm Hills and Flavour Republic, where ingredients are paired rhythmically with the Nile’s flow. On other nights, Cooking the System invites chefs to interrogate sustainability, ecology, and food justice through menus.
One of the opening activations, CFW Conversations x GEM Talks, unfolds at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). Panelists include Omar Shihab (restaurateur & author), Asma Khan (London-based chef and pioneer in South Asian cuisine), Karim Abdelrahman (chef), and archaeobotanist Mennat-Allah El Dorry. Together, they explore how culinary heritage resists being lost under fast trends.
On September 26, diners at Tchaï, Tamara Haus in Downtown taste the Shams West El Balad Dinner — chef Qais Malhas (of Amman’s Shams El Balad), Hourig Mekhtigian, and mixologist Eric Labat combine regional ingredients with cocktails. The evening also previews “Tomorrow,” an art exhibit by Safe Grows featuring work by Palestinian children.
September 27 sees a masterclass by the Disfrutar trio — Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch, Mateu Casañas — in Hyatt Regency Cairo West, walking participants through high-concept plating and ingredient stories.
On September 28–29, Chef Paolo Griffa (Italy) tours to Scalini, Palm Hills and collaborates with local chef Mohamed Alaa in pushing Italian-Egypt fusion plates. Meanwhile, Solemann Haddad (Dubai) and Martin Rodriguez pilot a menu at Izakaya, Palm Hills West; Billy Durney (from New York) takes over Cantina by Olivo for a BBQ evening alongside voices like Dina Hosny and Hazem Abdelghany.
In Mo Bistro, District 5, the dinner becomes a mischievous salon — Chef Hadrien Villedieu (French / Dubai) joins Chef Amr Salah to defy expectation: foie gras croissants, tartare de boeuf, playful textures. The dining room hums with creativity, laughter, daring.
But the week isn’t all fine dining. In The Corner Shop (Downtown’s Kodak Passageway), Chef Dina Hosny transforms a warehouse-turned pop-up into intimate dinners. She plates slow-crafted feteer, smoked aubergine ravioli, gelatos with date paste and hibiscus. She describes it as “a stage for experimentation and memory.”
Even more, pop-up activations and exhibitions appear throughout Cairo — in cultural venues, street corners, markets — offering public access, welcoming dialogue about what food is and what it could be.
Midweek, at a panel in GEM, Nadir Nahdi speaks with Icon Award winner Omar Shihab and others, asking: how do we preserve Egypt’s food heritage in a digital, global era? One panelist quips,
“Our grandmothers cooked without social media. Now we cook with cameras.”
At Palm Hills’ Riverfront, a “Journey on the Nile” cocktail reception will sail along the Nile aboard Shemu Boat, bridging sips, conversation, and the city’s waterscape.
Through these events — dinners, talks, masterclasses, pop-ups, exhibitions — the week weaves stories into dining. It asks questions: what does it mean to eat in Cairo? Whose recipes matter, whose voices are heard?
In kitchens, chefs whisper: “I learned this from my aunt in Luxor.” In ballrooms, guests pause before tasting, recognizing that every plate carries memory, negotiation, and metamorphosis.
On the last night, as lights dim across Palm Hills, diners lifting forks will carry something more than flavor: conviction that Cairo’s culinary pulse is alive, curious, and full of stories yet to be told.
