WASHINGTON – Touring dozens of countries in one year is no easy task even for the most ambitious traveler, but here in town the 9th annual Embassy Chef Challenge allowed guests to sample 38 countries’ culinary specialties all in one night.
The prestigious annual event, held before the eve of Ramadan, brought together D.C. culinary aficionados and allowed participating embassies to display and introduce their culture through their cuisine to a sold-out crowd.
ABOUT 2,000 guests participated in the Embassy Chef Challenge. The embassies’ chefs fed the crowds while competing for the Judge’s and People’s Choices awards. The event was organized by Events DC and Cultural Tourism DC.
Throughout the evening guests ate their way through delicious national dishes and drinks prepared by the culinary teams from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan.
This year’s 2017 winners: Chef Moha Fedal of Morocco was chosen as the 2017 Judges’ Choice Champion and Chef Cynthia Verna of Haiti was the 2017 People’s Choice Champion.
Cooking up a storm for the judges and guests was serious business among these chefs, but the message behind the event was just as important: food is a diplomatic tool in any community.
“Food is like music,” Chef Red Garcia, from the Embassy of the Philippines, told the press. “You break the wall and you share your common values when you share your food with other ethnicities.”
Saudi Chef Yasser Al-Zannan achieved that goal at the event with his mufatah with rice paired with laban.
Who is Chef Yasser?
Not only is Yasser Al-Zannan a chef, he also holds Master’s degree in Economics from Old Dominion University. Before moving to Virginia for his studies, he owned Shawayh al-Eqtesad, a restaurant located in al Chafa area in Riyadh, where he fine-tuned his culinary skills. He sold it when he moved to the States.
“All thanks goes to my mother,” Chef Yasser told Arab News. “She taught me how to cook when I was a child. If not for her, I would never have become a chef.”
While studying in Virginia, Chef Yasser started cooking for friends, then parties, and different Saudi students’ events. “The number of guests grew and a lot of people learned about me, before long I was cooking Iftar during Ramadan at the Islamic Center at Old Dominion University. That’s where I learned to cook for large groups of people.”
A colleague helped him make the jump to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. “One of my friends — a professional chef — Abdulrahman Al-Qahtani moved to Alexandria, Va., where continued to replicate Saudi traditional dishes.”
It was not long before the embassy heard about him, and asked him to provide meal ideas. “While there,” Chef Yasser said, “he asked me to join him, as he was preparing traditional Saudi food he thought it was good to have two styles of Saudi dishes, especially as we were cooking for several hundred people at large events.”
Chef Yasser soon became the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia’s Executive Chef and Manager of the Saudi Embassy’s cafeteria.
He admits that he wasn’t quite sure what he signed up for when Tarik Allagany, the Saudi Embassy’s Information Supervisor, asked him to participate in the DC Chef event. “This is one of the best events held in Washington, D.C.,” Allagany told Arab News.
But when Chef Yasser learned there would be 2,000 hungry guests to feed, he knew he wanted help.
So, Chef Yasser turned to Ahmed Al-Sasur, chef at the King Abdullah Academy in Virginia to help out. “He’s so professional. He’s got a lot of experience in these types of big events.”
“We are a great team, and it worked well to have the two of us to prepare the food. We brought in three big lambs, fresh from Pa., and the meal was cooked in the traditional Saudi manner with Saudi spices.
“Lots of people returned for seconds and thirds,” Chef Yasser beamed, “they liked it that much and everyone said it was really delicious.” Saudi décor helped create the ambiance, said Maram Alkharboosh, the Information Officer at the Royal Saudi Embassy, who set up and decorated the designated area with Saudi traditional objects, including an incense burner, or mubkraha, and traditional coffee pot, or dela.
“Food is the one thing that gathers people together,” Alkharboosh told Arab News, “it brings all these ethnicities together in one place.”
As for the outcome? “We weren’t thinking about winning, but rather how best to present our culture to people who were unfamiliar with it,” Chef Yasser said.
0 التعليقات:
إرسال تعليق