• Chef Talk

Executive Sous Chef, Anantara Sir Bani Yas Island Resorts

Meet Mahmoud Elshahidi, Executive Sous Chef, Anantara Sir Bani Yas Island Resorts

A veteran of the industry with 20 years experience, Egyptian Chef Mahmoud oversees five different restaurants within the three Anantara Sir Bani Yas Island properties, Team Yalla finds out more

What inspired you to become a chef?

As a child, I always watched cooking programmes with Mum and would note the ingredients down. I would then tell her what ingredients we had at home and what we needed to buy. Depending on the cost, she would buy them so I was able to cook the dishes I had watched being prepared on TV.

Five restaurants are a lot to oversee. What skills do you require to ensure everything runs smoothly?

The way to achieve the smooth running of five outlets is by implementing one system for the different elements needed to run the restaurants, such as ordering, receiving, inventory, production, menu costing, waste, training team members as well as ensuring day to day consistency in terms of operations. Also, guiding restaurant managers and chefs to help maintain a positive attitude and good communication between the team in each outlet.

Team Yalla heard your favourite dish is Surf and Turf, but as an Egyptian, what Egyptian dish should everybody try at some point?

I love all Egyptian food but the most favourite dish for me is one of the most famous dishes found in Egypt. Koshary is a mix of rice, pasta, chickpeas, lentil, fried onions, garlic, tomato sauce, making it a nutritious meal that is complete with nutrients that benefits the body greatly, because it contains protein, carbohydrates, antioxidants, vitamins. Everybody should try it; I am sure they’ll love it.

What is it that makes Savannah Grill at Al Sahel Resort your favourite restaurant?

It’s one of the first restaurants that I supervised during the planning, construction, hiring, and menu enginering stages prior to it opening. I learned a lot during this time, and its still remains my favourite African restaurant.

If you weren’t a chef, what profession would you have chosen?

I chose my present career when I was 19 years old, so it’s difficult to answer this question. However, if I wasn’t a chef, I would have liked to have been a nutritionist.

Yalla, it’s revelation time. As a chef what’s the biggest mistake you’ve made?

Once I was working in a Chinese kitchen for the first time and a senior chef asked me if I knew how to use the wok, to which I replied yes, not expecting him to ask me to use it at the same time. I took another wok and followed the chef’s instructions. I noticed the flames on his wok were higher than mine, so I added some extra oil and water to create a Flambé, but unfortunately the flames set off the fire sensor, triggering fire alarms all over the hotel.

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