Reconnecting with Egypt

Although I am lucky enough to work with Egyptian food every day, I must admit that I don’t get the chance to visit my native country as often as I would like. So it was a great pleasure to be able to spend some time in Egypt recently to visit family and friends and really touch base with the country again because I hadn’t been there for a while.

It was wonderful to reconnect with my family and the country, and of course to give my tastebuds a polish as well. I spent some time in Cairo, visiting local specialist food shops, such as bakeries and so on, which was really lovely. There was so much fantastic, vibrant food I wish I could have brought it all home with me!

The trip was really inspiring and I met some very interesting business people, including the owners of a restaurant in Cairo, which was fascinating. I’m really excited at what the future holds after connecting with a variety of food businesses out there, and we talked about the possibility of running cooking classes in Egypt in the future. I would love to be able to take people from the UK on culinary trips to Egypt so they can experience the sights, sounds and smells that are so evocative and captivating.

In the meantime, I have some fantastic events coming up closer to home to give people in Shropshire and the Midlands the chance to try their hand at Egyptian cookery:

On 14 March, I will be the Harborne Food School in Birmingham running a class called The Soul of Egyptian Cuisine, when I will be guiding students through the preparation of up to four mezzes and desserts.

Then on 26 March I am heading to Hobson’s Brewery in Cleobury Mortimer for an interesting Ales & Tales evening presenting a course of recipes inspired by the legend of the Pharaoh’s beer – they are believed to have drunk beer as part of their staple diet to help keep them strong. Clearly we won’t be using ancient Egyptian beer – Hobson’s will be supplying some lovely brews of their own to accompany our cooking!

Or why not come and learn to build a coboven to bake Egyptian bread? The Fabulous Coboven Company run regular workshops, one of them is with an Egyptian street food lunch on 25 April in Lentwardine.

Please get in touch for more details: marina@cooking-like-cleopatra.com or +44 (0) 7958 629 220.