"There's a fine line between wanting to become a chef for social media or wanting to become a chef for yourself."
Our guide for today is Chef Faisal Al Nashmi the creative mind behind Street AlMakan, Table Otto, Pam and Cow, Street Cafe, and San Restorante. Faisal has been instrumental in the evolution of Kuwait's dining scene.
I want to set the stage for this interview by shining the spotlight on three main points of focus for our dialogue.
- About Faisal and his unique human journey.
- Explore the nuances behind creating a menu, a restaurant, and an unshakeable culinary identity.
- Walk away with some habits that a successful entrepreneur, chef, and leader like Faisal has developed to aid his success
References mentioned in this episode:
Le Cordon Bleu - Culinary School
Street Al Makan - Restaurant
Coffee in Feeding Milk Bottles - Went Viral
Fries "Dumpster Mentality"
Kuwait as a Food Capital
Ali Bukhamseen - Kuwaiti Farmer
Kenaneya Farms Kuwait
Chef Michel Roux Jr.
Gordon Ramsay on Youtube
Nigella Lawson - Food writer and chef
Momofuku: A Cookbook
Ivan Ramen - Cookbook
David Chang
David Chang and Microwave Cooking
Reach out to Faisal at:
Instagram @zubaneen
Reach out to broadband at:
Instagram @broadband.podcast
Email aziz@seedsmedia.org
Other Links
Reach out to luucid at:
Instagram @luucidkw
Website luucidkw.com
For guest recommendations Email hello@luucid.co
"There's a fine line between wanting to become a chef for social media or wanting to become a chef for yourself."
Our guide for today is Chef Faisal Al Nashmi the creative mind behind Street AlMakan, Table Otto, Pam and Cow, Street Cafe, and San Restorante. Faisal has been instrumental in the evolution of Kuwait's dining scene.
I want to set the stage for this interview by shining the spotlight on three main points of focus for our dialogue.
- About Faisal and his unique human journey.
- Explore the nuances behind creating a menu, a restaurant, and an unshakeable culinary identity.
- Walk away with some habits that a successful entrepreneur, chef, and leader like Faisal has developed to aid his success
References mentioned in this episode:
Le Cordon Bleu - Culinary School
Street Al Makan - Restaurant
Coffee in Feeding Milk Bottles - Went Viral
Fries "Dumpster Mentality"
Kuwait as a Food Capital
Ali Bukhamseen - Kuwaiti Farmer
Kenaneya Farms Kuwait
Chef Michel Roux Jr.
Gordon Ramsay on Youtube
Nigella Lawson - Food writer and chef
Momofuku: A Cookbook
Ivan Ramen - Cookbook
David Chang
David Chang and Microwave Cooking
Reach out to Faisal at:
Instagram @zubaneen
Reach out to broadband at:
Instagram @broadband.podcast
Email aziz@seedsmedia.org
Other Links
Reach out to luucid at:
Instagram @luucidkw
Website luucidkw.com
For guest recommendations Email hello@luucid.co
Food with Faisal
Aziz: Hello, and welcome to broadband here at broadband, by the philosophy that one needs other human beings to teach them how to be human.
Our guide for today on this journey of communal actualization is chef Faisal Al Nashmi the creative mind behind Street AlMakan, Table Otto, Pam and Cow, Street Cafe,and San Restorante. Faisal has been instrumental in the evolution of Kuwait's dining scene. And he has successfully undertaken the challenge of not only questioning the culinary status que, but pushing the local culinary boundaries.
I want to set the stage for this interview by shining the spotlight on three main points of focus for our dialogue, the first being phased out and his unique human journey. Next I'm going to leverage a face those insights to explore the nuances behind creating a menu, a restaurant, and an unshakeable culinary identity.
And finally, I want you to listen to her to be able to walk away from this conversation with some habits that a successful. Entrepreneur, chef and leader, like face all has developed to aid his success
without further ado. Hello, Faisal. How are ya?
Faisal: Thank you. Great to be on the show.
Aziz: Well, thank you so much for joining us today. And I want to start with a story that you've told many times before, but I want you to bear with me and tell it one more time. You found your passion for the culinary arts in the most chaotic of ways. Shared that momentous life altering event with our.
Faisal: Look I've said the story like a million times and I never get bored, honestly, explaining this Um, Cause to me, I think with time I realized the importance of faith and I am a true believer fate because when my dad was appointed to the manager of KPC quake petroleum corporation back in 2005 I had almost like, I think it was almost one year left before I graduated from high school.
So you know, I had to make that crucial move of going with my family abroad to London and the first uh, period, when I got there, I remember like, literally, it was like two weeks after I got there.
uh, my, my self and my friend were walking through one of the streets and we passed by a group of six dudes, you know, and I still remember to this day it was a super traumatic event that happened. moved us, like they start beating us, you know, six of them. And we were only two
and I never had that experience before, you know, being a young kid, I was around 16 or 14 and being in a situation like that, I was super traumatized after that. So for the next two years that I stayed in London I never left home.
Literally. I was really traumatized to a level where my only transit to school was through car. I never took buses. I never took trains. I never walked. I just, I was really paranoid. And in the two years that I spent most of my day at home was always with my mom. And, my mum loves, loves cooking, and I've grown up in a household where we appreciate food, but I never got the love and passion of food through my mom. You know,
However, because my mom always watched TV on BBC food. I was with her 24 7 and I still remember it to this day was, me cooking my first roast chicken. It was Jamie Oliver is a recipe. still have the picture, you know, me holding the raw, raw chicken before we went to the oven. and I believe from that point on, it really changed my perception on food and being in the kitchen
So everyday I used to buy stuff that I've never experienced before I used to buy duck, you know, being a really amateur cook buying duck and experiencing the cooking techniques of how to cook duck. I burned duck, of course. You know, I birthed a lot of things in kitchen but that only made me understand the fundamentals of cooking and my love for food. you know?
Aziz: That's amazing. But, but you know, at the same time, I would say that there are many homemade chefs like binging with Babish or Achmad examined, who stumbled upon their culinary success by experimenting around the kitchen and filming it. So how important is that chordoma blue experience to your success as a chef that is also running a business.
Faisal: To me there's a really fine line between wanting to become a chef because of social media or wanting to become a chef because of yourself. And a lot of people really sometimes mistakenly asked this question. They just don't don't know what the answer is because most of the time it's option a where I want to be famous on all social media. And I just want to show up. Uh, That I'm in cordon Bleu. And this is the true fact, unfortunately, however I really see that you need to, first of all, identify who you want to be. Do you want to be an instagram chef? If you do fair enough, just don't go to school. Cause you're going to waste your time. You're going to waste your energy are going to waste a lot of money going into a school where honestly, you're not going to get anything out of it. It's you're going to get a lot of techniques. You're going to get a lot of ideology, but going to school, it's like torture. It's like almost a year of torture. you're studying almost eight to 10 hours a day. You're in the kitchen on your feet and it's a fit. It's physical torture. And that's the beauty of it
so my, my answer is always the same. if you don't want to pursue your career being in the kitchen, 24 7, if you don't want to open a restaurant, if you don't want to be on top of your game, don't waste your time. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money for yourself.
Aziz: beautiful and real words from a person who's assault Yvette at this point,
Aziz: But describe opening day on your first restaurant street as a young, fresh face 24 year old, was it everything you dreamed it would be, or were you faced with a harsh reality?
Faisal: Definitely not definitely, you that's like that's a definite not, I mean um, having a vision of how you want to restaurant is it shouldn't be compared to the first day, the first day, everything that's going to go wrong will go wrong. Alma can, the first day I remember cause a lot of people were anticipating us opening. built a very long hype for almost more than a year. We've been building the high-profile McCann. Cause it CA the, this project came at a time where people who were bored and they want to change. They wanted immediate change and they wanted big change.
So when a mechanic came in we built this great hype. I remember opening. We had people lining out my door across the corner of the building. Uh, So I still remember me like being in the kitchen, like hyperventilating, I'm just worried what might go wrong. And when I heard that. people were waiting in line outside, my heart like literally dropped cause I didn't expect what was going to happen. We launched, we opened tickets started flying in. We got smashed the first day. The like everything that was going to go wrong, went wrong. Food was wrong. Food was called. Tickets were sent to the wrong tables. People left not paying people never received their food. People waiting more than an hour. It was just a mess. It was a complete mess.
And I remember leaving the restaurant. I stood outside. I smoking my cigarette, you know, just being alone. I just didn't want anybody. And I still remember thinking to myself after four years of building this restaurant, this is how I wanted the restaurant to be. and I, and I re really remember answering myself. This is really not how I wanted restaurants to be, you know,
that point I was going to give up, you know, I was going to back out, cause it was so much drama, so much pressure, so much energy, so much adrenaline running through your body. You know, I just stopped my thinking. I'm like, I have to go back to home. I have to sleep. I have to think tomorrow morning. So I that's what I did. I didn't speak to anybody. I went home, I took a nap, woke up the next day. I'm like fresh as new. And that's how I've been every single day, every single day. It's the same thing until date. I got a comment, I got a complaint. I get whatever. And I'm always down next day. Next morning. It's always me being up again, going, you know, being so excited going to work. it's the same experience every single day till date.
Aziz: Is that reset? You're, you're, you're able to reset your, your mind every single day and come in fresh every morning. That's phenomenal. How do you do that? I mean,
Aziz: I'll okay. So the major players in the Kuwaiti culinary industry are, well-established have a lot of resources and money and whether or not we like it, they've defined the local food and restaurant culture for decades. It was kind of the Applebee's Chili's kind of culture. I'm certain that they took a sharp head turn at the arrival of a hungry 24 year old to the scene. How were you received by your peers and counterparts?
Faisal: Coming into the market, I believe. we were ahead turtle because coming in at a very young age, 24, were four partners. Okay. Three other partners, everybody, running a different aspect of the company. Um,
So we reached a level where the market was just going backwards instead of forwards, pallet just became more and more amateur. Uh, unfortunately, so we always ask this question and I believe that was my side. Mainly I was the chefs, going to a lot of restaurants. I used to be a food critic at a certain time because I just loved going to restaurants and just tasting different kinds of food, whether good or bad.
And um, every time I came back to Kuwait, I dined out and I always had the same question. Like, why are all restaurants the same thing? why can't we have any other variety? It's the same thing everywhere we go. And that's the reason why we came in and we wanted to develop a concept where it was a personal representation Of a character or an identity rather than having concept built off consumers because practically that's what all restaurants were doing.
If I know burgers will sell, I'm going to do a burger. You know, if I know sushi will saw I'm going to do sushi. Okay. So why don't I do like the burger sauce on a sushi. Okay. Wow. That's a new dish, you know, and unfortunately that's the ideology of where we reached and All of a sudden, the market just turned into one mesh a flavor profile, which we really wanted to get out of it.
And that's what we did. We came in, we opened up with them. And everybody started looking towards us. They're like, how the hell do people or kids this age opened the restaurant, this big, we were 300 square meters. We were covering around 70 people. Okay. And serving the food that we did. So all the big eyes used to turn towards us. So all the big boys that I used to learn from used to pat, our backs, you know,
Yeah.
Aziz: That's Phenomenal.
So you were saying that all of these other groups, all these other restaurant groups and chefs and restaurant tours where we're supportive of, of what you're doing and they came in and they kind of showed, uh, you, you know, and they encouraged you, is that right?
Faisal: I know, look, oh, it's, it's both ways at the end of the day, um, uh, some are definitely there to support some are there to learn. Some are there to, to be, uh, influenced, to be inspired, but generally speaking, no matter what reason you're there, you're there, you know, at the the day,
Aziz: exactly. so the food critic needs access to be powerful and the chef restaurant tour needs the critic to be successful. So who has more power in that equation? You mentioned talking about the self-proclaimed coffee connoisseur, but what about the food critic?
Faisal: Um, you know, I've been, I've been fighting for this for the past seven years, wanting to get to real critics because unfortunately in Kuwait, we don't really get real. We don't really, we never had the real critics, uh, the critics that we have, our influences, and that's where there's always a confusion towards it. Today influencers are considered food critics to some extent.
So now that's the level of where we've reached. There isn't anybody specified and going to restaurants, tasting food and grading food. There are many, but most of them, their main sole purpose is to be famous on Instagram and later to charge restaurants to post. Uh, accounts,
so when you questioned the self it's, honestly, chefs being chefs you know the, the critics do not drive for restaurants and Kuwait, or let's say the influencers do not drive restaurants. They are there as a tool for restaurants to make money they're there as a tool to help promote definitely they're a great tool help promote your items to promote your, your restaurant or your, your new joints on social media. However they're not the Right, people that make judgements because the restaurants, I believe are powerful enough to make their own you know identity or theory towards the market.
Aziz: So I think that Kuwaitis do understand is the influencers that you're talking about. Right? So influencers understand that people in general are visual creatures and they are either going to beautify themselves or beautified the pictures to get more followers. So just like people shop with their eyes, they tend to eat with their eyes as well. What role does sexy and inviting plating play in your business?
Faisal: a hundred percent. I mean in Kuwait uh, I would say not to, not only in Kuwait, maybe in the GCC it's not really about sexy plating as much as it's about interactive plating. You know, our phone is our number one tool. Before we even touch the plate. Our phones are out. We love to film stuff that is happening on the table. Especially if it's interactive.
And that's why if you would see the dishes that have been created over the past seven years today it's much more interactive than what I used to. That's why sauces are being poured on table. That's why sauces are poor. on top of pancakes, maybe on a mechanic, the jackpot fries, you receive it in a bag, you know, and you have that experience opening up the back. And also it's more about interaction rather than a plating.
Plating definitely plays a big role. However, interaction plays a much bigger role.
So people are always looking for the, for, for the next thing. I think maybe in the next year you would see a pinata being placed on the, on, on the, on the table, just waiting for appeals to bash it up, you know?
So,
um,
Aziz: with concussions by the end of that.
Faisal: I mean, this is interesting because you would see a lot of um, creative dishes being developed in a certain way, just to kind of have that experience. Sometimes a big percentage of the time is not really practical. It's just for the visual aspect, like for example, the, the, the viral, uh, cafe that went, uh, uh, serving coffee in, in a, in a, uh, you know, in a, in a baby's
Aziz: Oh yeah. And it was
Faisal: milk bottle and, you know,
Aziz: yeah
Faisal: but again, you can't read the answer why there's no real specific reason. Why, why, why are you serving an ice latte out of a milk bottle? There's no reason it's just because it's interactive, you know? So that's what people like.
Aziz: Funny enough. That was such a notorious scene that I think they got shut down. So
Faisal: Yes, yes. They got shut down
Aziz: Hey guys, this is the part of the podcast where people usually tell you to buy this product or subscribed to this service, but we don't have any sponsors yet. So we'll sell ourselves. Instead. We have four simple asks one, please subscribe. If you haven't already. To share the podcast, share it with your friends, share with your family and share it with a stranger. Start a conversation, three, check out the show notes. You can find all the references that we've already made and are about to make on there. And for engage with us on Instagram and email, enjoy the rest of the show.
Aziz: Um, so you've been described as an artist, creative, a storyteller. I can imagine that creating a menu is a fine balance between expressing yourself on the plate and propping up the bottom line to ensure a healthy cash flow. Do you see adding the chicken tender burgers and fries to the menu to meet the bottom line is a selling out your artistic expression.
Faisal: I think it's an important thing to consider. Definitely. it's an equation that you have to create that puts you and your consumer in the same equation and for you to have your answer because it's something that we've learned over the past year is where we created the equation. I had to put myself my consumer, what they like, what they dislike and what I like and what I dislike and finding an answer that pleases both ends, you know,
so yes, did have to place a burger. Yes, we did have to place chicken tenders and all of that onto our menus, but that was only for the consumers to, respect who we are. And for me to respect my consumer, know, for the consumer to come in and to take that step towards your door, they would have to make sure that you are serving something that is safe to, for them to see chicken tenders are on a menu or for them to see a Caesar salad on the menu is always safe.
whatever way it's being plated or whatever way it's being presented to them. This is a safe dish and yes, I am very safe. And I know that I'm going to eat this dish and it's up to you as a creator and up to you as a chef, how you would want to develop this into your own likings. And that's always the equation that you have to draw.
learned this by the way. Yeah. After we opened uh, because that was our answer to, our survival. We were at one point, honestly, I was at McCann. We were at one point where we're on the verge of closing down the first year. and it was heartbreaking to see a concept this strong and this well-thought-out to not make any income, you know, because we stuck to our own identity and, or our own visions.
And that's when we had to realize that were doing it on our likings. However, what about the people at the end of the people that are going to pay my bills? They're the ones that are going to pay my salary. So they have to be in the equation too. So that's when we had to kind of question that the whole game again, and then we had to redevelop the whole menu and we've been following the same strategy, no people, I don't have a con equals a dish, you know, equals What do you want to create? So that's the same philosophy that we've been following
Aziz: I love that you put people first in that equation, like understanding that the customer is what you're doing this for. I mean, you want people to experience your concoctions in your, intellect on the plate, you know? so that's phenomenal that that's, know, it's something that you had to learn the hard way, but
Faisal: Definitely,
Aziz: lesson that you'll never forget.
Right,
Faisal: definitely. I mean, it's, at the end of the day, we realized that back in 2014, when we first opened, I had to understand that this was the society I was dealing with. The people that do know what duck is, the people that have never tasted kimchi or the people that have never experienced ramen, you know, they are my people you know, and how can I make my people eat my food. It also, it was, it was, it was a very kind of complex situation where we had to kind of break down and like, okay, fine. Fair enough.
Know, and which was super interesting, you know, I always say this I try not to say it on interviews, but most of the dishes that we create had a lot of nostalgic planning or had a lot of history to my personal experiences.
So when we first opened the McCann, we didn't have any fries, you know, and people love messy fries, the fries with the sauce, with the jalapenos and things like that. So when I developed the menu, again, we had to add that fry. So we call the jackpot fries. Okay. And it comes in a bag, you know, it's just a twisted bag and it comes to the table and it twisted by a new open the bag.
And you just consumed the price. Now the whole purpose of the fries, it was me as, you know, being 24, me being a, you know, rebellious mastermind behind the menu uh, it was a comeback for the Kuwaiti kind of mentality. It was like a, it was a dump. I used to call the dumpster mentality, you know, so that bag resembled the dump, you know, I was like, you know what? You want fries? I'll give you fries. You want sauce? I'll give you a sauce. You want bacon? I'll give you bacon. No problem. give it to you in a trash bag.
You know, and only my close friends know the story, you know? And it's very funny to see where it reached today, because today it is our number one salad, every single table orders, fries, you know, and you see it the white.
Aziz: people were taking photos at the bag and they're like, look at me. This bag is cool.
Aziz: Yeah. Well, let's talk about that culture, right? I mean, so Kuwait has the goal of being the food capital of the world by 2030. I mean, that's a huge feat, right. But how can Kuwait attract international foodies when you don't have a single Michelin star? You don't have critics. You don't have really group of people that really understand what is going on from a culinary perspective. How is that a goal? reality.
Faisal: Um,
Look, I think there's a misconception on food capital of the world. Now concept was created by my friend account for he's the owner of chocolate. And um, they, they made a very big plus the whole campaign about food capital they interviewed a lot of chefs.
They interviewed a lot of big personalities in the food industry to talk about the food culture or food capital. Now the misconception, is that what you're exactly saying? However, what the reality is, what they meant by the food capital of the world is that which is a great initiative by the way.
It was technically recant, proposing an idea for let's say the government for the private sector, for the public sector, for individuals, for everybody, technically stating that, which is this. We are no longer gonna survive on oil. we don't have any other means of income.
So why don't we make Kuwait a food capital? Why don't we make our soul country income from food? And when he says that states that food, because we've seen a rise in the FMB industry, and that was basically the rise of carriage Talabat delivery, didn't come into the market yet. So it. was the prime, prime, prime days FMB, which is in 2016,
Aziz: yeah,
Faisal: So that was his concept was why don't we, the government, why don't you fund the FMB. You know, and to making it a much more solid sector that you could live off from instead of just living off of oil, because today, as you see on weekends, most of the GCs people travel to Kuwait and they literally go on a food frenzy.
They would go on restaurants, frenzy, they would go onto, they would come into lists and go to on a daily basis. They would visit five to six to seven restaurants on a daily basis just to eat.
Aziz: it. Cause
Faisal: It's amazing. I've seen it. Most of my restaurants, you know, Saudis. It's crazy.
Okay. Imagine just 500 people just came in on a weekend, you know, from these people, this is extra cash and income. that's just dropped into the.
So if you multiply that by a much bigger number, you know, and making quite a food tourism place and a food capital where you're going to have more restaurants, more food servicing companies more schools, you know, it's just the pinnacle of a start to a food capital where you're going to have a lot of businesses just servicing restaurants, you know, or servicing food. Generally
Aziz: So another thing that you can think about with this challenge of the 2030 you know, food capital is that, you know, you would try to attract people not only from the GCC. So we're talking about Europeans, Americans, Canadians people that enjoy to pair their meals with alcohol. So how can help employers attract these international foods? With alcohol being off the menu.
Faisal: I mean, look we always hear this question or we always hear the saying by any expert that lives in Kuwait, always the same thing. They always say the same thing, which is the food here is not like anywhere. You know, it's always the same thing, they always talk about the quality of food.
Or when I say food, I'm not really talking about the standard. I'm talking about quality. Okay. The quality of food that we get here is, is unmatchable. Because most of the food that we do bring in is of the highest quality we begin, the best meat we bring in the best chicken we bring in the best vegetables, because we like restaurants only use vegetables from Holland, for example, or from the states. We only use beef from the states or from Australia or from New Zealand. We only use lamb from New Zealand or from Arabic countries, you know, South Africa. you know, so generally speaking, the supply that comes into this country is of high quality.
So, which is amazing. So if you get this high quality, you know, with the right mindset, you would see the outcome being something much better than what's being served today.
You don't really need alcohol to be part of an experience. Because there's always different aspects to it, whether it's dining, whether it's the factories that are being created to supply restaurants. You know, who would, assume that there are cheese farms that produce burrata cheese and mozzarella cheese And Parmesan, cheese, and equate, you know, people would not believe that, you know, amazingly last year because of Corona, we had the big supplier issue with Italy.
So for a very long time, I had to switch my minor Pollyanna pizzas with the fresh Buffalo mozzarella from Kuwait, you know, which is unbelievable, you know, amazingly, so that's just one fraction of what Kuwait could be. Cause there's a million, million, million other things you've got the agriculture, you know, I've got friends that are growing mangoes in Kuwait. There are people that growing saffron, Kuwait, you know? so won't be amazed like years later that people we'll grow truffles, you know, black truffles over here. You know,
Aziz: That is huge. And that's amazing. And now that you bring up farms, I know there's a huge passion among the minority of the consumers for locally produced farm to table restaurants. So you know, locally sourced foods are usually more expensive you know, and that means that the customer is sometimes won't be able to afford to the higher price. So what's your strategy running your seven restaurants for balancing
Faisal: yeah.
Aziz: the selection of locally produced and international supply price.
Faisal: Look in quite it's a bit, like let's say it's the other way around the local produce is much cheaper than international produce because the international you're going to pay for customs. You're paying for the service of suppliers. You're paying for certain quality, as I mentioned, you know you're getting the best Bazell for example, you're getting the best beef you're getting the best potatoes you know, from Idaho states.
You know, so, you're always paying a premium whereas in Kuwait, if you're taking local, it's always going to be the cheaper, however, that's not always and about scenario because sometimes the local is always better, you know, sometimes there's no point for me to shipping tomatoes from Italy, summer's Arno's can be grown and quick. And that was the case with sun, you know, Satish Toronto is based off a San Marzano tomatoes. So we used to ship it from Italy, from Naples. And, um, he called me one day. He's like, yo, I have some Marzano growing. I'm like, hello, that's even better. You know? started getting some Marzano's from Kuwait, you know, and sometimes it's just a matter of finding the Right. standard and quality I always support locals.
I would always love to get my stuff local. However what's happening is and most of the time people don't really see this is that, you know, growing stuff it's always comes by seasons. Okay. Stuff grows at a certain season. Stuff dies in a certain season. If there is not enough.
If I'm the only restaurant requesting stuff to be grown for me specifically, I'm only going to get it a couple of months a year. And That's what happened to the San Marzano. You know, I only got maybe two months a year and the rest the 10 months I had to ship it from abroad. Even though I love the local tomatoes, it just work.
You know, there are growing, but if there was a much bigger demand, that's when they could grow their greenhouse, that's when they can make sure that, you know, they could grow it all year round to make sure that the stock is always available. So that's usually how, this works.
Aziz: All right.
Aziz: Okay. So being that your early introduction to the food world was through BBC food programming, which for TV chefs, would you put on your Mount Rushmore of culinary giants?
Faisal: Sure. I mean, there's a lot of shifts and um, you know, London there's always BBC food in the states. There's always food network, you know, in Kuwait, there is peat, you know, everywhere. There's always a couple of chefs. The top chefs that always, I believe uh, paved an important role in my current career or my learning aspect. First of all in London Michel roux, Jr. he's a British chef, French or origin and super let's say minimal, very upscale food. He's also big on BBC food. I think he had his own program
gordon Ramsey, Porter, shoe Ramsey. Cause I fell in love with Gordon Ramsay, not on TV, but on YouTube. Because on TV you always get that you know, that kind of attitude. Uh, But, on YouTube, it's a completely different uh, experience cause he has his own program. And you would actually see Gordon Ramsey being himself, you know, being around his family.
Um, and nigella Lawson was definitely one of the top, top, top people that I still love to date. Uh, Cause she shows you the aspect of, creative thinking, but at the same time home cooking the way that they merged the film aspect of that. Film direction to cooking was the reason why I have superscription today. You know, it is literally how I wanted people to see my food,
Aziz: okay. So you mentioned getting a lot of inspiration from BBC food and the food network, et cetera, but which or non-fiction inspired you to call to action on a personal or career level?
Faisal: Look, asking a chef about books is you always gotta be for cookbooks,
Aziz: Awesome. I like that answer. I like it.
Faisal: cookbooks, always, and forever. It's going to be cookbooks. Look David Chang was one of the first books that I actually read from cover to cover cookbooks for your reference. Most of the chefs know, read cookbooks. it's always skimming through them. you might read the recipe itself.
You might read the intro. You might read some snippets here and there, but reading cookbook from start to finish is very kind of rare. Um, I read the David Chang's Momofuku book from cover to cover. I read uh, Ivan Rahman's cookbook from, cover to cover.
They've chunked definitely is an inspiration. Even before I read the book, And I love his personality because he is a person that is extremely playful and he's a person to me that changed the whole food industry in the states because he brought to table the understanding of playful food. And not being ashamed of let's say normalizing uh, stuff. Like He, uh, recently introduced his, his microwave cook, like cookware. just like cooking out of microwaves, you know, he's a two Michelin star chef, you know, cooking out of microwaves. So, I love that, persona of David Chang and I really admire his thinking process. And I really think I have a very close relationship him as an idol.
Aziz: Beautiful, beautiful. You shared so many important messages, but what's one important message that you want our audience to walk away and take away from our story.
Faisal: okay. Look, the last message would give is definitely um, I mean, it might sound cliche, but, but I mean, never give up. super cliched. I know. And every person might say the same thing, but really do not give up because. I've been in a position where I could easily produce and cook things that everybody has been doing. You know, I can be like every other chef I can open other burger restaurant, which is just going to be like everything else.
But the main reason why I did this is because I want to change the persona and I want to change the culinary identity of Kuwait, I want to be the reason to make it easier for chefs to come in and develop restaurants. And I believe personally, I think we did people believe it or not, whether people want to take it into account or not. But I do believe that we came in at 2014,
we had to normalize wearing a white jacket, you know, and walking into my kitchen and leading my staff and being there every single day and walking up to my customers and talking to the person that I'm taking their orders and understanding what they liked, what they disliked. People respected that. And today people seeing me in my jacket, in my restaurants till they come to me and I appreciate, you know, to me. This is success to me. This is, I don't really care about the money. Success has never been about that because if it was about money, I would have opened up like another business, or I would open it up other restaurants from the start and not bother going through all this headache, And me being here today is because of that is because of the time, the effort, you know, the blood, sweat, the tears went across over the past seven years. It was for us to, reach this, to me, this is the first level. It's not even blast. It's the first level. And I believe we have much more to implement to benefit this country even to much higher levels.
Aziz: I love you saying that. I love you saying that this is only the first level um, because it's clear to see that from all your restaurants and projects ever evolving. Right? So what is next for their prolific Faisal and SME? If this is level one, what's level two, going to be like.
Faisal: Look. I think over the restaurants that we've opened it's always been a growth and the standard there's always been a growth in operation. There's always been a growth an experience San is the recent one that we opened. And to me, Today is the most successful restaurant out of our group.
And today it is considered the most, one of the top successful restaurants in Kuwait today to date sun, sun is almost more than a year old. This happened because of, of what we learned over the past years, we learned, and by the way, sun was the easiest restaurant that we operated. We develop the restaurant in three months, and today it is the most successful restaurant.
I believe because we learned a lot, we learned a lot of mistakes. We learned a lot of things over the past year that we implemented that made this job much easier with a much tougher restaurant today, if you compare Santo and McCann Stein is a much tougher restaurant uh, but again, it's making better numbers. it's considered much higher restaurant as a standard.
So I think the next step for us is we never get we're always hungry for new concepts. For me, whether it's next one or the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth ones do combine now, it's always going to be elevating concepts even further for me to reach the ideal, which is a fine dining, hopefully however long it might take three, four or five years. God knows. Uh, But to reach that level to me we have achieved a great goal. We have achieved a great you know, aim that I used to have, and I wish that does happen.
Aziz: Beautiful. Beautiful, Thank you so much for joining the dialogue. Thank you so much for sharing your insights. You've been phenomenal. I really
appreciate
Faisal: Thank you
Aziz: your weekend with us and we
Faisal: bye.
Aziz: wait until we get to connect and collaborate.
Faisal: Sharla. Definitely. Thank you as he is. Thank you so much for having me on it's actually my first podcast. And I'm super, super, super excited to be here. Um, I'm really happy. Um, Amazing questions again. I talked about a lot of things today that I haven't even considered talking with many other people like bag mentality. So it's very fun to be here. So thank you guys. Thank you
Aziz: Thank you so much.
I appreciate you, man. Thank you so much.
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