Ramadan is a month that unites people to share a meal as they break fast together. This year, talabat UAE held its iftar event at its headquarters in Dubai, bringing four female chefs from different walks of life with a common passion for food under one roof, to serve passed down traditional Ramadan dishes.
Paying tribute to their mothers and grandmothers who played an integral role in their journey, the four chefs presented a variety of Middle Eastern dishes and the unique stories they encapsulate, from Palestinian Musakhan, Persian Fesenjoon and Lebanese Sayadieh and Levantine Shish Barak.
The iftar was held in a cozy ambience in talabat HQ’s terrace overlooking the iconic Burj Khalifa and was attended by Tomaso Rodriguez, Chief Executive Officer at talabat, and Tatiana Rahal, Managing Director at talabat UAE.
The event is part of talabat UAE’s effort to highlight and support small and medium sized businesses in the UAE, as well as home projects, which play a crucial role in introducing new concepts to the market. All excess food from the iftar event was delivered to the UAE Food Bank using talabat’s 100% plant-based sustainable packaging and distributed to communities in need to prevent food wastage.
Meet the female chefs that made the iftar evening special:
Chef Renée Kachmar (also known as Roro) – Roro’s Cuisine
Chef Renee, also known as Roro by her family and friends is behind the restaurant “Roro’s Cuisine”.
Growing up, Renee enjoyed setting up the dinner table while watching her mom cook back in her home country, Lebanon. After school, Renee pursued a degree in architecture, after which she devoted her time towards her full-time job while following her mother’s footsteps and bringing family and friends together to share her homemade food over weekends. Renee quickly became known as “Roro” amongst friends and family who would compliment her food and encourage her to open her own restaurant.
Eventually, Chef Renee opened her own catering and delivery services in Beirut in 2019. When her daughter moved to the UAE, Chef Roro relocated Roro’s Cuisine to the UAE to be with her and officially opened in January 2023. Today, Roro’s Cuisine offers a wide variety of daily meals and easy to cook frozen food products. All meals delivered from Roro’s kitchen are made by Chef Renee using only fresh ingredients.
By combining her passion for architecture and food, she sees every dish as an artwork – from flavors to presentation.
Dishes presented: warak enab (vine leaves) and fish Sayadieh (a Lebanese fish with rice dish). Roro’s cuisine is available for online orders on the talabat app in Dubai.
@Roroscuisine on Instagram
Chef Rima Eid – Msakhan w Bas
Rima started cooking from the age of 17 back in her family’s home in Lebanon. After getting married to a Palestinian, she fell in love with Palestinian cuisine by watching her mother-in-law cook, spending hours in the kitchen with her as she mastered the cuisine and began to explore new ways to recreate and serve it.
After having her fourth child, Rima decided to go back to university and received her Bachelor’s degree in design, working as an interior designer for seven years. However, March 2022 was a turning point in her career, when she made Palestinian food for her daughter’s international day at work and it instantly became a hit when her daughter’s colleagues started asking her to take orders. On the very same day, Rima started her Instagram account, selected a name for her new project and began to work on her branding while applying for permits to sell food. Rima instantly left her full time job to do something she was always passionate about.
With a focus on Musakhan, Rima cooks her onions differently, following a technique that takes a couple of hours to achieve the desired texture without the traditionally oil-heavy and greasy method.
Dish presented: Her signature Musakhan Fatteh and Musakhan sandwich rolls. Msakhan w Bas is available as a delivery-only restaurant on the talabat app.
@msakhanwbas on Instagram.
Chef Zahra Abdulla – Zahra’s Kitchen
Chef Zahra Abdulla is an Iranian/Sudanese entrepreneur, cookbook author, and social media influencer. She started her culinary journey with her online blog in 2010, which led her to present her own cooking shows on MBC3 and host the fourth season of a food and travel documentary show called Maggi Diaries on MBC1.
Today, Zahra creates modern interpretations of Middle Eastern recipes, inspired by her childhood and travels, combining flavours from the region through “Zahra’s Kitchen” line of frozen food items. All “Zahra’s Kitchen” recipes are handcrafted and made with real ingredients that are responsibly sourced, without any additives or preservatives.
Zahra aims to inspire other women to pursue their passion and not allow difficulties to come in their way. A few years ago, she found healing space in cooking when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer during her pregnancy, but that did not stop her from pursuing her passion for food, cooking and traveling the world to explore new flavours.
Dish presented: Her signature appetizers (Beef & pumpkin kibbeh, musakhan rolls, spinach and cheese puff bites, beetroot and parsnip hummus. You can order her frozen food and appetizers on the talabat app through talabat Mart. @cookingwithzahra on Instagram
Chef Manal – Manal Food Boutique
Manal has always been passionate about cooking growing up. Funnily, her mother liked to cook on her own and Manal would sneak in to cook when her mother was away. One day when her mother was out of town, she decided to recreate one of her mother’s fatayer and explore new flavors, which her grandmother and father were very fond of. Being selective with food, everytime they complimented her dishes, she was encouraged to try something new.
After marriage, she continued to cook for her family at home and add her own twist of modern flavors to traditional levantine dishes. In 2015, one of her daughters pushed her to start an Instagram page and helped her with taking videos and photos of her food, and her page started to grow from there.
She now offers cooking classes which she announces on her Instagram page to carry on the legacy of mothers and highlight the role of traditional homemade food in Middle Eastern culture. She is now in the process of receiving the required permit to start selling her food items.
Dish presented: “Shish Barak” (meat dumplings) with rice and her signature kunafa bites.
@manalfoodboutique on Instagram.
