#Q+A
Getting to Know
CHEF FAISAL AL DELEIGAN Meet Served Magazine’s latest contributor.
Faisal Al Deleigan is a Banker, a worldrenowned Chef, consultant, and a humanitarian soul at heart. “Listen to your instinct and follow your heart”. This is the mantra of Chef Faisal who believes in following your passions. Faisal courageously left a highly paid job and gave up a successful, 10-year banking career to follow his passion for cooking. This love for food paved his way to becoming a successful culinary expert and consultant.
shawarma roll caught my eye for the first time. The sight of it made my mouth water. I had no money to buy one and was too scared to have to ask my parents, so I saved up my school lunch money until one day I had enough to buy a sandwich. It was the greatest experience tasting something new and exploring food like that. What was your childhood kitchen like, and who did the cooking?
Faisal is now a world-renowned Chef and runs a highly successful F&B business: Chef Faisal Consultancy in Saudi Arabia. For the past 12 years he has mentored and tutored business owners of restaurants across; fast food, casual and fine dining sectors in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Our kitchen was very modest, consisting of only one thin counter, a small range cooker and a tiny fridge. My mum did all the cooking back then, and she took great pride in it. Mum absolutely adores cooking for her family; she has always cooked with love, and I was brought up to do the same. So, while the kitchen itself was small, our passion for food was immense!
What is your fondest food memory?
Who inspires you most?
My fondest food memory harks back to my childhood when I was just 10 years old. We were lucky enough to only ever eat home-cooked food back then. I was with my neighbour one day and decided to explore the area around us, and this
I am inspired by lots of people but none more so than my family (my wife and two kids). Everything I do is for them; they inspire me in every step I take, and they’ve always kept me going when things have been tough.
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What are the pillars of Saudi Arabian cuisine, and how do they show up (if at all) in your cooking today? The main characteristic of Saudi food is slow cooking, and there is no doubt that this is often a feature of my dishes. Another essential aspect of Saudi cuisine is the notion that rich in flavour doesn’t mean having loads of ingredients, rather that it is rich in taste. I would like to think that this is also reflected in my cooking! What’s your current favourite meal to eat out? And where? Lately I have been getting into the Slow Food movement, so rather than eating out, my focus is to simply associate the pleasure of food with a commitment to my community and the environment. Can you pick one must-have ingredients? If you’d have asked me this question years ago, I would have said my ‘must-have’ was butter or meat, and my opinion used to alternate between the two. However, with all the experience I’ve accumulated over recent years, I can say with all certainty that it’s salt.