What’s Cooking? With Karim Abdelrahman

Karim Abdelrahman is a brilliant gourmet chef who is making top-tier food accessible! Karim shares his fabulous creations on his acclaimed Instagram platform ‘Avec Karim’. He firmly believes that the average person can achieve similar results at home.

“An amateur cook who reads a lot can definitely achieve similar results. It’s our duty as chefs to simplify the process and show people how they can create mouthwatering gourmet recipes at home,” Karim says.

This knowledge and appreciation of gourmet food, however, does not stop him from enjoying simple home or street foods.

“What has changed is that now I can have some knowledge to be able to make this food even better, and take it to different standards,” Karim explains. This strong relationship with food comes as no surprise. Karim was passionate about food since he was young.

“What drew me to cooking was the notion of how you can take simple ingredients and turn them into experiences for people to enjoy. I call this the magic of cooking,” Karim tells.

While it is not easy to study something unusual such as cooking, Karim’s parents were supportive of his dream.  However, he did fave a language barrier. “I was never a French speaker. To be able to work at such a high level and in Michelin-starred restaurants in France, I had to learn,” Karim tells.

Karim Abdelrahman is not only aware of the sexism issue in the culinary industry, he’s actively working on making it better.

“Enter any kitchen and you’ll find it colonized by men only. It’s rare to see women working in professional kitchens in the Egyptian food industry, and I’m sure the ones who do suffer a lot,” Karim continues,

“I fight this by trying to include on my team as many professional and smart women as possible.”

“My team now consists of two women and one man, which shows if they are given the opportunity they can shine,” Karim says.

When it comes to comfort food, Karim takes the simple route. “Toasted bread with fine churned butter and some flaky sea salt make me the happiest,” he concludes. Follow AvecKarim on Instagram to keep your taste buds tingly!