{"id":322985,"date":"2022-12-29T18:00:39","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T21:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/de-origem-egipcia-chef-se-especializa-em-pratos-arabes\/"},"modified":"2023-01-03T13:40:10","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T16:40:10","slug":"egyptian-origin-brazilian-chef-specializes-in-arab-cuisine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/egyptian-origin-brazilian-chef-specializes-in-arab-cuisine\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian Brazilian chef specializes in Arab cuisine"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Brazilian Felipe Kaizer (pictured above<\/em>) grew up in a family that cherished cooking<\/strong>. What he didn\u2019t know was he would retrieve the origin of these flavors and make them the basis of his specialization as a chef<\/strong>. One of Felipe\u2019s grandmothers, Emilia Kaizer, was born in Cairo<\/strong>, the capital of Egypt, and from there came recipes and influences she would share with her grandson.<\/p>\n

Still young, at 18, Emilia migrated with her family from Egypt<\/strong> to Brazil. She spoke only French and brought elements of Arabic<\/strong> culture and language through cooking<\/strong>. \u201cDishes, such as hummus, which means chickpeas, remained in Arabic. My grandmother cooks a lot, and I talked a little with her about the recipes; I often had lunch at her place. She made kafta and salads with wheat and herbs. My grandmother\u2019s sister, Mirela, used to cook well. And my grandmother\u2019s parents, including her father too, which is curious because that was less expected of a man,\u201d said Felipe.<\/p>\n

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Felipe\u2019s grandmother, Emilia Kaizer, attended one of the Egyptian-Brazilian cuisine dinners<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But his time in Israel helped the chef learn more about Middle Eastern cuisine. \u201cThat\u2019s when I realized I needed to value this, which belongs to my family,\u201d he said. There, he delved into restaurants and family recipes and discovered dishes from Algeria<\/strong>, Morocco<\/strong>, Tunisia<\/strong>, and even Yemen<\/strong>. \u201cI actively researched and took advantage of this mixture, with hints of various countries,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n

Brazilian-Egyptian food<\/strong><\/p>\n

On his return to Brazil, inspired by the experience with his origins, Felipe decided to leave restaurant kitchens and become a personal chef<\/em>, sharing his expertise in private lessons. Another front of his work is buffets and dinners, especially those with Egyptian and Arab themes.<\/p>\n

One of the places he cooked this year was Andar 43<\/strong><\/a>. The site used to house an office room on the penultimate floor of Mirante do Vale, S\u00e3o Paulo city\u2019s second-tallest building. The building is in front of the Anhangaba\u00fa Valley, in the capital\u2019s city center, and the new owner, of course, took advantage of the view. But not only. Today the environment has been transformed into a small urban jungle with native plants and antique furniture. Special events take place there, such as the Brazilian-Egyptian dinner signed by Felipe Kaizer in September this year.<\/p>\n

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Arab dinner Felipe produced earlier this year on Andar 43<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The menu highlighted the cuisine of the North African country, at the same time proposing the use of Brazilian ingredients in the dishes. \u201cIn the case of hummus, I swapped chickpeas for butter beans; there was also scarlet eggplant (gilo) baba ghanoush, among others. My grandmother even went to the first dinner. The feedback from people was excellent,\u201d detailed Felipe. \u201cI really like working with fish and seafood, and I started looking for recipes in the Arab world with these ingredients. So, it\u2019s another approach,\u201d he pointed out about how he has expanded his creations.<\/p>\n

The chef said the ingredients he has in his pantry are generally easily accessible in Brazil. There are, however, those he prefers to bring back from international trips, such as zaatar and Moroccan paprika he used recently, and those he considers more challenging to find, such as the grape leaf itself, which he uses for the stuffed grape leaf rolls. \u201cDespite being used a lot in local Arab restaurants, I had a lot of trouble finding the leaves in the quality I wanted. And the molokhia leaf, used in a typical Egyptian soup, is also hard to come by; I hardly find it. Other things, such as rose water, orange water, and cumin, are more accessible. By the way, the basis of Egyptian food is cumin, for sure,\u201d declared the chef.<\/p>\n

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On a trip to Turkey, the chef took the opportunity to stock up on spices<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other menus he prepared at Andar 43 also had Arab cuisine as a whole as a motif and even a Brazilian ingredient: cassava. \u201cThe idea is to hold more dinners there. I specialize in and want to work with Middle Eastern food and fish. But if the person asks for a different menu, I will always find a way to add an Arab touch. It\u2019s my trademark. I make a point of explaining the dishes with Arabic names. I can tell the origin, and we have this exchange. Recently, an Algerian participated in one of the events and said the food was just like in his country, very legit!\u201d celebrated the chef.<\/p>\n

On his Instagram account, @cheffkd<\/a> Felipe shows more about his work and the day-to-day search for ingredients to craft his dishes. At events, he has the support of a team, which varies depending on the order size. \u201cI can work a lot on creativity. I like meeting new people and being in different environments. I have my faithful sidekick Rana, who has already made brunches with a northeastern Brazilian theme on Andar 43. And I have other people who help, such as waitpeople, kitchen, and cleaning staff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But in addition to creative work, buffet production includes shopping, customer service, and budgeting. \u201cIt\u2019s growing up. The idea is to have our own space next year. I need to value myself and the people who work with me because making Arabic dishes is a pleasure, but it\u2019s also a lot of work,\u201d concluded the chef.<\/p>\n

Translated by El\u00fasio Brasileiro<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Felipe Kaizer researches and produces Middle Eastern cuisine and seafood dishes. The chef was influenced by his maternal grandmother, who was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2324,"featured_media":322950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[9803,2034,4600,26561,10398,30802,16451,37914,14864,37915,26760,37917,37916,12625,2063,9558,10626,9556,28491],"class_list":{"0":"post-322985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-egypt-en","9":"tag-algeria","10":"tag-arab-food","11":"tag-argelia-en-2","12":"tag-cairo-en","13":"tag-cairo-en-2","14":"tag-chef","15":"tag-chef-2-en","16":"tag-comida-arabe-en","17":"tag-comida-egipcia-en","18":"tag-egito-en-2","19":"tag-egyptian-food","20":"tag-felipe-kaizer-en","21":"tag-marrocos-ar","22":"tag-middle-east","23":"tag-morocco-en","24":"tag-oriente-medio-ar","25":"tag-tunisia-en","26":"tag-tunisia-en-3"},"wps_subtitle":"Felipe Kaizer researches and produces Middle Eastern cuisine and seafood dishes. The chef was influenced by his maternal grandmother, who was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}