Virtual Chefs
Brenda
Brenda is an Egyptian-American who grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her love of food began at an early age, as she watched her mother cook traditional Egyptian meals. Growing up and going to school in Michigan exposed her to a wide array of cuisines and cultures. She learned Yemeni curries from her roommate, noshed on Ethiopian samboosaks with her law school friend, and even learned from her Indian American roommates how to store rice in Ziplocs and curries in yogurt containers. Her regular trips to Egypt growing up only deepened her fascination of her own Middle Eastern heritage. She always wanted to go on a culinary tour through Europe, to which her parents promptly replied, “Just go live with your aunt in Egypt.” Although she never quite did either, she has cooked her way through many traditional Middle Eastern recipes, and makes a bechamel her grandmother would be proud of. A lawyer by training, but a foodie at heart, Brenda currently resides in Abu Dhabi with her husband and beautiful twin boys.
Heba
Heba is an Egyptian-American who spent her childhood in Bahrain and Egypt, and moved to the States as a teenager. The memory of freshly baked pita bread from the corner furn (‘bakery’) next to her grandparents’ house in Heliopolis has been forever etched in her mind. She remembers – as if it were yesterday – her grandmother feeding her molokhia, rice and rabbit on the balcony overlooking Cairo. If she finished her plate, she would feed the bones to the stray animals downstairs – what five-year-old would not finish her plate with such a promise? Her love for food has only grown over the years, and she has cooked many Middle Eastern specialties and other global cuisines with vigor, some turning out delectable from the first try and others requiring a couple of flops to perfect. Some – ahem, pita bread from scratch – are yet to be perfected (er, attempted), but isn’t that what the life of a culinary aficionado is all about? Heba’s food philosophy is simple: she believes that food should be eaten in its most natural and most wholesome state. To read a bit about that, feel free to check out her personal blog, My Life in a Pyramid. She has a growing passion for sustainable organic agriculture and local farming (rooftoop chickens, anyone?). Heba has a Master’s degree in English Literature, and her love for reading and research has her reading and writing about food almost as much as she cooks. One of the best things that has ever happened to her is falling in love with Sherif, now her husband and taste-tester, who has the golden opportunity of enduring her culinary mishaps (and more often than not, enjoying her successes in the kitchen). Some of her favorite things: sunshine, family, good 80s music, anchovies, salsa dancing, Egyptian jokes, a good read, fresh raw cream with almost anything, and friendly strangers.
