Tune into Abu Dhabi Al Emarat TV at 3.55pm on any day of the Holy Month and you'll see the 18-year-old Emirati chef Bader Najeeb Al Awadhi whipping up simple iftar desserts on his show Ma'a Bader (With Bader).
But two years ago, Al Awadhi was about to throw away a potential career because of the brickbats he received after expressing his interest in baking.
“The idea then was that men in our culture don’t do that. It is a woman’s domain,” says Al Awadhi. “But this is far from the truth, of course. Just as women play and watch football, I don’t see why I can’t enjoy cooking. Nothing is gender specific,” says the self-taught chef, who, as a high-school student, first displayed his talents at the Young Entrepreneur Competition hosted by Think Up GCC.
In fact, Al Awadhi hopes to inspire a new generation of Emirati males to express themselves in the kitchen. “When I first started cooking, I didn’t find any Emirati chef to refer to. Then I thought, why not be the first one? Even now young people tell me they appreciate the determination I have to do what I believe in. So I am glad to be able to inspire people to be able to stand up for whatever career they want to take on.”
Al Awadhi was quick to follow his dream, accepting an offer to host a 15-minute cookery show, Sukar Ziyadat (Extra Sugar), on Sama Dubai TV last Ramadan. More recently, he led masterclasses at the Dubai World Hospitality Championship.
But Al Awadhi isn’t fully convinced about his first few steps in the culinary field just yet.
“I still feel this area is underdeveloped in the UAE,” says the chef, who is a business studies undergraduate at Dubai Men’s College. “So I thought it would be better to have a business degree to fall back on. Also, if I want to open my own restaurant or cafe, I will need business acumen.”
Al Awadhi was 13 when he wandered into the kitchen and coaxed his mother to let him assist in baking a carrot cake. He says she had hoped it was phase he would grow out of. “She thought I was kidding, but there was an instant connection with food and I got drawn to it more and more. It was no longer just what mothers did at home, but offered the prospect of a career.”
He bought cookery books and browsed food channels to wrap his head around the skills and cuisines that would form the basis for his own recipes. Al Awadhi says celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Buddy Valastro and Duff Goldman fuelled his passion.
“When I began baking, everything turned out overcooked or undercooked. I burnt quite a lot of food,” he says with a laugh. “Now, when I encounter a problem, I glance through my mother’s handwritten recipes to see where I went wrong. That always helps. The trial and error soon also brought accuracy and I began experimenting with my own recipes.
“I love to mix cuisines, especially now that I am learning more about different cultures.”
Al Awadhi says there is an Emirati “taste” to every recipe borrowed from another country. “I like to introduce ingredients from our culture into other dishes. For example, I’ll add saffron, cardamom and other spices to eclairs or poached pears.”
At the two-day cookery demonstrations during the hospitality championship, he tinkered with a classic crêpe and turned it into an Emirati dish he calls Oush Sagr (Nest of a Falcon). “I turned the crêpe into a pouch and used balaleet [vermicelli and egg] to make something that represents the UAE.”
He says being among other renowned chefs and being watched by hundreds of people was a nerve-racking but invaluable experience: “This was the first time I was cooking live and not for an audience watching me on TV or on their laptops.”
Al Awadhi has been sharing tips and recipes for his desserts on Facebook and Instagram. His followers – both men and women – have begun requesting recipes for savoury dishes.
“Baking is my first love,” says the chef. “I don’t see the point of having a meal that does not end in dessert. That is what we look forward to. This year, I began tweaking simple savoury and main course dishes to see if they’ll be as popular.”
Last month, he began giving cooking demos every Friday on his YouTube channel, WithChefB. “I share simple dishes such as spaghetti meatballs, shrimp pasta and other Italian dishes and salads.”
While juggling business classes in June, Al Awadhi shot for the Ramadan and Eid special for Ma’a Bader. All the five-minute episodes were shot outdoors in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai.
“We wanted to make a super-short show because no one has time during Ramadan for elaborate explanations,” he says.
With those commitments out of the way now, Al Awadhi has his sights sets on developing a full-fledged TV show, competing internationally and setting up his own restaurant. “The kitchen is a therapeutic place for me,” he says. “I cook to get over stress and if you ask me to do it 12 hours a day, nothing would make me happier. So getting my own restaurant up and running is definitely on the cards.”
• Ma’a Bader is broadcast daily during Ramadan at 3.55pm on Abu Dhabi Al Emarat. Next week in Trendsetters: Zeinab Al Hashemi, a young Emirati artist, who is making waves after exhibiting her work in last year’s Sharjah Biennial. Trendsetters is A&L’s eight-part summer series profiling innovative individuals excelling in their respective fields – aiming to shed light on the UAE’s promising artistic talents
aahmed@thenational.ae
