Alia El Askalany | Hoog Culture

May 16, 2024

Fascinated by food since a very young age, Alia El Askalany, Founder of Lulu’s Kitchen, decided to pursue a culinary career by joining the prestigious Cordon Bleu School in London in 2014, as she trained at some of England’s most recognized eateries.

Alia also now holds a certificate from ONAOO Scuola in Liguria, as a professional olive oil sommelier, dubbing her the first Egyptian female chef & olive oil sommelier

There’s one way to exceptional culinary experiences, consultancy or collaborations, and it’s @lulus.kitchen

Alia, what is your earliest memory in the kitchen?

I was born into a family of fascinating women who are all talented cooks, starting with my late maternal grandmother. I remember that our house was always full of guests on different occasions, and the dishes they cooked that studded every buffet were all tastefully cooked & presented by either my mom or my aunt.

When was it that you knew you wanted to pursue a career in Culinary Arts?

I was going through a big life change in early 2011, and that included a big career shift. I started working at IRG (International Restaurants Group) – the main F&B company that managed Casper & Gambini’s and other concepts in Cairo, back then. I joined the company as Marketing & PR Manager for a few years, and sadly I was the first to go after they did a downsize.

Little did I know that this door that closed, opened another one

for me, to help me embark on my culinary path. I spent a lot of time with the chefs at IRG so they inspired me to do it myself and bring this dormant passion into life.

How do you think your time at Cordon Bleu informed your career & work ethic?

Le Cordon Bleu is one of the most prestigious culinary establishments in the world, especially after Julia Child’s association with it. At the school, you learn order, precision, foundations & technique, all of which are important for any rising chef. Although my approach is far from French cuisine which LCB bases a lot of things on, it set me up the right way.

4 Key Lessons:

Pip’s Dish (London):

The smaller the restaurant & kitchen, the better it is to learn at your own pace and know how to correct mistakes right away, in order to be prepared for the bigger ones. I made a lot of mistakes in that small kitchen, and was scolded often by Pip the owner, but it taught me courage & that fear is a way of being courageous.

Florence Culinary Art School (Florence):

Good ingredients can go a longlong way. I was introduced to Italian cuisine for the first time on this part of my

journey, and as much as the cuisine is so diverse from one region to the other, it is all about using good ingredients, even if they are two.

Anna Tasca Lanza (Sicily): Food and Heritage are two very important pillars

when it comes to preserving cuisine & culinary history. The more you learn about food heritage, the more you are able to apply it to your own cuisine and educate others about it easily.

ONAOO Scuola (Liguria) :

Your tastebuds are your superpower, the more you train yourself on how to appreciate taste, aroma, flavors and the meaning of taste, the better chef/food connoisseur you will become for yourself and for your clients.

What first prompted your eagerness towards adopting a farm-to-fork approach?

As a little girl, I used to always watch my grandfather come into the house in Alexandria where I spent much of my childhood days, with pink paper bags of fresh seasonal fruit & vegetables from his local green grocer. I remember also seeing a big plate of the freshest greens in season on his dinner tray.

From that seed of a memory grew an affinity to work closely with seasonality & local produce, throughout my menus, cooking and culinary approach.

How do you think people can allow ethical sourcing into their day-to-day lives?

A weekly visit to the farmers’ markets, which are a weekly happening in a lot of areas around Cairo now, plus sourcing their fresh produce from local farms and small-scale producers - versus the convenience of a supermarket, is as simple and basic as it gets.

You “bring Italian flair to Egyptian cuisine”. Why Italian & Egyptian, and why do you think they work well together?

There is a link between Italy and Egypt, not only through the Mediterranean but also through some ingredients. Sicily was dominated by Arabs for a large chunk of time so you will find tomatoes, pistachios, lentils, dry fava beans and very sweet desserts in common with us, among other things. Also, other regions like Puglia & Lazio share things with us – in Puglia they eat their dry fave beans (fave e chicorie) in puree form, and we eat in also in puree form with lots of green herbs, aka our “Bessara”. We eat Koshari, they eat “Pasta e Ceci” or “Paste e Lenticchie”; Pasta & Chickpeas, Pasta & Lentils. The list can go on forever.

How did you get into olive oil tasting?

When I did “Cook the Farm” in 2020, we had a few days covering extra virgin olive oil extensively, and that is where I first learned how to taste professionally.

Two years later, the same person who taught me how to taste (Sarah Wolferstan Guarini, Alivu Sicily) informed me about the professional tasting certificate at ONAOO Scuola (The National

Organization of Olive Oil Tasters) in Italy, and I decided to embark on this journey. If there are wine sommeliers who are also chefs, then there should be olive oil sommeliers who are also chefs, and that is what made me go for it – to be able to educate & enlighten other chefs in the industry as well as elevate my portfolio and offerings too. It also helps

me expand properly into the Mediterranean, where olive oil is very important.

3 Fun Facts About Olive Oil:

Olive Oil is a fruit juice – the olives are freshly picked, not allowed to touch the ground, and then taken to the mill to be pressed for the fresh oil. Other oils such as sunflower, corn…etc. are chemically treated for oil extraction.
The 3 positive attributes to determine if an olive oil is an extra virgin olive oil are “pungency” (when it feels spicy when you swallow it), “fruity” (when you smell the fruity aroma and get hints of it when tasting the oil) and “bitter” (when you have an aftertaste of bitterness after you swallow)
The antioxidants in olive oil are called “polyphenols”, which have amazing health benefits.
Bonus point: you can deep fry, shallow fry and stir fry in olive oil, and it will not cause you any harm – that is purely a myth. Olive oil has a very high smoke point, which means it will not break down easily, even if on high heat.

Lulu’s Kitchen started out as a boutique cooking class.

What are the key factors that have led to its development, as it currently offers a wide range of services?

Two years after launching LK, I added recipe development/culinary consultancy to the brand offerings and that was the first step into expansion, and a couple of years later followed the pop-up dining concept, which was a further step up. After I did cook the farm, I came back and COVID hit hard so I introduced my product range of sauces,

stocks and marinades; “The Pantry” and still continued with the normal offerings till business picked up. By then I felt that my identity has started to evolve into a “traveling chef”, where I also launched & held culinary experiences and workshops outside of Egypt, mainly in the Med like Italy & Lebanon. Finally, adding the olive oil tasting & consultancy to my portfolio catapulted Lulu’s Kitchen, into what it is now.

Complete the following sentence: If you want to work in Culinary Arts, you should be ready to… work hard, have patience with yourself and do not compare yourself to others or the pace of their path. Finally, embrace the beauty of working in one of the most creative & artistic fields across the board; here is something new to learn every single minute.

Alia, what are your dreams for Lulu’s Kitchen?

My dreams for Lulu’s Kitchen are to keep expanding on a global and regional scale.

I hope to continue inspiring others and continue getting inspiration from different parts of the world that can help me improve my offerings to my clients in Egypt, and abroad.

Lulu’s Kitchen has always been a trailblazer, a beacon and trend-setting concept in the F&B world, and it will continue to do so with every phase of the journey.