UAE chefs on how they 'handle' fasting in Ramadan

Abbas Khamis and Ahmed Badr. - Photo by Shihab

Dubai - "I am usually asked, 'how do you handle Ramadan?' Surprisingly, working in Ramadan is much easier and makes you more productive," said Khamis.

Avoiding the smell and sight of food is the majority's coping mechanism during their fasting days in Ramadan. But chefs, whose jobs involve fluttering around the kitchen to prepare for hundreds of guests daily, did not make it sound as daunting as it appears.
"Experience," that is how Abbas Khamis, sous chef of the main kitchen at Jumeirah Beach Hotel, described it.
"I am usually asked, 'how do you handle Ramadan?' Surprisingly, working in Ramadan is much easier and makes you more productive," said Khamis.
His colleague, Egyptian Ahmed Badr, a room service chef, agreed and said knowing that people are fasting drives him to present the best he can.
"You want to make the top dishes because you know people have not eaten all day. And when you work from all your heart, the food actually comes out great," said Badr, who has been a chef for the past 35 years.
Speaking of hunger, he said being surrounded by food all day makes it difficult to eat Iftar once the prayers are on. "I am not hungry when I cook, so I have Iftar later than everyone else does," he said.
Badr spends his mornings preparing international cuisine for room service, before joining Khamis in the main kitchen to work on the gigantic Arabic and international Iftar buffet that serves 250- 400 people per day. Both chefs work in a team of six.
"We divide the work among us to finish efficiently on time," said Khamis. "By 6.30pm, everything must be fresh and ready."
While for Badr choosing to become a chef came out of passion for the kitchen, Khamis said it was all a mistake. Following his father's footsteps, the Lebanese national was originally a mechanical engineer, but an accidental job swap to hospitality took him down the path of a chef. After 14 years, he does not regret it.
"I travelled the world as a chef. When I first started, I did not know anything about the field, but I learned it and loved it ever since," he said.
Getting the food on point The challenge faced by most professionals and home cooks is their inability to taste the food they are making. For that, Badr said working with specific measurements and ingredients helps overcome the challenge.
"When you do it for years, it becomes automatic." Khamis added that when in doubt, he resorts to a non-Muslim colleague to try out his recipes.