Four renowned chefs from the popular Arabic food channel, Fatafeat, will return to Qatar Airways’ Cooking Theatre to entertain visitors and showcase some of the world’s best Arabic cuisine at the seventh edition of the Qatar International Food Festival 2016 (QIFF) from March 22 to 28.
Co-organised by Qatar Airways and Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), this year’s QIFF will expand its Fatafeat’s Kitchen to reach all its Qatar fans.
On March 26, the Fatafeat Kitchen’s event will host Daad Abu Jaber, Salma Suleiman, Wafaa al-Kandari and Mohamed Orfali, catering to all food lovers through live cooking demos, question and answer, and meet and greet.
QIFF has grown in recent years to become one of the region’s most prestigious culinary events, demonstrating “food’s power” to draw people together.
More than 14 highly-acclaimed international and national chefs have been announced by Qatar Airways as presenters at this year’s live Cooking Theatre, offering guests “a world of wonderful flavours”.
“We want to create an inspiring festival for everyone, taking visitors on a global food journey, and these fantastic four Fatafeat chefs will add great value to our elite cast of celebrity chefs, showcasing traditional and fusion Arabic food that we can all recreate in our own kitchens,” said Qatar Airways marketing and corporate communications senior vice-president Salam al-Shawa.
Chef Daad Abu Jaber, who delighted crowds last year at QIFF, will share this year her passion for cooking and her own recipes that have been developed through a family tradition of cooking.
She will be joined by Suleiman, known for her love of blending Tunisian and Egyptian cuisines with international recipes to create popular signature recipes.
Al-Kandari will teach the secrets of Khaleeji food while Syrian chef Orfali will complete the line-up focusing on Aleppo and modern Arabic cuisine, demonstrating his 18 years of professional culinary experience for visitors to the live stage show.
“Fatafeat is the region’s number one food network and what better way to give back to our loyal viewers than by offering them the chance to meet and be inspired by Fatafeat’s team of talented chefs,” said Discovery Channel director and guest host Darine El Khatib.
According to QTA’s events and festivals technical support head Hamad al-Khaja, festivals such as QIFF are an important part of their strategy to attract visitors and increase tourism’s contribution to the economy. The festival takes place at the Museum of Islamic Art Park with satellite events at Katara and The Pearl-Qatar.