LONDON: Ayman Al-Zubaidi — the acclaimed chef behind Hijazi Corner, London’s first Saudi Arabian restaurant — has cooked for dignitaries, diplomats, celebrities and even the Kingdom’s royal family. But his most discerning critics were waiting for him much closer to home. In 2021, after several years living in London, Al-Zubaidi came home to Jeddah.
But instead of the football shirt his family had pictured him wearing after his UK studies in sports science, he returned in chef whites. It was a transformation that no one saw coming — least of all him. Growing up in Jeddah’s Al-Sabeel district with his sister and three brothers, Al-Zubaidi could barely boil his own water.
The kitchen was strictly his mother’s territory, and his late-night culinary ventures didn’t go far beyond packets of instant noodles. But now, the tables had turned, and his mother was seated as his guest. “When I first moved to the UK, I was clueless in the kitchen, so I called her for help,” Al-Zubaidi tells Arab News from his restaurant in London’s de facto Arab district of Edgware Road.
It was her loving mentorship that laid the foundations for his culinary journey, shaping his path to becoming one of London’s most distinctive chefs. “When any chef starts to speak about food, they talk about their mum. Her chicken kabsa is a bit oily, a bit shiny and looks amazing — even just talking about it now I become hungry,” Al-Zubaidi says.
“But even if I had the same ingredients and .
