CHEF CESAR—THE ARABIAN KING OF CUISINES: By KHATIBAH REHMAT.
Chef of Arabian cuisines who is one of its own kinds in the Middle East is from Tripoli, Lebanon. Chef Cesar Nasr is famous for his Arabian cuisines and has been honoured with several awards. While taking his interview I realised that he is a very kind hearted person before being a wonderful chef. Someone has truly said that if one has to cook a delicious food then, they have to be clean from their hearts which I saw in Nasr. When I asked him about his rising interest over cooking multiple cuisines and preparing them the way no one else could, then he told me that his mother was a great cook and all this came from her only. He added that when he was a kid, he used to help her in the kitchen like, in cutting or chopping of vegetables or meat. Later, he began to prepare simple dishes and used to get praised from his mother and from other family members as well. She used to bring all the ingredients what he wanted to practice and prepare delicious dishes out of it.
People often say that they belong to so and so family, their grandfathers, great grandfathers were this and that etc., but when it comes to Chef Cesar Nasr, then he simply says that he belongs to a food loving family where, everybody is very much fond of having different types of cuisines. His childhood went watching his mother preparing delicious as well as healthy traditional Lebanese meals at home, for his father, brother and for him. When his mother acknowledged that her son Cesar is very much into cooking then she used to gift him kitchen tools as Christmas gift rather than presenting him toys which normally kids want in their childhood. This reason was enough for him to get motivated being a Chef in his life ahead. When Cesar grew up, he went into hotel management course as per he promised himself in childhood.
Chef Nasr did his Vocational Hotel studies for three years from 2004-2007, scoring excellent grades. After that he completed his further education from Hotel and Tourism Training Centre—Damascus, which is known as the very first hotel management institutes in entire Middle East. In 2009 he excellently scored first class marks in a diploma course for cooking techniques and hotel management. At the same time he was working for a four star property, though he had a neck to neck schedule but, things went really well gaining more of kitchen experiences. Chef Nasr added that just having a cooking skill isn’t enough to become a wonderful chef, one needs to be talented, strong in imagination, more into creativity and training oneself in a daily scenario to become best out of best chefs in entire world. He further speaks about his little culinary journey post studies where, he worked as a supervisor at one of the major restaurants in Emirates when he first moved to Dubai in the year 2012.
Then, he was transferred to Gloria Jean’s Coffees as the Production Manager and served there for 5 years, in 2017 he joined the Emirates Culinary Guild as a senior member and participated in many events and salon culinary as a Marshal. He even worked with:
Hyatt Regency Dubai in Arabic Cuisine.
Rixos Premium Abu Dhabi as a Cold Kitchen Chef Pre-opening team.
Hotel Palazzo Versace Dubai as an Arabic Cuisine Chef.
In Ramadan 2021, he was the part of Emarat Al Youm Newspaper (the most famous newspaper at GCC, with daily dish for one month).
His journey is a never ending game where he knows he wins at every phase. Being an Arabic chef, in an Arabian Kitchen he loves to cook all new dishes, coming up with several ideas and bringing them to plate for his guests. But, still he speaks a bit about his love for Lebanese Fusion Cuisines, apart from that he also likes learning different dishes of other countries.
INTERVIEWED and PICTURE COURTESY: Chef Cesar Nasr.
INTERVIEW TAKEN By: Khatibah Rehmat Senior Journalist.
