Your Favourite Chef’s Favourite Chefs ft. Paul Farag
For Your Favourite Chef’s Favourite Chefs, we asked Farag to look back at the chefs who have left a mark on him.
Some chefs inherit recipes; others inherit ideas. Australian-Egyptian chef Paul Farag has spent his career drawing on both: the food he grew up with in Sydney, the family traditions that travelled with him, and the Australian ingredients and techniques that shape his cooking today.
For the fourth edition of Cairo Food Week, Farag’s visit to Egypt felt like a homecoming of sorts. At Sachi Park St., Baky Hospitality hosted the Sydney-based chef for a dinner he created with chef Ali Ghadban, drawing on family memories, recipes and rituals carried across generations.
We caught up with Farag amid the preparations and asked him a deceptively difficult question: who is his favourite chef? His answer came with a caveat. It depends on where he is in his career—so, naturally, he named more than one.
For years, Fergus Henderson was a favourite, particularly for his no-waste philosophy. Then there is Thomas Keller, whose The French Laundry was the first cookbook Farag ever owned and remains one of his favourites.
