AD: Palm Hills Brings a New Flavour to Cairo Food Week

Cairo Food Week opens at the Grand Egyptian Museum, and while the spotlight will inevitably fall on the global chefs and one-of-a-kind dinners, Palm Hills is shaping the very architecture of this year’s program. As the festival’s largest district partner, Palm Hills is using its West Cairo venues as a space for cross-cultural encounters, and the results look as ambitious as the festival itself.

The centrepiece comes on opening night. Inspired by the Nile and Palm Hills’ new project, Jirian Palm Hills, the King’s Fest dinner plays with a “Between Two Banks” theme: fresh fruit piled to the east, fermented and preserved flavours to the west. It’s both a reflection on the river as a source of life and a meditation on how Egypt’s food culture straddles time with ancient preservation techniques alongside fresh abundance.Beyond the museum, Palm Hills is hosting some of the festival’s most talked-about dinners. At Scalini, Michelin-starred chef Paolo Griffa joins chef Mohamed Alaa to put Italian and Egyptian flavours under the sharp light of fine dining. Izakaya pairs third-culture cooking from Solemann Haddad and Martin Rodriguez, stretching Japanese and Peruvian technique across Egyptian ingredients. Cantina by Olivo is where New York’s Billy Durney fires up his legendary barbecue, flanked by Cairo’s own Dina Hosny and Hazem Abdelghany. Meanwhile, Mamina stages dinners with international chefs Riccardo Forapani, Fayçal Bettioui, and Erwan Laurenceau.

For Palm Hills, the partnership is at the root of an elevated living experience in Egypt, one where a culture of hospitality and gastronomy is woven into the urban fabric. A Sheikh Zayed district with a taste of the Nile, and a West Cairo hub where lifestyle and heritage flow together. This week, it’s also the table where worlds meet.