Meet Zaid Kadhim, the chef turning Dubai’s flavors into supper clubs

Chef Zaid Kadhim is building supper clubs around one goal: a menu sourced almost entirely from the UAE, with the stories of Dubai baked into every dish.

Iraqi chef Zaid Kadhim has cooked up a culinary vision that goes beyond a dining experience whose sole purpose is to taste good; he wants to eventually create one where the ingredients are 100% locally sourced.

“If you’re just making something for fun or just because it tastes good, I don’t see the point as much as something that has a story, that has a bit of a personal touch that has a bit more to it.”

— Chef Zaid Kadhim

“I’ve been thinking about how in the UAE we can have some sustainable cuisine,” he said, noting how there are many ingredients being grown here.

The idea came to him while training at culinary school in Spain, and through subsequent work at kitchens.  

“I was just really inspired by the idea of local eateries, sustainable food, local flavors, local ingredients. I kind of wanted to see how we could do that here,” he said, noting that “it’s not possible yet to do that here entirely,” he explained.

Due to seasonal limitations, sourcing ingredients year-round can be a challenge, but “the hope is that every time we do this it will be a little bit more.” Kadhim said. “It definitely was really stressful trying to make a fully locally grown menu but it’s possible,” he said, remaining optimistic about the journey ahead.

During the development of the menu for his first event with the Anti-Doomscroll Casual Supper Club—hosted on the 6^thof September—he’d planned over forty dishes over the past year, narrowing it down to about ten or fifteen. Then “about two weeks before the supper club I went to a lot of the farms, I went to some grocery stores and saw that a lot of those ingredients were sold out, just like not even being grown.”

Mushrooms were a key ingredient that he was enthusiastic to include in the menu, planning for a Kerala-style beef fry, only to find that the Al Ain-based farm he’d approached weren’t growing any.

Another issue that surfaced involved the eggplant dish. “Two days before the supper club, I had to buy twenty eggplants, and they all had to be the exact same size, and they sold out of eggplants—completely sold out of UAE sourced eggplants,” he shared.

Even with the obstacles faced, he remains steadfast in achieving his goal as it aligns with his greater motto as a chef: “just create with purpose,” he stressed.

While sustainability is central to his ambition, storytelling is an even bigger component of his overall process and approach in the kitchen.

“If you’re just making something for fun or just because it tastes good, I don’t see the point as much as something that has a story, that has a bit of a personal touch, that has a bit more to it,” Kadhim said.

Leaning towards the narrative aspect of cooking is what makes it easier to appreciate the obstacles present while running a supper club.

“Even in the summer where there’s less access to the ingredients, the goal is to still do the supper club.” In turn, allowing for the menu to become a “reflection of the UAE’s agricultural landscape,” he went on to say—ultimately spinning the challenges into a story those he cooks for can taste and enjoy.

The first supper club intended to share “stories of old Dubai, you know, Satwa included, but generally the entire city,” he said. He hopes to spotlight cultures that came to Dubai over the past 30 years, and honor how they’ve influenced the flavors of the city through his own cooking.

Pakistani cuisine was first on the list, inspired by the first supper club venue: Ravi’s restaurant—an establishment that’s built a solid reputation since its launch in 1978.

Still, creating a menu that honored the depth of the cuisine was a process.

“If I want to incorporate something Pakistani, I’m going to map out all the flavors that they have,” specifically the standard flavor combinations, explained Kadhim.

He takes standard dishes and then deconstructs them by reworking the type of meat, the process of cooking, the conversion of sauces and spice into a new form like a sauce or gel, and by incorporating unconventional techniques to come up with a unique spin on it.

“The more you test too, and you taste it then you know what to change. Sometimes you scrap it completely from the first test.” Kadhim shared, recalling how a faulty version of a dish paved the way for another, more refined version.

“I had that happen a few times for this. I made a tomato dish that I hated so much,” he said—laughing about it. “That inspired me to make something completely different which I now love.”

Trial and error have been a fundamental aspect of Kadhim’s growth as a chef. Before hosting supper clubs, and shortly after his return from Spain, he launched a Dubai-based bakery for two years.

“It taught me so much about like running an F&B business in the UAE, about how to collaborate with people, how to manage staff, how to create recipes. We did a lot of B2B, so we were stocking restaurants, cafes, hotels with pastries.”

There are parallels to be drawn between the experience acquired during his earlier culinary endeavors and the planning that goes into prepping the menu for the supper club events he hosts now.

“Without knowing what the full menu was, I had to plan equipment sourcing.” Then “from there, I’m like ‘ok cool,’ this is the equipment that I have, these are the techniques that are possible to do. Now, these are the ingredients I have.” That’s carried forward by going to the market and cross checking that ingredients are available.

Despite this, he doesn’t view the planning that goes into the creative process as a setback.

“I wouldn’t say it’s like restricting. I’d say it’s just like a part of it. Just like with painting, if you don’t have the right paint and the right brushes it’s going to be a lot harder.”

It can be said that his multifaceted understanding of the culinary craft stems from the years he spent during his childhood watching his mother, Raghad Al Safi, cooking and working on her book The Iraqi Table.

Kadhim’s relationship with cooking is as layered as his dishes: rooted in his youth, and shaped by years of experience. You can taste the weight of his expertise in every bite.

More recently, a second supper club was held on the 23^rd of October, and Kadhim has expressed the hope of organizing more during the summer season with no official dates released yet.