Saudi chef Faisal Al-Deleigan

DUBAI: When the Saudi chef Faisal Al-Deleigan was younger, his mother hoped he would pursue a career in either medicine or engineering. “My mom is so strict,” he told Arab News with a chuckle, “nobody was allowed to enter the kitchen because she’s so organized and she’s a good cook.”

However, things did not go according to his mother’s plan — he worked in the banking sector for years until he had a rather extreme change of heart.

Al-Deleigan, who is based in Bahrain, took cooking classes at professional schools in Italy and the UK and eventually quit the corporate world for good. However, he notes that his former banking experience came in handy when setting up his namesake culinary consultancy in 2016. “I still love numbers and I believe they helped me a lot in the way of thinking and business,” he said.

Through his consultancy services, Al-Deleigan offers to train kitchen staff, design kitchen layouts and, most importantly, engineer menus, experimenting with dishes that fuse multicultural tastes and ingredients. The journey so far has been rewarding — “I reached what I wanted: To see my customers smile and that (appreciation) makes me feel very good. Everyone likes food and nowadays it’s part of entertainment,” he said.

This year marks the second occasion that Valentine’s Day is being openly celebrated in Saudi Arabia and despite restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Al-Deleigan has been busy prepping recipes for couples to cook together from his new “Lockdown Menu,” which will be published in international magazines. On what people can expect, he explained: “I’m more into the healthy kind of cooking. Because of the lockdown and lack of exercise, our lifestyle is different now. So, we tried to make it lighter.”

Al-Deleigan hopes that through his unconventional story of breaking the norm, he can encourage people to follow their passion, whether it be performing in the field of art, music or gastronomy. “Everything is different,” he said, “we are a new generation with new hopes and dreams.”

If you haven’t sorted out your Valentine’s Day plans, scroll down for an exclusive healthy and simple recipe for two by Chef Faisal that you can whip up with your loved one today. Bon appétit!

Mango Spinach Salad

Prep: 10 minutes

Total: 20 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients

Lolo roso 140gm

Baby Roca 40gm

Baby Spinach 40gm

Fresh Mango 60gm

Feta cheese 40gm

Sunflower seed 15gm

Grilled chicken 200gm

Extra virgin olive oil 50gm

U.S. mustard 20gm

Lemon juice 15gm

Sea salt 0.3gm

Black pepper powder 0.3gm

Honey 15gm

Garlic powder 0.3gm

Method

Put all the green leaves in a bowl and mix them with honey mustard dressing.

On the plate, drop the salad leaves and on the top, spread the grilled chicken.

Garnish with feta cheese and fresh mango (cut into dice shape) and sunflower seeds.

Prepare the honey mustard dressing. Blend everything for one minute: olive oil, U.S. mustard, honey, lemon juice, sea salt, pepper and garlic powder.