Cultivating Contributions to a National Cuisine
How do landscapes and gardens cultivate distinct approaches to cooking, and what possibilities emerge when these practices meet?
In this conversation, Moza Almatrooshi and Asayel Mohammed explore their respective entryways into cooking, from landscape-led research to garden-based cultivation, and how these inform their techniques, menus, and culinary narratives. Against the backdrop of an evolving national cuisine, they reflect on the relationship between individual practices and collective knowledge, the possibilities of collaboration, and the ongoing negotiation between tradition, experimentation, and the changing environments in which we cook.
Bios
Moza Almatrooshi is an artist and chef based in the UAE. Her practice operates at the intersection of food, agriculture, and site-responsive research, using eating as both method and medium. She holds an MFA in Fine Arts from the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (London), and a Diploma in Patisserie from ICCA (Dubai). Working across installation, public programmes, and culinary formats, Almatrooshi approaches food as a material through which ecological, social, and historical relations are activated. Her work often emerges through sustained engagement with landscapes, including practices of foraging, sourcing, and working alongside local forms of knowledge. Through her landscape-to-table culinary studio ballad, she develops projects that translate artistic research into shared, edible encounters. These projects foreground the entanglements between land, labour, and nourishment, positioning the table as a site of collective attention, transmission, and care.
Asayel Mohamed is an Emirati chef with a background in interior design. Her love for cooking began at home, learning the flavors and recipes passed down by her mother and grandmothers. She is dedicated to perfecting the dishes she grew up eating, preserving the flavors that hold memories of home. She grows vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers to use in her cooking, often drawing inspiration from what she harvests in her garden. Rooted in Emirati heritage, seasonality, and local ingredients, her cooking tells stories that evoke the warmth of home and bring people together.