what the food 2026

What The Food returns to Alserkal Avenue for its fifth edition, presented in strategic partnership with Dubai Eats. Curated by Leen Al Zaben under the theme Khubz wa Milh (خبز وملح), the festival brings together chefs, thinkers, artists and curious eaters for two days of food, conversation and community.

Khubz wa Milh خبز وملح

Bread and salt is the oldest pact a table can hold. When you have broken bread with someone, you say خبز وملح بيننا (there is bread and salt between us), and the meal binds you. It is the gesture behind every act of hospitality, the moment a stranger becomes kin.

This year, everything begins at the table. One sits at the centre of the Avenue, and the weekend grows outward from it: the long conversations, the things made by hand, the strangers who leave as friends.

Leen Al Zaben, Curator

Leen Al Zaben is a Dubai-based cultural strategist with fifteen years of experience across San Francisco, Tokyo, Dubai and Amman. She develops long-term cultural, culinary and tourism strategies for governments, hospitality groups and foundations. Her work includes cultural strategy for a national cultural authority in Saudi Arabia, food programming at 1833 Members Club, and the creative direction of Jordan’s first national food festival. Since 2021, she has served as Middle East Academy Chair for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.