Chef Ham El-Waylly grew up in Doha, Qatar, eating his mom's Egyptian and Bolivian cooking and dreaming about New York bagels while watching Seinfeld. Today, he's the co-owner and chef behind Strange Delight, a Creole restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

In this episode, Ham joins NYC Now host Janae Pierre to talk about the unexpected throughlines between Southern cooking and the food he grew up on, how the pandemic sent him back to his late mother's recipe book after years of avoiding his grief, and the empanadas that helped him finally process it. He also breaks down what actually separates fine dining from cooking for his own family, and how affordability shaped the recipes in his new cookbook, Hello Home Cooking.

 Watch Ham and Janae cook a New York inspired recipe straight from the book on Youtube!

 Get the cookbook: Hello Home Cooking, by Ham El-Waylly

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