This is the second dinner of the Priceless Harvest series presented by Mastercard and The Sage Experience, and hosted on Shemu, the floating Nile venue designed for intimate private dining and elevated events.
On 3 June, the focus turns to Tala Bashmi and the Gulf: Bahraini flavours. Bashmi’s appearance shifts the conversation from Lebanon to the Gulf, placing Bahraini culinary memory, regional ingredients and modern technique in a setting where the river becomes part of the experience.
Bashmi is one of the most important contemporary voices in Khaleeji cuisine. She became known internationally through Fusions by Tala in Manama, where she reinterpreted Bahraini and Gulf dishes using fine-dining techniques, local ingredients, and a strong sense of personal history. Her work has included contemporary readings of dishes such as Bahraini tikka, ghoozi-style lamb, and preparations using black lime, dates, khubz, daqoos, and other flavours tied to the Gulf’s trade routes, home kitchens, and market culture.
Her tenure at Fusions by Tala has ended, but her public work has become more mobile and international. In 2025, she received the Estrella Damm N.A. Chefs’ Choice Award from MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants, a peer-voted recognition, and continued development of projects around Gulf identity after leaving the restaurant. She also appeared in international collaborations, including a 2025 residency at Jardin des Arts in Dubai, where she brought her style to a modern French bistro format, and has been described as using her platform to tell the Gulf’s less familiar food stories.
Her cuisine is not “Middle Eastern” in the broad, lazy sense. It is specifically Gulf-led: Bahraini, Khaleeji, maritime, market-driven, shaped by rice, spice routes, dried limes, seafood, grilled meats, dates, sourness, heat and memory. Bashmi’s strength is that she treats those references seriously without freezing them in nostalgia.
Practicalities:
Event: Priceless Harvest with Chef Tala Bashmi
Date: 3 June
Venue: Shemu by Sage, Nile, Cairo
Tickets: TicketsMarche
Seats: limited