This Cairo Catering Company is Bringing Sushi Chefs to You

Sushi night at home sounds lovely in theory - until the rice comes out wrong, the roll refuses to hold, and what started as an elegant Japanese dinner full of ambition unravels - quite literally - into a chaotic pile of fish, cucumber, and nori that no one is quite sure how to eat.

As a trained chef and founder of a professional catering company, Shahd El Abd knows that with the right tools, just about anyone can be their own sushi chef.

“I always wanted to have a catering service where a private chef can come over to your home,” El Abd, founder of catering business Dined by Shahd El Abd, tells SceneEats. The idea for a sushi-specific workshop crystallised one evening when she invited some friends over and called in one of her sushi chefs on a whim. “I started making the sushi with him,” El Abd remembers, “soon all my friends wanted to try as well. That’s where the idea came from.”

Launched in February, the Dined private sushi workshop sends an experienced chef directly to a client’s home, complete with everything needed for a full sushi experience. "My team comes with a cutting board, a bamboo rolling mat, sushi knives, serving plates, soy sauce, and all the condiments," El Abd says. Throughout the experience, guests don't just watch; they participate, learning rolling and cutting techniques alongside the chef.

For many of us, sushi-making can seem intimidating, but El Abd is quick to dispel that misconception. “It’s not as difficult as you think it is. You just need the right tools.” This, she says, is something she has learned from watching her guests work through the workshops: “I see that they all do it so well,” she says with a smile.

The experience works best kept cosy - EL Abd recommends capping groups at fifteen to twenty people. "When you keep it intimate, it's more fun and more engaging rather than having a big group with people left behind." The workshops have become a hit for girls' nights, couple's dates, and even teenage birthday parties. One client even booked the service for her daughter's birthday party. "Our clients were a bunch of seventeen-year-old girls who just had so much fun making the sushi. They felt so proud they made it," El Abd remembers.

From the workshops her and her team have done so far, El Abd has seen firsthand how the appeal goes far beyond the food itself. "They love engaging together - bonding and doing something different. Making it yourself is a way to engage in a fun activity and learn something new."

The sushi workshop is the newest chapter in a catering business El Abd has been building since leaving restaurant ownership behind. Trained in Paris and Switzerland, she spent years working in international hotel kitchens before opening a restaurant in Maadi. Alongside this venture, her Instagram food account, @mrs.cookiecooks, began to gain some traction independent from her restaurant. When she became a mother, she pivoted toward catering - a move she initially made for flexibility, but one she has come to fully embrace. “I noticed, with time, that I'm actually more passionate about it. I enjoy moving around every event, every place, every theme.”

Dined by Shahd El Abd now operates across a broad spectrum of events, and El Abd and her team put their whole heart into everything they do. On the corporate end, the company has catered up to 300 guests, including the World Squash Championship held in Cairo last year. For larger events, the team can scale to 500. Menus shift to suit the occasion - finger foods for cocktail receptions, buffets for bigger gatherings, and set menus for formal dinners. This past Ramadan marked the company's first Ramadan catering experience, serving eighty guests in the comfort of their own home; other memorable commissions have included an Easter brunch in Gouna, a Halloween buffet where the team came prepared with spooky finger foods and costume masks, and an elevated jewellery shopping event at Michael Oro.

“We don't just serve food,” says El Abd, “we personalise and take care of every single detail.” With the sushi workshop, that philosophy reaches its fullest expression. “It really does elevate events,” she says, “because it's an experience that no one has really felt before.”

Bookings for both catering experiences and private sushi making workshops can be booked through directly through Dined by Shahd El Abd’s WhatsApp, at 01280000224.