WHEN WE EAT Returns with a Pop-Up That’s Part Pantry, Part Photo Show

Food in Cairo isn’t a ritual—it’s a mood. It happens standing, mid-story, elbow-deep in tahini. And starting May 14th, that chaotic, layered pleasure is taking form inside Kodak Passageway, where WHEN WE EAT returns to Cairo Photo Week with two intertwined experiences: an immersive photo exhibition and the revival of one of the city’s cult culinary pop-ups, The Corner Shop.

‘Beyond the Plate: What the World Eats’, based on Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio’s iconic photo series ‘What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets’, leads visitors through a photographic world tour of daily diets. The exhibition doesn’t unfold like a gallery so much as a kitchen crawl—each photo a window into another rhythm of eating, another way of sharing sustenance and self. The exhibition feels like an open question: what do we share when we share food?

Next door, The Corner Shop makes its comeback from May 14th to the 31st. Built in partnership with Al Ismaelia, the Downtown fixture returns with a warm-weather twist—scent-heavy and summer-lit. Drinks, made in collaboration with Quanta, lean citrusy and ice-cold, while the menu, curated by Crave Catering, pays loose tribute to local culinary institutions like Café Riche and Estoril. Less of a revival or a homage, more of a reply, a conversation.

Powered by Juhayna, the activation strives to remind us that the future of food - if it is to be local, ethical, and enduring - must begin with those who make it, not just those who plate it.