The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) has a host of renowned alumni, some of whom we would know from TV if not through dining at Michelin starred or hatted restaurants. The prestigious college has had the likes of Anthony Bourdain, Rocco DiSpirito, Rick Moonen and many more male celebrity chefs walk its campus and slog in its kitchens. The list includes only a few select women such as TV chef Cat Cora.

 But more noteworthy for us perhaps is a young Karachi girl who now joins the CIA cadre. Haya Ismail claims to have been “a fat, hungry kid” who “grew up on Burnes Road [food]”. Her love of food took her on a journey which she may well never have imagined for herself. 

Although she says she would call her mother an “adequate cook, my nani is an amazing cook.” Spending time in her grandmother’s kitchen, the little sous chef would help concoct simple dishes. “We would make kailay ka saalan and I’d eat it with bread.” She couldn’t get enough of this peculiar but delicious family dish.

Haya Ismail has taken a remarkable journey as a chef, from her grandmother’s kitchen in Pakistan to fine dining international restaurants

 Her mother, on the other hand, was of the view that being in the kitchen was more of a waste of time. She stressed on books and on education. Ismail tried to conform to expectations and give the average life a shot. After school, she enrolled into Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and later to an external program for law at SZABIST. “I come from a family with conventional professions,” she says. It was expected that she would follow suit and opt for fields like medicine or law.

 When the heart calls, however, nothing but dreams feed the soul. Try as she smight, neither her heart nor her mind was into learning simply from books. “I hated it,” Ismail simply says of her first semester in college. College didn’t seem to click with her calling as much as she didn’t seem to fit in over there. 

 What felt more like an extension of her was the kitchen at the Avari Towers. In 2010, while having a birthday dinner at Dynasty she spotted a promotion for a Ladies Day at Avari, Ismail tells Eos. “I didn’t know anybody who had a female-friendly kitchen. I thought I’d just give it a try.” Ismail sent her application that same day.

 Within hours, the GM at Avari Chef James Gordon had accepted her application. “There was an email from him waiting in my inbox the next morning.” In a week’s time, she was enrolled in the programme headed by Scottish chef Gordon. With her growing appetite for learning professional cooking, Ismail asked Gordon to “be my mentor.” This was the perfect opportunity to prep her for the American culinary school; the college has a prerequisite of one year’s experience to be eligible for admission.

 But structured training in a renowned institute was naturally worlds apart from working under Chef Gordon with his crew at the hotel. Having travelled halfway across the world, Ismail was thrown in the deep end. The rigorous regimen at CIA tested her mettle. “I didn’t get culture shock but I sure as hell got kitchen shock,” she laughs. “People would call me madam in Avari.” Here, she faced gruelling, “physically hard work. It was not a ‘protected’ environment at all like in the Avari kitchen. I got a D in my first course and cried in front of my chef. He said ‘you must have more confidence in yourself.’ Next time I scored an A minus — the highest marks in the class.”

She was on a journey and she could not be beaten by the challenges, having chucked societal sensibility and a routine career path out of her way. “Nothing can prepare you for the real world.” 

Another place her journey has taken her to is the Trump Tower on Wall Street, specifically to the fine dining Jean-Georges restaurant located high up in the tower. After graduating from CIA, Ismail worked there with executive chef Mark Lapico.

Another place her journey has taken her to is the Trump International Hotel at Columbus Circle, specifically to the fine dining Jean-Georges restaurant located high up in the tower. After graduating from CIA, Ismail worked there with executive chef Mark Lipico. This place is the crème de la crème in French cuisine the gastronomic world has on offer. When asked if in her short, exciting life as a chef there has been a signature dish she has put her name to, Ismail says there is one dish she created at Jean-Georges which she is proud of: stir-fried shrimp with Pakistani whole spices. This dish in a way encapsulates her strengths and flavour profile. Created with garam masala, pepper, red chilli (which her mom sent from Pakistan) and ginger, it showcases her love for Pakistani food, employing techniques her training has instilled in her.

Professionally Ismail has learnt French cuisine “because it is the most structured cuisine which employs a number of techniques,” she says. Ismail is aware that despite having overcome a number of challenges and being in some high-pressure situations that service in the kitchen inevitably brings, there are many more places to go. She does not yet call herself a chef for the same reason. 

“Following my passion turned my life around 360 degrees and I have no regrets at all,” she says.

This determined/driven millennial has an ultimate goal which reveals a lot about how her fiery passion is grounded with love for simplicity. “Pakistan is my home. I desperately want to open a restaurant here,” she shares with Eos. 

What would set this place apart from the slew of eateries in Karachi?

“I would love to open a fine dining restaurant here with a chef’s menu highlighting Pakistani cuisine.” Yet she seems to have no notions of taking the local gastronomy scene by storm or cashing in on being an international chef who has been in kitchens from her grandmother’s to celebrity chefs, “It would be a low-key affair,” says Ismail of the place she calls her own in her journey. Meeting this young woman, one can reckon her restaurant will open its doors in Karachi soon and sure enough.

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 12th, 2018