Fi’Lia
Sara Aqel
Dubai, UAE
Fi’lia is already successful in Miami and Nassau and its “honest Italian” cooking is breaking boundaries at its newest location in Dubai. Head chef Sara Aqel, 25, is Palestinian-Jordanian and trained in Italian cuisine under Massimo Bottura. At Fi’lia on the 70th floor of the hotel SLS Dubai, she’s bringing diners a story of real Italian womanhood - nonna, mamma and figlia - with rich and rustic flavours such as 18-hour veal ragu, vitello tonnato, and sea bass carpaccio. Pitched as the “region’s first female-led restaurant”, the team is 70% women. “Most of our grandmothers never had a platform where they could do it as a profession, earn from it, shine as stars in cooking. Their talent wasn’t taken seriously,” Aqel has said.
