About Chef Nadia Aidi
“In my family, food was never just what was on the plate. It was the memories that got made around it, and that’s the food I love to cook.”
Nadia Aidi doesn’t remember a day she didn’t cook. She grew up in her father’s restaurants in Sonora, Mexico, in a Mexican and Syrian family where food was never just a meal, it was an all-day event. Her grandfather shucked oysters and made ceviche with the youngest grandkids at his side, repeating the family rule: you can’t dislike something you haven’t tried. By five, she was asking restaurant servers to bring out the chef so she could thank them for the carpaccio, and she did.
She went on to cook professionally in restaurants and catering, and when the pandemic brought the industry to a standstill in 2020, her husband dared her to spend a year sharing the food she genuinely loved online. No trends, no cooking for clicks, just the recipes that made her excited to cook. That dare became Food My Muse, where two million people now follow her cooking, and her recipes have been featured in Delish and The Guardian.
Her food blends the cultures she comes from, and flavors she loves, with the technique she picked up in professional kitchens: bold, unique dishes meant to be passed around the table, talked over, and remembered. A table full of people, memories being made, and a menu just for them.
Photo Credit: Micah Samuelsen Photography