About the Academy
The Academy is the mechanism used to create the Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants list. None of the employees of any of the sponsors associated with the awards, including the main sponsor, votes or has any influence over the results.
The Academy is comprised of 250 members, each selected for their expert opinion of the Middle East and North Africa restaurant scenes. To create the Academy, and provide a fair representation of the continent, we divide the area into six separate voting regions.
Each region is headed up by a chairperson, called the Academy Chair, appointed for their knowledge of and network within their part of the restaurant world. The Chairs each select a voting panel, ensuring a balanced selection of chefs, restaurateurs, food/restaurant journalists and well-travelled gourmets.
Learn more about the how the voting works
The Academy Chairs
Aljohara Almogbel
Academy Chair: Saudi Arabia
Aljohara Almogbel is a practising lawyer but is equally a dedicated food enthusiast and avid traveller. She held the role of regional editor for Destination Riyadh for a number of years, and currently documents her family’s culinary adventures on Two Boots and a Farwa, a blog she runs with her sister, Sara. Aljohara and Sara also co-host a weekly podcast called The Story Behind, which showcases leading restaurateurs in the region.
Leen Al Zaben
Academy Chair: Levant-plus
A culinary entrepreneur from Amman, Jordan, Leen Al Zaben has worked and lived across multiple continents. Introduced to great food at an early age, Al Zaben’s passion and expertise lie in storytelling through food as a means of bringing people together. She practices this through cooking, photography, writing and interactive culinary workshops. Al Zaben previously worked at June, a kitchen technology start-up based in San Francisco, before returning to her homeland.
Mohamed El Baroudi
Academy Chair: North Africa (West)
The CEO of a luxury tea company that exports its products to five continents, Mohamed El Baroudi is based in Marrakech in his native Morocco. For business and leisure, he travels extensively around the world and uses his trips to discover new restaurants and dining experiences. He has a broad knowledge of the food scenes of Morocco, the MENA region and beyond.
Roy Yerushalmi
Academy Chair: Israel
Celebrated travel journalist and culinary historian Roy Yerushalmi has written for a multitude of international publications for two decades. His features, wine selections and recipes are published weekly in Israel’s Globes financial newspaper and the Rex culinary recommendations site, the latter of which he founded. Yerushalmi splits his time between Tel Aviv and The Princes' Islands in Istanbul, where he’s working on his first cookbook, based on Israeli cuisine and his Turkish-Sephardic heritage.
Rouba Khalil
Academy Chair: Gulf region
Rouba Khalil is the founder and chef behind Rouba Khalil Kitchen, a Beirut and Dubai based culinary company creating bespoke catering experiences, artisanal pastries and frozen comfort foods. Originally trained as an engineer, Khalil left a career in finance in New York to study at the French Culinary Institute, before gaining experience in kitchens including Jean-Georges, Babbo and Boulud Sud. She founded Rouba Khalil Kitchen in Beirut and later expanded to Dubai, growing the business through years of economic uncertainty and regional challenges. Her work has taken her across the Middle East and internationally, creating culinary experiences and catering large-scale events. With a strong connection to the worlds of art and design, Rouba often creates menus that respond to the story and creative direction of each event. Born in the United States and raised between Paris and Beirut, Rouba divides her time between Lebanon and the UAE. Much of her travel is built around restaurants, where she continues to discover new ideas, techniques and perspectives from chefs around the world.
Sherif Tamim
Academy Chair: North Africa (East)
A food, lifestyle and travel photographer from a family of artists, Sherif Tamim grew up in a variety of countries. Now based in Cairo, but regularly travelling across MENA and the world, he has a personal and professional passion for food-based travel experiences, exploring everything from street food to award-winning fine dining restaurants.
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