Chef Mariam Shaazy – Local Cuisine Champion

by Iyath Adam

For our interview article this time, we have a chat with Chef Mariam Shaazy – chef, baker, cake artist and local cuisine champion. Read on to find out more about her extensive career as a pastry and hot kitchen chef as well as her inspiring passion for preserving and sustaining traditional Maldivian cuisine. 

Lonumedhu: First off, how did you get into the culinary industry?

Shaazy: I never dreamt of becoming a chef or going forward in this profession. But my parents were bakers in the 1970s, who used to make bread, biscuits, faaroshi and things like that in our island, Sh. Feevah. My brother was also a restauranteur sometime back and my family was very involved in catering for different events in our island, with different dishes cooked at my house. So, I was very connected to the culinary industry, even when I wasn’t doing it as a profession or passion.

When I was pregnant with my daughter in 2008, I wanted to do something while staying at home, so I started home baking. That was really the start of my professional culinary journey. 

I first studied cooking at a school by Janavareemaage Rasheed. After that, I continued cooking at home, completing various trainings by myself. I also did pastry and baking courses in Sri Lanka as well as cake artistry courses in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and the Maldives. When I started getting more into this field, I joined the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Studies (FHTS) at the Maldives National University (MNU), completing culinary studies there. 

Lonumedhu: We know that you have a lot of experience working at different resorts. Tell us about it. 

Shaazy: After studying at FHTS, I trained in resorts like Bandos, Vakkaru and Fushifaru. From the very beginning, I was working in pastry and baking. But because I did culinary studies, and my experience in cooking with my family from a very early age, I was very well-versed and understood the art of hot cooking too. 

In 2014, I joined the executive board of the Chef Guilds of Maldives (CGM), which gave me the opportunity to work with lots of different chefs. Under the guidance of the esteemed Ms. Mariyam Noordeen, I got into cooking more and more, and I completed and organised a lot of training programmes during this time too.  

From 2014 to 2018, I had a cake shop in Male’. Shortly after this, I joined Sun Siyam Olhuveli resort as a pastry chef, where I worked for one year. Then, after the COVID-19 pandemic, I got the opportunity to work on the re-opening of Hard Rock Hotel Maldives, where I worked for a few months in pastry and baking. During that time, Chef Mode pushed me to participate in the two-week food festival at Accor Hotels (Pullman Food Week and Mercure Hotel) and cook local cuisine. He was the one who actually sparked my interest in local cuisine and guided me through it. 

After this, I had to undergo a surgery and after recovery, I worked at Fushifaru Maldives in pastry and baking where I promoted Maldivian flavours and desserts a lot. Then, I got an offer from Hilton Maldives Amingiri Resort & Spa to work in hot cooking as a Maldivian cuisine chef. There, I cooked and presented authentic versions of a lot of Maldivian dishes to guests, including things like fenfolhi, kulhimas, mashuni etc… 

Until recently, I was the Manager at The Chef Mode Badhige, which specialises in authentic Maldivian tastes, and right now, I’m working as a private chef.  

Lonumedhu: In your opinion, how can we preserve the authenticity of Maldivian cuisine and sustain it?

Shaazy: Food is the cultural heritage of each country. It is a living story of our habits throughout generations. And it’s especially true for a dispersed nation like ours where we have very different variations in dishes from the North and South regions.

I think sometimes, we unknowingly give out misinformation about traditional Maldivian cuisine. We can lessen this by making sure that proper cooking methods and authentic, home-grown ingredients are used when making our traditional dishes. And that we have properly trained Maldivian chefs to make these dishes. In my opinion, we should place equal importance on Maldivian cuisine give to other specialised international cuisines like Thai or Japanese, where we bring in specialised chefs and ingredients from abroad. 

We should also talk to and learn more from our elders, people who have been doing this for generations. There is no right and wrong way to represent a dish, as long as we respect the different variations and the way they do it. That’s also a really important aspect when talking about sustaining and preserving cultural foods and old recipes. I think it’s also important to acknowledge that any recipe we make is based on the information we have at the time. This is especially important when we move towards fusion cuisine – to know the authentic version well before you bring any changes to it.  

Lonumedhu: What would you say is your signature local dish?

Shaazy: At The Chef Mode Badhige, I crafted a special tasting menu which only features home-grown Maldivian ingredients. It was one of our best-selling menu items which is specially targeted towards tourists to show them local, authentic flavours. It features a welcome drink, starters, appetizers, main course and dessert, all centred around traditional Maldivian cooking practices and the freshest of ingredients.  

Lonumedhu: What’s your advice for aspiring young chefs? 

Shaazy: When you start something, it’s very important to find your purpose for doing it. For me, it was to provide for my daughter and cooking being something that was very connected to my family, for generations. 

Sustaining your passion and dedication for what you do is also very important. Always work towards elevating yourself, your skills and keep fighting for your progress. It won’t be easy, but don’t let the small difficulties stop you from achieving your bigger goals. 

Lonumedhu: What are your future plans, in terms of your cooking and career?

Shaazy: My biggest dream is to sustain local cuisine. To promote and connect through food with local communities, including both younger and older generations. There is so much more we can do with local cuisine, to elevate local ingredients to international platforms and to provide more information to the present and future generations. 

So, two years ago, I started a project related to this. The work is happening very slowly, especially because I can’t do this full-time at the moment. But the preparations are ongoing in my island right now and I will have something new coming up in the not-too-distant future. 

Lonumedhu: We look forward to seeing that, Shaazy! Thank you so much for your time. It was lovely to speak with you.