Before she became the owner of a Michelin-recommended restaurant in Toronto, Maha Barsoom used to cook and garden as a hobby in Cairo. Raised by a grandmother and parents who were phenomenal cooks, she learned to appreciate the art of food from a young age. Instead of enjoying recess, she would go to the school library, peruse cookbooks for recipes, and reinvent them at home.

"The first thing I [ever] made was chocolate cake with toffee caramel," she remembers in an interview with OkayAfrica. "My aunt visited us from Alexandria, so I prepared it for her. After that, my mom let me go into the kitchen, because it was amazing. I taught myself and observed my family."

In Egypt, opening a restaurant never occurred to her. When she moved to Canada at 35, working as a translator and interpreter while raising two children kept her fully occupied. Once her children, Monica and Mark, graduated from university, she seized her chance.

"I thought if Monica and Mark would assist me, and we could all share this idea, it would be great. They'd both graduated and neither had jobs, so I thought we might as well do this," Barsoom says. "Both of them said no. They will have no life, and it will be extremely difficult. So I left it alone."

Mark was sceptical that non-Egyptians would be willing to try food they did not know, but Barsoom was confident in her craft. "I knew that I had something to offer to society and that I would succeed," she says. As a translator, Barsoom used to attend events that served 'Middle Eastern Food.' "My Egyptian part was really hurt," she laughs. "I needed to teach people about Egyptian cuisine and that there is a big difference between 'Middle Eastern' and Egyptian."

She started posting her cooking online and garnered so much interest that she began operating a catering service from inside her home. Her food's reputation spread, and her children learned from her, until they eventually changed their minds about the restaurant idea.

"[Ten years ago] I was in Egypt, because my mother was sick," remembers Barsoom. "Monica called me, saying, 'I have a surprise for you. We prepared the menu.' It was all the dishes I fed them growing up. My mother was in a stable condition again, so I went back to Canada, and we started looking for a place right away."

The menu includes everything needed for a complete Egyptian brunch, and more. Mixing nostalgic dishes from their childhoods with fan favorites, Maha's Brunch has fūl (fava beans), falafel, homemade feta cheese with tomatoes, basterma sausage, shakshouka, liver sandwiches, and Barsoom's favorite meal growing up: belila (creamy Egyptian wheat porridge ).

"There's a shawarma sandwich I used to eat after university or when the professor didn't show up," says Barsoom. "We'd go to this place called Abu Haidar in Heliopolis, which made the best shawarma ever, in buns, not in pitas or rolls. I was inspired and created Maha's Mindblowing Chicken Sandwich." Monica named it.

Whenever her grandfather picked her up from the nursery, he and Monica would pass by a fish shop and eat baby shrimp sandwiches. Monica asked her mother to replicate them, and Barsoom added them to the menu. Inspired by a place in Alexandria, the dessert is a plate of halawa, molasses, clotted cream, nuts, fresh berries, and various homemade or imported jams from Egypt.

In addition to fulfilling her lifelong dream, Barsoom's perseverance eventually paid off in 2022, when a lady came to the restaurant and gifted Barsoom an envelope. In it, she found that Maha's Brunch was recommended in the Michelin Guide for Toronto. She has been featured in the guide every year since.

"Somebody who comes without our knowledge eats the same dish a couple of times," explains Barsoom. "They don't only look at the taste. They look at the service, the cleanliness of the place, and how the dishes are presented and decorated."

Why a mention in the guide and not a star? Maha's Brunch does not serve alcohol or have a white tablecloth service. These requirements are a testament to the enduring hegemony of Western cultural norms. "I don't want to serve alcohol, and I like guests to be at ease when they eat at my place," says Barsoom. "I like them to feel that they are at my dining table in my house."

Now that Barsoom has established her food as one of Toronto's most excellent spots, she is ready to hand the restaurant over to her children. "They are innovative and keen on having everything perfect," she says. "I think they will take the restaurant to a higher level."

"In the entrance hall of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), there's this gigantic statue of Ramses II. It's the largest standing statue of an ancient Egyptian king on Earth, and it's on a base surrounded by water in the shape of a pyramid," Ibrahim Morgan tells OkayAfrica. He chuckles. "Many guests are mesmerized and drawn by the statue's beauty, so they don't focus. They keep walking towards it and end up falling into the water."

Morgan is an Egyptologist and tour guide with 29 years of experience. Eighteen months ago, he started working for GEM, the world's largest archaeological museum complex, home to more than 100,000 artifacts.

GEM's foundation was laid two kilometers north of the Great Pyramids of Giza in 2002. Its construction began in 2005, but the Arab Spring, political turmoil, and financial setbacks repeatedly stopped the works. On July 3, 2025, it will finally open its doors to the public.

Some people have already had the chance to visit this architectural masterpiece and its thoughtfully curated galleries during its trial phase. In segments edited for length and clarity, Morgan tells OkayAfrica about the great honor and pride he feels working at GEM.

Morgan: "Studying Egyptology has been a dream of mine since I was a child. I was born in a small town in Upper Egypt, in the Sohag governorate. My dad would always take me to old sites, like churches and monasteries, in our town and the nearby provinces. It was awesome to feel such a connection to this ancient civilization as someone with deep Egyptian roots through my family lineage. These were my forefathers who left such a great civilization, and we have a personal link.

In sixth grade, my mom, a teacher, started teaching me English. I wanted to use my love for learning languages to tell the world about the greatness of my forefathers and the history and antiquities they left behind for us. The only way to come in contact with tourists is through studying Egyptology, archaeology, history, and foreign languages at university. Then, you can get a license to become a tour guide. You have to have two licenses from the Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism and join the Tour Guides Union or Syndicate so that you can work legally.

Upon learning about this, I applied to the University of Alexandria with the highest marks. This meant I had to leave my small town and go to the big city for the first time. I knew nothing; I'd never been to Cairo or Alexandria. At 18, it was a big cultural shock for me. I went to public school in my town, but everyone who studied with me [in Alexandria] came from private schools, so there was a huge difference. I had to lose my thick Upper Egyptian accent; I came a long way.

I have visited the Pyramids of Giza 8,104 times. I keep a record because it's the only existing [ancient] world wonder. It has magic. Every time I go, it's as if it's my first time. If you have this love in your heart for ancient sites, you don't exert effort to keep it interesting.

Listen to Ibrahim Morgan

Tour guide Ibrahim Morgan stands next to the statue of Ramses II in GEM's atrium. In this clip he talks about the positive feedback he gets from guests who have been part of his tours, their impression of Egypt and the kindness of Egyptians.

Sometimes, I'm so happy that I don't even want to eat when I see the expressions and feelings of speechless guests. Many cry and say that this was the best trip they have ever taken; that is the crowning of my work. They may have heard that Egyptians are aggressive and not welcoming in western media, but then find that most Egyptians are kind and genuine. Through my work, I help correct people’s misconceptions about Egyptians and replace them with the truth about how loving and caring we are.

The physical aspect of being a tour guide is demanding, plus the heat. GEM is a new concept. It's clean, secure, air-conditioned, and has a hospitality team. There are cafes, restaurants with local food, and shops with local crafts. I wear a uniform with beige pants, a white shirt with the logo, and a blazer, and I feel proud. I can speak through a microphone instead of yelling. My team is highly educated; they speak German, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and even Hebrew. We're paid very good money and looked after.

We have standardized, guided tours that typically last around 90 minutes, but each guide adds their own touch and storytelling. I answer the common questions first: What's so unique about GEM? I explain that it has the only hanging obelisk on Earth and the largest standing statue of an Egyptian king, Ramses II, which was broken into six pieces until Gamal Abdel Nasser asked a German company to restore it.

There is a false assumption that Egyptians don't care about their heritage. Most Egyptians love their heritage and feel proud to be Egyptian. I became more aware of this when I started working at GEM, where we do Arabic tours. When I showed locals around, they would say, 'We need to protect these antiquities, and we would like to have the antiquities that were taken away from Egypt back.'

The Egyptian Ministry of Education recently started teaching more about Egyptian history and antiquities in schools. And what's so impressive is that they began to teach the ancient Egyptian language in schools for the first time in the history of Egypt.

GEM is Egypt's and Africa's gift to the world. I advise anyone to come and visit; they will be amazed. I've been to the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, but GEM is the best museum in the world. It's truly a gem. Every human should be proud."

If you would like to book a tour with Ibrahim Morgan, contact him through his Facebook page.