Cairo's Champions

The inaugural Cairo Champion is definitely inspired by the holy month of Ramadan.

Meet the people that have to cook while fasting so that people can have their food for eftar.

We all know the science side of things. When you’re hungry and smell food, your body releases a hormone that tells your brain that you need to eat. Your stomach then begins to produce the acid necessary to breakdown the forthcoming food. If none comes, you’re left with this horrible feeling that your stomach is being digested.

That’s hard enough to deal with. I tried cooking for a bunch of people on the weekend. Pasta was the main course so I needed to cook down 3 kilos of tomatoes for the sauce. Wow, standing over that pot was difficult. It was all I could do not to dip my spoon in and start shoveling unseasoned sauce into my mouth.

Now, imagine doing that every single day of Ramadan. It’s perhaps the worst form of temptation one can experience. And it never helps when you have biology working against you. For the rest of us that just fast without food around, we know nothing of what these people go through.