The Asian Today Interviews Chef Kabir and Chef Qasim
Challenging stereotypes with their love of cooking and religious look, two brothers have come together to create a YouTube channel aiming to inspire the next generation of young male cooks. Qasim Hussain and Kabir Din are two young modern friends who, inspired by memories of childhood cooking with their family, decided that they were going to teach cooking to the wider audience. The Asian Today’s Hifzha Shaheen caught up with the brothers.
Tell me about Bearded Bakers.
The Bearded Bakers is about two bearded brothers who can cook, have fun in the kitchen, and sharing our love for cooking. What we are doing, is putting into practice what we have learnt, and picked up on from recipes, mainly through our mothers, sisters, TV shows, cookery books, and something we may have been inspired by. We also want to show that Asian men, especially practicing Muslims can cook, and want to show the world that Muslim men with beards are harmless.
Reasons why you started a YouTube channel?
The trend on social media is to share pictures of food that you have eaten, cooked, or even seen. We wanted to take this to another level. When either #ChefK or #ChefQ uploaded picture of dishes they had cooked, there was a request for recipes. We thought demonstrating the cookery was better than writing out the individual steps of said cooking. So, we thought we would create a YouTube channel to share our ideas, and use it as a platform to connect to the potential and established amateur cooks out there. The cooking of the man itself is also reviving a Sunnah. Alhamdulillah.
Where does your passion of cooking come from?
For #ChefK it stems from his mother. Seeing her spending hours in the kitchen to cook for him and his family, his mother became his inspiration. For #ChefQ, his mother created the love for cookery by baking with him when he was young, such as cookies and cakes. Furthermore, whilst many would watch soaps and TV, #ChefQ and I watch cookery programmes and would dream of creating, and eating the dish. Cooking is a serious passion for both of us, inspired by memories, dishes eaten, and things seen.
Tell me about yourselves.
#ChefK is from Sheffield and works with autistic children, and is involved with projects in the local community. He is a proud father to a beautiful baby girl, and likes spending time with friends and family, and also exploring and studying his religion. #ChefQ is head of credit control and finance for a family run business, and I am involved with editing, marketing and decision making for two non-profit organisations propagating traditional Islamic knowledge, and a volunteer for a charity. I – Alhamdulillah – am also a proud father to a beautiful baby boy!
Future plans?
To be honest, there is no real plan for the future, although we are considering adding more “bearded bakers” to our group. But, because we are relatively new, we will take things step by step, in sha Allah.
