Ham El-Waylly is a chef, recipe developer, and video creator based in New York City. You may know him from the NYT Cooking channel, where he shares ingenious tips and whips up opulent feasts from niche ingredients alongside his wife, Sohla. But you probably don’t know Ham’s rich history in food, from growing up in Doha, Qatar, with Bolivian-Egyptian parents in the food business to running research and development at Momofuku’s Ando. Today we dig into it all, plus his love of graphic tees and live music.

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MORE FROM HAM EL-WAYLLY:

• Chicken Stroganoff [New York Times Cooking]

• The World’s Smelliest Fruit? Sohla and Ham Try Cooking With Durian [Mystery Menu]

• What Happens When a Brown Chef Cooks White Food? [GQ]