5 Questions with Chef Basmah Marouf
September 10th, 2026
3-Minute Read
For Chef Basmah Marouf, good food begins with simplicity. A belief in letting exceptional ingredients speak for themselves is at the heart of Cantina, the Italian concept she opened in Kuwait in late 2023. In just a few years, the restaurant has made its mark on the region, ranking No. 18 on the Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants list and earning the title of Kuwait’s No. 1 restaurant in 2026.
In this edition of “5 Questions With”, Chef Basmah shares the philosophy, influences, and ideas that continue to shape her kitchen.
Chef Basmah Marouf
Q.1Where do your best ideas come from: travel, memory, people, or moments you least expect?
My best ideas come from a combination of both travel and memory. My childhood consisted of spending every summer in Italy. The spaghetti vongole that makes an appearance as a special whenever clams are available is a dish I’ve been eating all my life.
Most of the dishes on Cantina’s menu are recreations of dishes I had either growing up or traveling around Italy and the world as an adult. For example, the Pici Cacio e Pepe is a recreation of the same dish I had at Trullo, London. The Rib Eye is a recreation of the same dish I had at Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles. I have to admit I get a lot of ideas from Instagram too.
Q.2 How do you know when a dish is finished? Is it instinct, technique, or emotion?
Instinct. You just know when there’s something missing, even if you can’t pinpoint exactly what it is. So, you keep trying until you get it right. We made the Pici countless times before we got the recipe right, and it took over a year.
Cantina
“Cantina is the full expression of everything I believe in as a chef: simple food using the best quality ingredients available to us.”
Q.3 Every restaurant has a heartbeat. What do you think gives Cantina its own?
The team. As the leader, they are marching to the beat of my drum, so to speak, and you can say that’s the heartbeat. Everybody here is really pushing to keep up with my standards, which are very high. With performance, quality, cleanliness, organization, systems, attitude. It’s all for the sake of delivering the best possible experience to each guest.
Q.4 What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned in this industry?
Not so much a lesson I learned by force but more of a philosophy I operate by: Don’t compare yourself to others or copy what others are doing. Many concepts look like they are succeeding from the outside, but their books tell a very different story. Focus only on yourself and what you’re doing. Don’t copy others or jump on trends.
Pici Cacio e Pepe | Cantina
Q.5 If your menu had one message, what would it say?
That we are all about quality. We use the best ingredients; we don’t compromise; we make everything in-house and from scratch. We don’t even purchase ready-made mayonnaise.