http://www.smh.com.au/world/from-maid-to-a-celebrity-chef-its-a-revolutionary-change-20110819-1j22p.html
>From maid to a celebrity chef, it's a revolutionary change August 20, 2011 Egypt's master cook … Ghalia Alia Mahmoud. Photo: WP CAIRO: Only in the new Egypt could Ghalia Alia Mahmoud have become a celebrity. A woman from a poor neighbourhood, she cooks in tin pots with no handles, on propane burners lit with a match, in a kitchen without measuring cups. She uses simple, cheap ingredients such as beans, pasta and vegetables, all she can afford. In the old Egypt, Ms Mahmoud worked as a maid. But that was before January 25, the beginning of the upheaval in which the destitute and the affluent stood shoulder to shoulder in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Ms Mahmoud's rise was the inspiration of Mohamed Gohar, founder of a new TV station, 25TV, named for the day the revolution began. He plucked the 33-year-old from his sister's kitchen, where she had been employed as a cook and gave her the job of teaching Egyptians to prepare dishes they could afford. With humour, Ms Mahmoud has done it all with ease, becoming an unlikely symbol of a movement aimed at preserving the spirit of change and social justice. On her show, Ms Mahmoud cooks in a kitchen that looks like her own, and makes meals that could feed a hungry family for just $US4 ($3.85). ''All women can cook. They're smart and they can do anything if they try,'' she tells viewers. At home, she feeds 15 people on an income that even now does not exceed $US200 a month. She cooks meat just once a week, because that's all she and her husband, a minibus driver, can afford. In less than two weeks on air, her popularity has jumped. Children ask her questions and tell her they love her. Men propose. ''The government only treated the creme de la creme with respect, and the rest of us were invisible,'' she said this week. ''I have so much hope that for my two girls, the country will be different.'' The Washington Post Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/from-maid-to-a-celebrity-chef-its-a-revolutionary-change-20110819-1j22p.html#ixzz1VaA84Ezw [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
