Dressed in blue surgical scrubs and latex gloves, kitchen staff at the Egyptian restaurant D.Kebda prepare grilled beef-liver sandwiches behind a glass pane as customers tuck in.
United by a love for food, more than ten full-time doctors decided to pool their resources and invest in the fast-food restaurant, located in Damanhour, a city in northern Egypt.
An employee dressed as a doctor cuts beef liver with a knife at the operating room-themed fast food restaurant in Damanhour, Egypt August 1, 2017. (via REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)
The sandwiches, an Egyptian delicacy known as kebda, are the only item on the menu of the surgery-themed restaurant, established in July.
Kebda is a popular street food in Egypt, but it can cause severe food poisoning if not prepared with proper care. The physicians hope to avoid that by applying the same rigorous medical standards they practice with patients.
An employee wears surgical gloves as he prepares a sandwich at the operating room-themed fast food restaurant in Damanhour, Egypt August 1, 2017. (via REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)
“We tried to take our career values and apply them to this other field,” said Mostafa Basiouny, one of the restaurant owners. “There is no contradiction between them, we are still practicing doctors.”
So, they decided to use their knowledge to create a menu that was affordable, of a high quality, and prepared in a kitchen with sterilized utensils.
“The food industry is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, so we haven’t really gone far,” said Basiouny.
According to co-owner and chef Mohamed Shashb, the doctors’ studies helped them research aspects of the business from how to properly and safely prepare the beef-liver, to how the sandwiches should be wrapped.
An employee dressed as a doctor serves customers at the operating room-themed fast food restaurant in Damanhour, Egypt August 1, 2017. (via REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)
D.Kebda’s kitchen was modeled on an operating theater and the owners have incorporated medical terms into the names of the dishes.
