Finding Community in Alserkal Avenue | Nala, Kokoro & Subco

Finding Community in Alserkal Avenue - A talk with Nala, Kokoro & Subco

Join us for an engaging conversation with Jill Lee Okkers from Nala, Faisal Yabroudi from Kokoro, and Rahul Reddy Subko as they share their unique journeys of finding community in Alserkal Avenue. A talk moderated by Shannon Holden.

About the speakers

Nala | Jill Lee Okkers

After Natasha, Jill is the face behind the flavours of our brands. She has worked tirelessly with her team to create dishes that are original, authentic and fresh and does so while minimising our environmental footprint in every way possible. Jill’s role extends into training, kitchen layout and staff structure as well as quality control on our concept brands. She’s an innovator, ensuring that we’re always one step ahead. Like Natasha, Jill grew up drawing inspiration in the kitchen from her grandfather and came to TG having worked in hospitality for over fifteen years, holding positions such as Head Chef, Private Chef and Development Chef with a Diploma in Culinary Arts. Jill travels extensively for research into global cuisine and is often found dipping into cookbooks and websites and keeping an eye on food trends to inform her dishes. She’s also a qualified journalist, penning her thoughts on all things culinary over on her blog Food By Jill. She’s an advocate for food sustainability, underscoring the need to reconsider how and where we source our ingredients from.

Faisal Yabroudi

I began my journey in the food and beverage industry in late 2015 by co-founding PINZA. Initially focusing on the food delivery segment and later on launched the PINZA B2B model to supply other F&B operators in the market. My venture expanded to launch several successful virtual delivery concepts along the way.

Driven by a passion for creating & developing unique dining experiences in Dubai, I eventually transitioned into the premium casual dining sector a few years ago by co-founding an outdoor live fire cuisine concept called Fiya and eventually launching Kokoro earlier this year. We provide a simple and casual dining experience, prioritising exceptional food quality, customer service, and customer retention."

Rahul Reddy

Rahul Reddy is the founder of Subko Specialty Coffee Roasters. With Subko, Rahul intends to help reimagine the Indian Subcontinent as a legitimate contributor to the global specialty coffee movements. The conception of Subko began in December 2018, and cemented itself in February, 2019, when Rahul decided to leave behind careers in the technology, social enterprise, and risk analyst worlds to train as an apprentice at a specialty coffee company called City of Saints in Brooklyn, New York. There, he learned the art of profile roasting coffee as a roasting apprentice, learned specialty brewing, packaging, producing cold brew, and farm level green bean buying. He also completed what is considered the coffee world’s most rigorous ‘sommelier’ certification, requiring him to pass 21 sensory analysis exams around coffee, called the Specialty Arabica Q Grader.

Talk m oderated by Shannon Holden

Shannon is the Community Relations Manager at Alserkal Avenue, with professional experience at arts and cultural institutions and corporate business environments. She holds a BA degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 2011, she managed the region's first and most extensive exhibition on contemporary African art titled As It Is! Contemporary Art from Africa and the Diaspora, a four-part exhibition at Mojo Gallery, Dubai, featuring the works of 24 African artists. An alumna of Campus Art Dubai's inaugural cohort, her CAD exhibition on the aesthetic of funk titled Chaos into Clarity: Re-possessing a Funktioning Utopia was selected and presented at Sharjah Art Foundation. By way of Arizona and New York City, she and her family have lived in Dubai for many years. Most recently she was a participant in Rewilding the Kitchen , an experimental culinary project curated by Nahla Tabba.

Host or Publisher Alserkal Avenue