The AYALA SquareMeal Female Chef of the Year Series 2026: Ayesha Kalaji

In the capital, you’re never too far away from a bowl of velvety baba ganoush or an olive oil-licked flatbread, hot and puffy from the grill. London is arguably one of the greatest cities in the UK for Middle Eastern food, spearheaded by masters such as Berenjak, Akub, Honey & Co, Imad’s Syrian Kitchen and many more. But look outside the capital, and the story is quite different.

Champagne AYALA: Celebrating over 160 years of history, Champagne AYALA was one of the original twenty-six Grandes Marques Champagne Houses. The House received a Royal Warrant in 1908 and became a part of the Bollinger family in 2005. With its longstanding commitment to the restaurant industry, Champagne AYALA is known for its chardonnay driven, low-dosage wines, crafted with precision and delicacy on a boutique scale. These wines are the ultimate epicurean pairing, it’s no wonder they have been served in the UK for over 100 years in many of London’s most prestigious establishments.

Enter Ayesha Kalaji’s debut restaurant Queen of Cups, a coaching inn-turned-Middle Eastern restaurant in the heart of Glastonbury, serving food inspired by Ayesha’s Jordanian heritage using local Somerset produce.

On paper, it perhaps shouldn’t work. Glastonbury is better known for its pagan festivals and incense shops than its food scene, but Ayesha’s restaurant has won numerous accolades since opening in 2021, ranking in the Estrella Top 50 Gastropubs list, and winning a Michelin Bib Gourmand within a year of opening.

Ayesha is half Jordanian, although growing up in North Wales meant access to her heritage was fairly limited. She remembers summer holidays in Jordan with her grandmother as a child, and recalls the incredible Arabic breakfasts - zeit and za’atar with thick labneh - her father would make on the weekends. But home was Anglesey, and most of what she ate throughout her childhood was British. Still, food was always where she felt most at home.

‘I’ve always loved food, especially eating it. It’s always been one of life’s pleasures, and that was apparent from a very young age. I used to break into the fridge and take out the block of cheddar, and I’d try to nibble it in a straight line so no one could see I’d been eating it.’

It wasn’t until university, whilst studying a degree in Middle Eastern Politics, that she considered cooking professionally. Spurred by her parents, Ayesha had always envisioned an academic route for herself, a path that took an unexpected turn when she realised she was ‘miserable’ half way through her degree. ‘I thought I was meant to be academic,’ she explains, ‘but that was a huge misconception I’d built for myself.’

It was her mother who suggested she enroll at cookery school instead, on the condition she finish her degree before applying to Leiths’ School of Food & Wine. Jump forward to Ayesha's first day at culinary school, following a three-hour lecture about eggs, and she knew instantly she'd chosen the right path. ‘I was a little late to the party, but at least I arrived,' she says.

'I was a little late to the party, but at least I arrived.'

With a culinary degree under her belt and London’s dynamic restaurant scene at her fingertips, Ayesha landed her first full-time chef role at The Palomar in Soho. The restaurant had just won the Observer Restaurant of the Year, and it was arguably one of the hottest restaurants in London at the time, pioneering what would eventually become London's longstanding love affair with counter culture and sharing plates. It was a foot in the door and a learning curve like no other, but the pace of service was a shock at the beginning, and she tells us more than a few tears were shed in those initial months. 

Post-Palomar, Ayesha ventured back to North Wales for a short stint at Michelin-starred Sosban & The Old Butchers under chef Stephen Stevens, swapping the fire of the open grill for fine dining and tasting menus. It was an eye-opening experience and one that taught her how to cook on a whole new level, a feat she owes to Stephen: ‘The man is a powerhouse, an astounding chef, and very meticulous. I learned a whole new skill set with him.’

The rest of a decade-long run in London saw her take on roles at some of the capital’s most iconic Middle Eastern restaurants: The Good Egg and later Bubala, where she worked alongside the queen of vegetarian cooking Helen Graham, just one of many incredible women to have inspired her career.

‘I’ve been so lucky to meet so many amazing female chefs,’ she says, citing Graham, Juliette O'Sullivan and Rachel Karasik in the list. ‘Now, I find myself as a head chef surrounded by other amazing female chefs, especially women representing their cultures - people like Maria Bradford of Shwen Shwen, Saliha at Third Culture Kat, Salma from Middle Eats. They’re very true to their heritage and identity in their own way, and that continues to be a source of inspiration for me.’

Being surrounded by a wealth of inspiring female chef role models has undoubtedly given Ayesha the confidence to pursue her own dreams in the kitchen. But there are also chapters of her career where she was made to feel like she doesn't belong. ‘In one of my early jobs, someone told me that as a woman I would never be more than a salad or pastry chef,’ she says. 

Today, statements like that feel obsolete, absurd even, but they still happen, and they’re still powerful, especially for a new chef just starting out. Luckily, those experiences didn’t deter Ayesha from forging a career in food, but now she speaks openly about what needs to change within the industry to make professional kitchens accessible to all.

‘The key is listening to women and supporting them,’ she says. ‘Half the population is women - you can’t afford to exclude that talent.’

‘In one of my early jobs, someone told me that as a woman I would never be more than a salad or pastry chef.’

Like for so many chefs, the pandemic brought a seismic shift for Ayesha. She was working at Bubala at the time, but the buzz of regular service had been swapped for meal kit prep, and she could feel herself starting to pine for something new. ‘I was making a lot of houmous,’ she muses. ‘I could see that I’d reached the pinnacle of where I could with them and I wanted to do my own thing.’

An opportunity arrived in late 2020. Her friend was running a B&B in Glastonbury and somewhat jokingly said she needed somewhere to send her guests for food. Ayesha had only visited Glastonbury once before in her life, but she saw an opening and jumped. ‘I came and viewed this place in December,’ she says, gesturing to the dining room. ‘I handed in my notice in January, moved in April, and opened in May. It was a whirlwind.’

Queen of Cups opened in May 2021, and five years later, has become one of the UK’s most revered restaurants, a community-driven venture supported by a legion of regulars and diners who travel across the country to try her food.

Granted, at the beginning there was some trepidation from locals. ‘When we first moved to town, there were rumours - people saying 'two Londoners' coming in to gentrify the area.’ But Ayesha knew her audience and was empathetic to the ‘small town’ energy that gives places like Glastonbury their edge. So, she kept the music nights and blues jams that were part of the previous owner’s work, and figured out how to serve the food she wanted to cook, without pricing out its residents and her suppliers.

‘We made a real effort to be part of the community. One of my priorities was making the menu affordable for the people who grow the produce. If the people growing the cabbages can’t afford to eat here, that’s not right.’

The Queen of Cups is many things: a gastropub, a Bib Gourmand restaurant, a free house and a live music venue. This sense of eclecticism suits a town like Glastonbury, but the restaurant is Ayesha through and through. ‘It’s a reflection of me,’ says the chef. ‘I’m many things: a chef, a writer, someone interested in politics, art, theatre, wine, and food. My restaurant reflects that.’

The food is just as multi-faceted. The menu clearly draws on her classically-trained background, but the flavours are resolutely Middle Eastern, while leaning into the fantastic local produce from the area. The result is a form of Middle Eastern cookery that goes far beyond falafel and houmous, although she makes them both very well, she assures us. ‘My food is not strictly traditional or authentic - it’s my interpretation through my own lens, and in that sense it is authentic to me.’

Her journey to discovering the food of her heritage has been a lifetime in the making, from childhood trips to Jordan, to hours spent researching 13th-century recipes and speaking to other Jordanian chefs. Now, her goal is to teach people about the nuances of Middle Eastern cuisine, from the Makmoura of north Jordan to the endless array of regional spices across the region. ‘I call myself the “queen of sumac” because I’m obsessed with it.’ she laughs. ‘I go to Jordan with two suitcases, one for clothes, one empty, and I fill it with spices. I once came back with 15 kilos of spices!’

The Queen of Cups is impossible to distil down into a single identity. It looks and functions like a restaurant, but with space to pull up a stool for a pint of mead if you so wish. The food is irrevocably comforting, but plated with the precision of someone who’s spent time in a Michelin-starred kitchen, while pairing flavours and techniques that aren’t strictly ‘classic’, from chocolate crème infused with Persian lime, to marshmallows flavoured with cardamom.

One thing is crystal clear: Ayesha loves to feed. 'That’s part of hospitality,' she explains. ‘When [guests] visit, I want them to wish they’d worn elasticated trousers!' In fact, if we had to sum up Queen of Cups in a single word, it would be generosity. 

Ayesha's perfect match for AYALA's Le Blanc de Blancs A/18

The dish: Pan-fried turbot with cumin and preserved lemon butter, seasonal greens, fennel fronds, foraged sea herbs, pickled magnolia, fermented wild garlic oil, and za’atar

Why it works: 'It pairs beautifully with Champagne because the citrus notes cut through the richness of the velouté. Fish and Champagne is always a great pairing, while the za’atar brings a savoury umami quality that matches the toasted, yeasty notes in the Champagne.'

For more inspiring stories like this one, check out our latest interviews for our SquareMeal AYALA Female Chef of the Year Award 2026, including Nieves Barragán Mohacho of Legado and Maria Bradford of Shwen Shwen.