Dining

Chef’s Cut - Executive Chef William Khala

by: BTM - Wed, 12 Nov 2025

On this episode of Chef’s Cut, we learn more about Executive Chef William Khala of Raffles Al Areen Palace Bahrain, who has honed his culinary craft all across the world from Toronto to Europe to Japan.

Hi Chef! What’s cooking today?
Today I’m making a very simple but very refreshing dish. It’s a gazpacho, featuring different textures and colours, and it’s one of my favourite dishes to have in the summer.

What’s an absolute must-try on the Raffles Al Areen Palace Bahrain menu?
Our braised brisket is something amazing. Out of this world, it’s braised for 36 hours, and if I was at home, I would love to have that with a nice side of mashed potatoes.

What’s one ingredient you simply can’t live without?
Olive oil. It’s in my blood!

What’s your least favourite ingredient that you can’t escape?
A lot of chefs would not understand this, but I don’t like raw onions.
So you spent nine years in Japan. What’s the biggest lesson you brought from there to your cooking?

The biggest lesson I would say is the respect for the ingredients.

So obviously now you’re here in Bahrain, what’s your first impressions of the place?
The food scene is definitely multicultural. There’s a lot of restaurants like Turkish, Indian, European and Italian; while Bahraini traditional restaurants are something that are really cool to see.

So carrying on with the Bahraini theme, what’s the one Bahraini ingredient you love to cook with?
When I came here, I already knew about the Lumee lime, but now I see how much they’re really cooking with it and it’s awesome.

If you weren’t a chef, what would you be?
I would definitely be a surgeon.

If you could cook for two global celebrities, who would they be?
Bruce Lee is one. I’m a basketball fan, so definitely Michael Jordan. I want to see what their feedback is!

And finally, share one chef hack that our viewers can try at home.

I think people at home should really get into sous vide cooking. It’s not as scary or as technical as you might think. It just takes a little bit of research in terms of the temperatures, but it’s definitely a beautiful technique and a skill to have at home, to control your meats and your fish every time.