Scaling Craft Without Compromise: Avec Karim Founder Karim Abdelrahman

In an era where scalability can be the difference between failure and success, how do you grow a business that essentially revolves around a single person?

Egypt-based chef and entrepreneur Karim Abdelrahman would know, having built his core business around a purely experiential private dining experience, Avec Karim, before expanding into a line of gourmet food products, as well as upscale collaborations with the luxury hotel group Four Seasons in Cairo and in Bahrain. “As someone who doesn’t like to compromise, it’s very difficult,” Abdelrahman confirms, in a conversation with Inc. Arabia. “How do you structure a business so that it serves its main purpose? Because it’s very easy to deviate, especially when everyone wants you in high demand, you could very easily find the numbers taking over. But then, you run the risk of losing the magic of what you do.”

It is fortunate then that Abdelrahman, whose culinary journey began at a young age, has chosen to be guided by his passion for food through all of his entrepreneurial endeavors. This, bolstered by his education at Ecole Ducasse in Paris as well as his experience as a chef at Michelin-starred restaurants in the same city, gave him the confidence as well as the experience to almost inadvertently launch the business that he runs today in Egypt.

In fact, he recalls that the first time he was asked to do private dining in 2019, it was almost entirely coincidental. “I had just gotten back from Paris, and I was traveling all over Egypt and meeting people from all over the country, and exploring local ingredients,” Abdelrahman shares. “At the time, someone called and asked me to do a private dinner, and it wasn’t something that I did at the time. But I thought, ‘I have the ingredients, so I can prep at home, I can use people’s kitchens, they have all these nice plates and cutlery that no one uses, so let’s take them out…’ And I spent a year and a half or two years working on word-of-mouth [referrals].”

While thus providing his clientele with the opportunity to host intimate, exclusive dinners in their homes, these private dining experiences also allowed Abdelrahman to be a tableside chef and connect with people personally at each meal. Besides serving as his first access to the market in Egypt, they also allowed him to build his personal brand—though he soon realized that he needed to pivot if he wanted to stay in business.

“It was a simple model, but at the end of 2021, it was getting out of control,” Abdelrahman recalls. “It needed to be structured. And I think this is where it gets interesting, because how do you take something that spewed out of passion, and is very intimate and very artistic, and combine it with business? And that has been a huge learning curve over the past 3-4 years. Even now, I say it very, very loud: I have this constant struggle inside me, which is trying to keep the craftsmanship, and to keep the business and grow it, and to keep both working. And it’s a very fine line for a business that revolves around a craft.”

Karim Abdelrahman at an Avec Karim experience.

For Abdelrahman, this comes down to what he wants to ensure he is able to deliver every time: a singular experience that celebrates food, tells a story, and evokes memories. “Avec Karim is not just a dining experience; it’s also a very curated and immersive experience,” he says, noting that at the core of his endeavor are the emotions that make it unique to each client. What this means is that before he designs a menu, he speaks to the diners’ hosts to get to know them, conducts site visits or meets them in their homes (and in some cases, even looks through their fridges), to ensure that each experience is tailored to them. “Even when we’re designing food for a brand that’s corporate, for example, I want to understand more about the brand, why you’re celebrating, what is the occasion, etc.,” he adds, noting that in many cases, that means that the food, far from being a side dish, plays a role in the story being told. “You have to understand who you’re cooking for, who’s coming, who’s eating, what’s the occasion,” he says. “The other part of it is what’s in season, what’s local, and for us, this goes without saying.”

Combined, these efforts enable Abdelrahman and his team to carefully and meticulously tailor each Avec Karim experience to the individuals—or the brands—it is catering to. So, what does this mean operationally? For starters, the team is required to develop new menus weekly, ensure that what they want to offer is in season, and source it for each event. “I always say that any food business on the planet that has a set menu has its warehouses stocked, they have the same purchases, and so, everything is set and working,” Abdelrahman says. “But when you have five different menus every week, to find the time to develop them, to prep them, it’s a very different dynamic.”

To add to the challenge, Abdelrahman is also bullish on sourcing almost all of his ingredients locally—another takeaway from his years in Paris. “[At culinary school,] I took a class called food history,” he shares. “Before a test, the professor told us, ‘If you have any doubts about the origin of a food, just say that it’s from Egypt, and there’s a 90 percent chance that it’s correct!’”

This was something Abdelrahman took to heart when he returned to Cairo, with the chef making it a point to travel and learn about the people and the stories behind the food of his nation, and, in the process, establishing a network of suppliers that he would otherwise not have. “The more I learned, the more I fell in love with our culture...” he says. “Egypt has a very rich culture and history and very different ecosystems, from coastal cities to the Bedouins to Aswan [in Upper Egypt], and each has its own spirit and ingredients and food. And the most important thing in our industry is the ingredients. So, I found myself traveling domestically in Egypt a lot, meeting new people, and learning about their food.”

Today, Abdelrahman’s team sources 90-95 percent of its ingredients locally, supplementing their dishes with imported products only minimally—this is down from just 50 percent local ingredients when he first launched, he says proudly. “As a chef, I don’t think I would be able to produce this product or this experience without these ingredients or these experiences,” he adds. Today, having expanded beyond Egypt to countries like Bahrain and the UAE, Abdelrahman utilizes the same research process, traveling extensively in each country, and sourcing local ingredients to design the menus.

An item from an Avec Karim menu.

But how did Abdelrahman strike a balance between keeping the magic and intimacy of his private dinners alive, while also growing his brand? For one, there’s the aforementioned product line, L’Artisan, that AbdelRahman launched in collaboration with the upscale Egyptian grocery store, Gourmet, which builds on the Avec Karim premise of locally made gourmet offerings.

Similarly, the Tableside concept Abdelrahman built with the Four Seasons hotel group is also, in many ways, a culmination of his travels and experiences, with it offering a seven-course seasonal menu that weaves cultural narratives from around the country together with locally sourced ingredients.

Plus, to add an element of Avec Karim’s personalized ethos to the experience, Tableside also features a team of storytellers who explain to diners the story of the food, the ingredients, and the inspiration behind each dish. “People live the journey, live the story, and I think that’s just as important as the dish itself,” Abdelrahman explains. “I always say that, before you eat, there’s two things: if it looks good and you like the story behind it, you already love the dish 95 percent, before you even taste it. And then, of course, it has to be delicious, which is the base of our business. But since we put all this effort into the thought process, we may as well highlight that.”

Coming back to Abdelrahman’s dilemma of remaining true to his craft while also growing the business, he says that the past five years have taught him that growth doesn’t look the same for everyone. “The reality of very niche businesses is that they’re not meant to grow in a straight line,” he points out. “So, we’re trying to grow in different verticals.” In AbdelRahman’s case, the business lines that have grown out of Avec Karim have “opened up access to the brand in small doses,” without compromising on the core of his flagship offering.

As far as Abdelrahman is concerned, such a careful approach to growth is necessary to protect the moments that gave Avec Karim its meaning in the first place. “My father is a doctor; so, he always tells me that people visit him at the clinic or the hospital when they’re feeling their worst, but they come to me when they want to celebrate, because it’s usually a special occasion, once a year, or even once in a lifetime,” he points out. “And we have to live up to that.”

Pictured in the lead image is Avec Karim founder Karim Abdelrahman. All photos courtesy Karim Abdelrahman.