Mireille Hayek

With no formal training or experience but a deep-seated passion for cooking for her loved ones and initial encouragement from her brother, Dany, Mireille Hayek founded her first restaurant in Lebanon titled “La Parilla”, back in 2006. The success of her first restaurant outpost led her to open her second restaurant concept in 2009 titled “Yasmina”, an Indian fusion restaurant named after her daughter.

In 2011, Hayek opened what would go on to become the crown jewel of her flourishing restaurant empire, Em Sherif, named this time around after her son – which translates to “the mother of Sherif” in Arabic. The restaurant is a fine dining restaurant that exhibits Hayek’s both traditional, refined and certainly very unique take on the multifaceted Lebanese cuisine, that trigger fond memories of home cooking while simultaneously delivering a luxurious, first-class dining experience. It soon became a must visit for all visitors, ambassadors, diaspora and even locals alike – today, no trip to Beirut is complete without a pitstop at Em Sherif.

Hayek prides herself in the following five pillars to that mark Em Sherif’s success: quality, consistence, perseverance, presence and an authentic soul. The formidable intuition and spontaneity of Hayek and her team paired with the utmost standards of culinary creativity and experience have made Em Sherif a thriving family business with the highest international benchmarks with a commitment to its Lebanese origins.