The popular Cookery Corner is set to return with internationally renowned chefs appearing as part of the Cooking with Chefs programme.
One of the big culinary names plating up this year is the TV personality chef Hassan Kamal. Popularly called Chef Hassan, he has been hosting cookery shows on TV for 20 years. Known for programmes such as Min Kul Balad Akla and Halo Ya Halo, he favours Italian and French cuisine. He will cook up a storm with appearances from November 10-12.
Another big culinary name is the celebrity chef Nita Mehta. An institution in India, Mehta has written more than 600 books covering a multitude of world cuisines with over 7.5 million copies sold. Catch Mehta whip up exciting dishes on Friday. For those looking for some local Emirati flavour, UAE culinary stalwart Khulood Atiq will appear on Thursday and Friday. For those with sweet cravings, Frenchman Jean Michel Raynaud will bake yummy tarts, pastries and macaroons on November 10, 12 and 13. Raynaud, who began his career under the tutelage of master pâtissier Robert Schicchi in Marseille, became a head pastry chef by the age of 20. He later immigrated to Australia and is pastry chef at La Renaissance Pâtisserie in Sydney. With the Taste of Malabar session on November 13, you can join chefs Faiza Moosa and Umi Abdulla and learn the secrets behind lip-smacking tamarind prawns, Kerala-style fried fish or a variety of rice dishes.
Fun for the family
What can kids do?
There will be puppet shows, plays, yoga and a chance to meet a famous horror author or superheroes like Batman and The Avengers, too – children and young adults have lots to do at the upcoming book fair. Here are the sessions that are not to be missed:
Comic Pavilion
Get ready to be transported to the amazing world of comics and superheroes. Organised in partnership with ComicCave, the UAE's largest distributor of comics, the pavilion will have cartoon characters and Hello Kitty, Marvel's Avengers and manga for graphic-novel fans. The titles to look out for include Attack On Titan, the best-selling Japanese comics series with over 52.5 million copies in print; Sandman: Overture, a graphic novel by English author Neil Gaiman; and Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets by Luc Besson, which is based on a French comic book.
Darren Shan
Known as the master of children's horror, Shan promises to enthral. The Irish author has published more than 40 books making bestseller lists around the world. His first children's book, Cirque du Freak, attracted rave reviews and was turned into a 2009 movie starring Salma Hayek, Willem Defoe and John C Reilly. The author will appear on November 12 at the Intellectual Hall at 7pm.
Check out a few plays
Comedian Mohamed Salem will perform an Arabic one-man show called Wakhid Balik (Are you Taking Care?) on Thursday at 7.30pm, while Friday and Saturday shows will begin at 6.15pm. There's also the Arabic play Sah El Sahih, which tells the story of a child who learns a strange writing method that mixes Arabic letters and the English alphabet. Don't miss the entertaining children's musical Butterfly's Life by Konouz Theatre and Circus from Switzerland, from today through Friday.
Bright minds of India will share their insights
Some of India's best literary figures, management gurus and top chefs will come together at the book fair. Sudha Murthy has written novels, travelogues, technical books and four children's books, including Wise and Otherwise, Mahashweta and How I Taught my Grandmother to Read.
Gurcharan Das, the former chief executive of Procter & Gamble India, will discuss his best-sellers, including India Unbound — available in 17 languages and filmed as a documentary by the BBC — and The Difficulty of Being Good, which examines contemporary moral failures through the lens of the Indian epic the Mahabharata.
One of the biggest crowd-pullers this year will be the Malayalam superstar of screen, Mohanlal, who will talk about his acting journey spanning 35 years and appearances in more than 300 films in several languages. A hit among young readers should be the young-adult fiction author Durjoy Datta, who has churned out 11 novels. While he also writes for TV shows, he’s the co-founder of the publishing house Grapevine India.
• For details visit www.sharjahbookfair.com
artslife@thenational.ae
