Nonna & I

Chef Khalil’s idea of good Italian food is fresh ingredients and an original Italian recipe too. Chef Khalil Rashwan was born in the beautiful Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria is renowned as an exciting food hub, for its fresh seafood and Mediterranean cuisine. As he grew up watching his mother and grandmother shopping for the freshest seafood around town and sharing recipes at home, the young Khalil developed his own passion for cooking. He had one dream when he went to sleep each night: to become a world class, internationally recognised chef. At 15 he moved with his family to the USA, and after completing high school he started working for Italian restaurants in Lower Manhattan’s Little Italy. After earning his Culinary Diploma and with over 7 years of experience learning from “nonnas” in Little Italy the young chef was ready to start living his childhood dream – to open his own restaurant and start on his own adventures across the world.

He opened Nonna’s Authentic Italian fine dining restaurant in Pennsylvania in 2002, followed by Nonna’s Pizza Art. Both were massive successes, nationally recognised in the American press. Chef Khalil then decided to further enhance his skills and studied at the world-renowned International Hotel Management Institute at Lucerne, Switzerland, where he earned his Honours Degree in European Culinary Arts. His next move was to Malaysia where he opened Pizza Art Malaysia and became well known for his talents on his cooking show, Habibi in the Kitchen, which aired on the Fried Chillies food network. Following his success in both the USA and Asia, Chef Khalil is now bringing his fusion of old-school Italian cooking and new-school ideas to the Australian restaurant scene and it begins here in Adelaide with his fine dining establishment, Nonna & I. And so with his own personal touch of art he continues to live out his childhood dream.