A Saudi Student Takes First Place In An International Cooking Competition Held By A US University.

Hudhayfah Al-Hamawi, a Saudi student, won the top spot in an international culinary competition held by the University of North Alabama in the US.

Al-Hamawi’s efforts led the university department to include Saudi Kabsa and Moussaka dishes in the university’s curricula. As part of his attempt to popularize Saudi food culture in the United States, Al-Hamawi said that he was successful in persuading the department to add Saudi cuisine, represented by Saudi Kabsa and Saudi Moussaka salad, to the world cuisine curriculum.

Al-Hamawi is enrolled in the University of North Alabama’s Department of Culinary Arts Management to pursue further education through the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Foreign Scholarship Program. He was declared the first-place winner of the three-month long culinary competition.

According to the Ministry of Education, Al-Hamawi is among the top students in the culinary arts specialization, which is one of the new specializations aligned with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. Despite his tourism and hospitality degree from the Makkah region’s Technical College, he praised the efforts of the Saudi cultural attaché at the Saudi embassy in Washington for allowing him to enroll in this specialization.