Chef Wesam Masoud’s Latest Culinary Venture is All About Carbs

As any discerning mood-eater would attest, pasta, comfort, and carbs are all interchangeable terms. Yet, as any discerning mood-eater would also attest, getting pasta delivered is often a messy business; will the sauce spill? Will it clump? Will it be cold? Most times, one of the aforementioned, unfortunately, rings true, and that is exactly what one of Egypt’s most prominent chefs, Chef Wesam Masoud, sought to tackle with his latest culinary venture, Pasta Baby.

Launched this summer by Cloud Kitchen Operator The Food Lab – of which Masoud is Co-Founder and Chief Culinary Officer – Pasta Baby delivers gourmet pasta in all shapes and sauces throughout Cairo. Staple menu items include garlic flatbreads, Caprese salads, chicken strips, and both classic and signature pastas. However, the real deal is ‘making your own pasta,’ allowing customers to choose their pasta, sauce base, veggies, toppings, protein, and cheese for a full gourmet experience delivered right to your doorstep.

To make this happen, however, required quite a few rounds of experimentation. “We didn’t want to have just another pasta brand; we wanted something that pushed the quick service perception just half a step. I’m not winning a Michelin star here, I’m feeding people and making them happy," Masoud tells SceneEats. “When you put pasta in a box for 40 minutes, things can go wrong. So, we had to alter a few things,” Masoud adds.

To ensure their pasta remains top-notch upon delivery, the team at Pasta Baby undertook a rigorous testing process. They cooked test items and let them sit in delivery boxes for half an hour to evaluate how they held up. Additionally, they tested their dishes with food couriers to simulate real delivery conditions, rather than perfect scenarios. This approach allowed them to gain confidence that their pasta would maintain its quality upon arrival. They also accounted for factors like seasonality and temperature variations, working on solutions to ensure optimal performance even in winter.

But why pasta? The answer is quite simple: “We wanted to fill a market gap.” Masoud shares. “We order an inordinate amount of food, and sometimes you just want pasta, but the options are often limited to one section of someone else’s menu. We don’t want to offer anything that’s just meh,” he adds.

Pasta Baby’s customisability sets it apart by making each pasta dish personal. Chef Masoud sums it up perfectly: “I want people to alfight over what their favourite pasta is. We want to build that conversation.” This commitment to personalisation is evident in their menu, including unique items like the Lemon Broccoli Pasta, which Masoud was determined to include: “I don’t care how you do it, I want that on the menu,” he jokingly recalls.

Having swapped the scalpel for a spatula so many years ago, Chef Wesam Masoud now channels his preanicision into crafting food with love. “I’d rather stand 16 hours in a kitchen where something could kill me than 15 hours in an operating room where I might kill someone,” he jokes. At Pasta Baby, his approach ensures every pasta dish is a labour of love, proving that for Masoud, food is not a career—it’s his calling.