Chef Ham El-Waylly joins WTOP to dish on his new cookbook, food trends and risk taking

For Ham El-Waylly’s first cookbook, the New York City-based recipe developer and video content creator shares recipes for cooks of all levels.

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Chef Ham El-Waylly joins WTOP to dish on his cookbook

Ham El-Waylly said he was taught to “question everything” in his first fine dining job, at wd~50, the former New York City restaurant owned by chef Wylie Dufresne.

With this kind of thinking, El-Waylly said it helped “activate that part of my brain where … everything doesn’t need to be just black and white. There’s a lot of fun in the grays, and that’s kind of where I like to live. And there’s a lot of gray in this cookbook.”

For his first cookbook, “Hello, Home Cooking: Do-Able Dishes for Every Day,” the New York City-based recipe developer and video content creator shares recipes for cooks of all levels, especially those in search of humor and personal touches.

Often, in the headnotes, or introductory blurbs before each recipe, El-Waylly shares touching or humorous anecdotes about his family and how they inspired his love for cooking.

In an interview with WTOP, he shared more of his thoughts on the making of his cookbook, and also food trends for 2026.

What led to the making of “Hello, Home Cooking”

Growing up in Doha, Qatar, to a Bolivian mom and Egyptian dad, El-Waylly enjoyed a wide variety of international dishes growing up — cheese empanadas, stuffed cabbage rolls and churrasco — and those flavors can be found in unexpected ways in his cookbook.

Think a cinnamon-sugar-covered toasted and chopped pita for a crunchy cereal, a Frito chocolate ganache tart and a variety of ways to perfect the cooking of the humble egg, sous vide included. There is also a multitude of vegetable-focused recipes with one chapter housing over 20 recipes, along with “The Produce Chart,” that comes with even more “strong opinions on vegetables” and how to prepare them.

One opinion in particular is to “reveal don’t conceal.” In other words, let the quality of the products shine rather than getting too fussy and overthinking the process.

“There’s a lot of borrowing from different cuisines and cultures and ingredients and putting them together,” El-Waylly told WTOP. “And a lot of that comes from how I was just being in an environment of just incredibly creative and talented people that really inspires you and gets this part of your brain really, really active that I’m really happy got turned on and has yet to turn off.”

It’s a lighthearted cookbook with humor injected on every few pages. El-Waylly describes cake doughnuts as “a blemish on civilization” and even recommends readers who try the pomegranate molasses and tahini toast recipe to apply it on “that weird rash on your foot.” He also shares the struggles he had growing up, yearning for years to play the “Final Fantasy 7” video game which he didn’t have easy access to in Doha and also learning to perfect the “Jazzy-Will handshake” from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

“(I) think things are more memorable if they make you feel a certain way, if they make you laugh, if they make you chuckle, you’re more likely to remember those lessons,” said El-Waylly.

In the book, he also makes sure to mention his wife and collaborator, Sohla El-Waylly, who is a bestselling cookbook author of “Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook.” With Sohla, Ham cooked alongside her on the New York Times Cooking YouTube channel.

“I think she is by far the most talented person in this space. She has so much culinary prowess and experience. She is so knowledgeable. She’s like a walking encyclopedia (for) food,” said El-Waylly.

On the importance of making mistakes

In his book, El-Waylly wrote, “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.” With this, he told WTOP, “I make mistakes all the time and that’s something I really want people to feel comfortable doing.”

For his cookbook, El-Waylly said he wanted to help home cooks feel less intimidated in the kitchen because not every meal needs to be a Michelin-star meal.

“There are times where, even I’m cooking at home, and it’s like, you know what? This just needs to be nutritious. This needs to be easy. This needs to take 20 minutes because I got dogs barking, I got a baby crying, and food needs to get on the table. And there’s nothing wrong with just having a tasty, nutritious meal on the table,” he said.

The biggest food trend to anticipate for 2026

It’s true that when restaurants start pinching pennies, the first staff members that tend to get cut are often the pastry chefs. But El-Waylly sees this trend shifting. According to him, he sees a “really big renaissance” in bakeries.

“Luckily, now I’m seeing pastry chefs just really finding a way to pivot and doing it on their own, and opening these amazing, amazing bakeries, cafes (and) dessert shops,” said El-Waylly.

On what’s next

“I was just a 19-year-old kid who moved here for the first time. I knew I just wanted to cook,” said El-Waylly. “I never, never, never thought that I would have a restaurant, have a cookbook that I’d be promoting (and) be married to the greatest person on earth who also shares the same passions that I do.”

Despite having so much on his plate, including a new toddler, El-Waylly isn’t ruling out another potential cookbook.

For now, “Hello, Home Cooking: Do-Able Dishes for Every Day,” which launched in March of 2026, can be found on Amazon and other bookstores.

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