Akad, or AK, as he is known, always loved cooking as a child and couldn’t wait to leave school to become a chef. Having learned the ropes at Rockpool, he went on to Il Bacaro in Little Collins Street and then tried his hand at Chinese Fusion. He’s now happily cooking Middle Eastern street food at Balagan Kitchen and, reading over out chat again, I laughed at my reactions of obvious surprise and pleasure at his use of ingredients and the way he described some of the dishes.