Two chefs, eight courses and one guiding idea: that heritage cooking and healthy eating don't have to pull in opposite directions. Zulal Wellness Resort by Chiva-Som, Qatar's TAIM-inspired wellness retreat, staged a one-night chef collaboration at its Acacia restaurant on 29 October 2026, joining its own Culinary Director Mayssam Abdul Khalek with the Armenian-Lebanese chef Zarmig Haladjian.
The menu traced Armenian culinary traditions through Mediterranean flavours, filtered through the resort's core framework of Traditional Arabic and Islamic Medicine (TAIM). Every dish was designed to show that nourishment can be purposeful without being joyless — an approach Zulal puts at the centre of its whole guest experience, where meals are treated as part of the health journey rather than a break from it.
Chef Zarmig is a serious name in the gastronomy world: she leads Qatar's Bocuse d'Or and Pastry World Cup teams, judges competitions as a Certified Culinary Judge, sits in the UK's World Master Chefs Society, has authored 24 cookery books and serves as an Ambassador of Taste for Global Gastronomy, representing both Qatar and Armenia internationally. Her side of the menu leaned on generations of Armenian-Lebanese home cooking — fresh ingredients, shared plates, food with a story. Chef Mayssam's side brought Zulal's wellness philosophy, where each ingredient and technique is chosen for what it does for the body as much as for the plate.
Guests at Acacia didn't just eat; each course came with the cultural backstory behind it, showing how old culinary knowledge can be reinterpreted in contemporary, health-conscious cooking. Resort management framed the evening as exactly the kind of experience Zulal wants to be known for — food as an expression of culture and connection, not just fuel.
For travellers, this is a useful window into how high-end wellness resorts are evolving. Zulal, located in Qatar's far north near Al Ruwais, is the Middle East's first wellness destination built around TAIM principles, and food is a headline part of the offer. If you've written off wellness retreat food as a procession of steamed vegetables and restraint, collaborations like this make the case that the category has moved on. It also spots a broader trend: destination dining that treats local and regional heritage as the main attraction, rather than importing a generic fine-dining template. For anyone planning a stay at Zulal or weighing a wellness holiday in the Gulf, it's worth asking what's happening in the resort's restaurants during your dates — guest chef dinners and themed menus like this one are becoming a real part of the appeal.
