Local Tastemaker: Chef David Fhima

Article by Becky Fillinger

David Fhima

David Fhima is inexhaustible – he’s the Executive Chef for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx. He’s the founder of Fhimas MPLS, Artisan & Spice and the newly opened Mother Dough Bakery in downtown Minneapolis. We talked to him about earliest influences and the newest project he has underway for the North Loop. 

A young David working a fast food jobQ:  You received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Geneva, Switzerland in 1982.  What life experiences happened to turn you towards a career as a chef and entrepreneur? 

A:  My dad wanted me to be an engineer being the first male born from parents who did not go to school, yet they had more knowledge and wisdom than any school could teach. I grew up in a household where cooking was our life, as it involved sitting down, sharing meals – a heritage that involved French, Moroccan, Spanish and Sicilian families’ food, which only accentuated what our DNA was…FOOD. My mom was, and is, the greatest cook ever and unknowingly, I was falling in love with the art of food and people while studying to be an engineer and while working at restaurants to pay for my school from the time I was 15. When I came to Los Angeles in the early 80’s the only thing I could do when the money ran out as a tourist was to work in restaurants - the rest, as they say, is history.

Q:  You were born in Morocco and lived in Paris, London and Strasbourg among other places. You come from a family of 17 brothers and sisters – all of which I learned from your excellent interview by Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl in the Twin Cities Business magazine. One of the lessons you mentioned was "family first, last, always." Your website for Mother Dough tells us "wealth is built at the table." What’s your earliest food memory? Please tell us more about your thoughts of food and family.   

A:  That is all true as per the mentioned interview - my memories around food are the most powerful memories I have, aside from the birth of my children, my wife saying yes to marrying me, my dad’s passing, my first grandchild… So many memories, not sure which is first - but one memory is my dad butchering a cow asking me to take the intestines and clean them and turn it into a tripe soup. I should mention that "cleaning” them meant blowing out the intestines so that my mother could scrub and then boil the intestines for 3 days!

Family!

Q:  Another lesson you learned as a restauranteur was to "choose your landlord before you choose your building." Have you applied that lesson as you plan for the opening of the North Loop Moulin Rouge-inspired restaurant at the former Ribnick Furs site? 

A:  I sure did…I chose my family as the landlord ☺.

Q:  What news can you share about the North Loop location? News reports mentioned that you’ll highlight BIPOC communities’ cultural talents. How will you do that? Do you have preliminary menus?   

A: We are in planning stages, but the overall concept is to make food at the highest levels created by staff who have been marginalized in our industry; to create a food justice platform for all. We will ask and allow staff to share cultural family recipes and implement them into the menus. We will highlight the diversity of our multicultural staff through food!

Q:  How may we stay up to date on your news?

A:  We post lots on our Fhimas Instagram page @fhimasmpls and our website press page.