When he’s not behind the counter at Umi, the Panama-based restaurant he co-founded with partner Abraham Abbo, chef Kamel Abi Hassan is out on the ocean, cutting through the water by boat, ready for an intense fishing session. Whatever he catches goes straight to the kitchen, where, armed with razor-sharp knives, he cleans, breaks down, and selects the finest cuts to serve guests who come for an evening of nigiri, hand rolls, and cocktails shaped by Japanese precision.
Everything begins from a clear principle: “Cooking is a language, while business is the space that allows that language to exist. I understood very early on, that if I wanted creative freedom, I had to take on entrepreneurial responsibility. Cooking is art, yes, but also structure, strategy, and sustainability.” Two dimensions that have coexisted since the start of his path, defining an approach where creative expression develops alongside managerial accountability.
Umi and the Story of Kamel Abi Hassan
His trajectory begins in Venezuela, and migration becomes a structural element in his work, shaping decisions, sensitivity, and vision. “I’m a cook who turned the opportunity to leave my country into an identity. A migrant who found in cooking a way to rebuild and exercise a form of personal power. Today I cook to express a vision. My work has always aimed for a sense of permanence,” he says. His dishes carry memory and reconstruction, evolving over time and translating into matter. “Starting over, ambition, loss, rebuilding — my dishes hold all of that and move forward at the same time. They carry memory, but also determination. Each creation tells the story of someone who chose not to settle.”
The moment cooking became central coincided with a shift in perspective. “There were moments of fatigue, doubt, even creative burnout. But I kept returning to it. That’s when I understood cooking was my language, my discipline, my way of seeing the world.” From there, a method took shape, balancing intuition and rigor. “Instinct sparks the idea. Method makes it real. Without instinct there’s no soul; without method, no coherence.”
Kamel Abi Hassan and Abraham Abbo: Inside the Partnership
Within the Umi project, the partnership is built on a clear division of focus: “Before being partners, Abraham and I are friends — there’s a sense of brotherhood that matters to me. He focuses on capital and relationships, which are essential for growth. I concentrate on operations, creativity, and the structure of the concept. In this business, finding someone you can speak openly with, argue with, and still remain friends is rare. We’ve always had that balance.”
Panama and the Rise of a National Culinary Identity
Panama provides the ideal ground for this vision, “a place to grow without structural limits,” he explains. “Here I found fertile ground to build something solid and develop an identity within a scene in transformation.” A city in motion, capable of welcoming ambitious ideas like Umi, which explores the dialogue between local product and Japanese technique through a deep respect for ingredients.
Umi Devotes Its Cocktails to Art
Here, food and cocktails converge into a single expression, shaped through a close collaboration with Bar Manager Mauricio Pardo, a Colombian mixologist who found a new home in Panama after his time in Bogotá at La Sala de Laura and Leo. The art-driven menu, featuring Yayoi Kusama and her unmistakable polka dots on the cover, creates a direct bridge between visual language and the liquid grammar of mixology. “With Umi, we’re showing that local product can engage with Japanese technique without losing a Latin American identity. Respect for the sea, conceptual clarity, and depth of flavor define our voice, letting Japanese technique meet the ingredients and sensibility of our own geography.”
Inside Umi, Where Service Becomes Theater
As the room fills and the lights dim, the sound of sharpened knives and shaking tins merges with hip-hop beats, building a charged energy around the counter. Outside, the ocean keeps moving, a constant point of origin and reference. Inside Umi, each service delivers exactly what it promises: a clear language shaped by rigor, then released with complete freedom.
The article first appeared on Coqtail – for fine drinkers. Order your copy here
Photo by Emanuel Florentin – all rights reserved
