PRO CHEF
W
hen we heard about ChefXChange, we were excited to get involved with the project and discover how it works in practice. In discussions with Martie Daems, CityLead Dubai - Marketing and Business Development, we decided we would co-ordinate with a number of Dubaibased food bloggers and watch the experience in their villa or apartment as one of the guests. The first to volunteer was Samantha Wood, restaurant critic, food writer as well as enthusiastic and award-winning food blogger as FooDiva. With her parents and sister in town for a while and with her half-Cypriot heritage, her choice of Chef Ilias Kokoroskos, Head Chef of Dubai’s leading Greek restaurant Elia in the Majestic Hotel was a natural choice. With eight guests - some with dietary requirements - and a domestic kitchen to work in, Chef Ilias came up with a six course
dinner that was a modern interpretation of dishes associated with Easter in Greece. How it works, explains Daems, is that “chefs are not restricted by the menu offering, pricing or reservations of a restaurant. Instead, they are able to express their own brand and identity through menus, pictures and pricing of their choice. The chef takes charge of the purchase of groceries, cooking, service and clean up of the kitchen when he is done.” We asked Chef Ilias how easy the process of using ChefXChange was? “I think it depends how good you are with laptops or PCs,” he replied. “In general not too difficult and communication with the host Samantha was good. However, I’d like to see some options where the chef and the host can check things like kitchen equipment, crockery, cutlery, service style, storage space and so on.”
“If I did not have to dine out so often because of FooDiva, I would use the service regularly, especially as the price per guest is very reasonable”
HOSPITALITY BUSINESS MIDDLE EAST
69