EATING OUT
THE CRITIC James Brennan knows food. Having written on everything from bhajis to burgers for a string of international publications, James is now the Middle East chairman of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants judging panel
It was once dismissed as the “stinking whale”. But when the Danish restaurant Noma topped the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list a few weeks ago, it heralded a new order in the world of gastronomy. Those molecular morsels at Ferran Adria's El Bulli and Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck were outdone by the simpler, more natural cuisine of René Redzepi, whose restaurant – a converted whale-blubber warehouse in Copenhagen – serves only seasonal ingredients that are locally sourced. Forget culinary foams and foie gras frozen in liquid nitrogen, the long-simmering trend for local ingredients is now at boiling point thanks to Noma. But where does that leave us in the UAE? Thankfully, in a much better place than we used to be. Once upon a time, if a chef needed a decent tomato he had to get on the phone to Holland or Italy. Practically everything worth eating had to be flown in from around the globe in what could be described as the world’s biggest take-out. But a recent mini explosion of organic farms, farm shops and farmers markets in the UAE might just change all that.
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OK, you’re not going to get your arm ripped off by a flying cauliflower or have to dodge a deluge of lettuce shrapnel any time soon, so perhaps explosion is the wrong word. But it’s easy to get carried away with what’s been happening on the local food front. Where once the UAE’s larder for high-quality local food was as barren and moth-ridden as Birmingham City Football Club's trophy cabinet, now there’s a burgeoning scene for locally
sourced ingredients that’s making excited locavores as flushed as an organic strawberry. The Nazwa Organic Farm off the Dubai-Hatta Road gained official certification last year. Now it sells fresh local produce through its recently opened Umm Suqeim store, and makes regular deliveries to the Arabian Ranches. Mazaara organic farm in Al Ain grows such diverse crops as maize, mangoes and aubergines, and will be officially opened in the autumn. Meanwhile, Baker & Spice restaurant in Dubai’s Souk Al Bahar set up its very own farmers' market in April, which
“THERE’S A BURGEONING SCENE FOR LOCALLY SOURCED INGREDIENTS THAT’S MAKING EXCITED LOCAVORES AS FLUSHED AS AN ORGANIC STRAWBERRY”
will resume after the summer. But it’s not just everyday punters who are benefiting from the local food movement in the UAE. Top chefs like Scott Price at Verre by Gordon Ramsay are examining local farms with a view to cutting back on imports and reducing their carbon footprint. And since there were no UAE restaurants on the 50 Best list this year, perhaps going local is what’s needed to put the UAE back on the culinary map. It certainly worked for the stinking whale. FOLLOW JAMES' BLOG ON…. www.duguzzle.blogspot.com
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