The Pro Chef Middle East - August Issue, 2014

MIDDLE EAST ISSUE 30 AUGUST 2014

CHIC CHEF COOKS UP A STORM | IN-ROOM OPTIONS | DWHC EXPANSION | PLUS RECIPES FOR SUCCESS 0 PRO CHEF - AUG 2014.indd 1

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Contents

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18

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44

UP FRONT

FEATURES

CHEFS

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EDITORIAL Whatever you think of food bloggers, would you go as far as to sue over an unfavourable review?

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FACE TO FAC E Trends, histories and dreams with Chefs Silvena Rower, Tarek Ibrahim and Cedric d’Ambrosio.

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EDITORIAL BOARD Our industry colleagues who help guide The Pro Chef Middle East.

RECIPE CORNER A bumper round-up of nrecipe ideas from Chef Akil Ahmad (Executive Chef at Novotel & Adagio Abu Dhabi Al Bustan), Royal China, Paul Hage (Area Executive Chef for Habtoor Hotels), Dannet D’Souza (Chef De Cuisine Blue Flame, Jumeirah Creekside Hotel), Nespresso and Indian celebrity chef Shakuntala Saraf.

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OUT AND ABOUT The establishment of the UAE Hospitality Federation looks set to make this year’s Dubai World Hospitality Championship even more important for the local F&B scene. We have the details

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THE EGGS FACTOR Francisco Dela Cruz Pagtalunan Jr, Sous Chef at The Noodle House in Madinat Jumeirah opens the door and lets us know what’s inside his fridge.

MARKET FOCUS Is in-room dining aka room service rapidly becoming a thjing of the past? Not in this region, according to our round-up of local chefs and F&B professionals.

LEISURE 44

TRAVEL Off to a city that’s so crowded and fast-moving that you have to eat on the street - Hong Kong!

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THE LAST WORD Just what we never expected - a completely new design of pan, imagined by a rocket scientist!

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UP FRONT / editors letter

Can you take it?

Chefs and restauranteurs have long had to suck it up when faced with bad reviews, although some high profile chefs have reacxted by banning named critics or carrying on years-long feuds.

However, the rules of the game may have changed. In France of all places.

French food blogger Caroline Doudet reviews restaurants on her blog Les Chroniques Culturelles, normally without much problem. But she has just been fined just over $2,000 for posting a negative review of Il Giardino, an Italian restaurant in Cap-Ferret, back in August 2013, under the title ‘L’endroit à éviter au Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino’ (‘A spot to avoid in Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino’).

Her review told people to avoid the restaurant and that the boss is a ‘diva’. Not perhaps the most in-depth review but then Doudet runs the blog as an amateur who receives no revenue from it. At any rate, the restaurant team claimed that the “article was more of an insult” than a critical piece. According to regional newspaper Sud Ouest, the restaurant’s lawyer reported “great harm” to his client from the post because, when the restaurant was Googled, the negative review was one of the first results.

In court Doudet was asked to change the title of the article, but instead she decided to delete the post the day after the hearing. Apparently, this is the first time an amateur blogger that doesn’t generate any income has been fined for writing a negative review. Doudet’s response? “If bloggers do not have the freedom to write negative reviews, positive reviews make no sense either.” She also had to pay the cost of court proceedings, another $1,360.

And her complaints? She starts her ‘review’ pointing out that the restaurant is one that she visits once or twice a year and that it’s a reasonable small Italian eatery specialising in pizza. Then there’s a bit of a farce with servers getting in a muddle, aperitifs not arriving for a long time and then without peanuts, wine delayed and the food, when it finally arrives a bit of a mixed bag - steak is okay but the pizza a bit dry, though the dessert was good.

Real complaint? The owner was rather snooty, so Doudet and her family will not be going back. All rather a storm in a teacup and not, I think, deserving of a $3,360 fine.

Could it happen here? Well, UAE law provides for companies to be treated as people in the case of potentially libellous statements that could damage their business. I’d like to think, however, that the F&B scene here is a little more grown up.

CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER DOMINIC DE SOUSA CEO NADEEM HOOD COO GINA O’HARA ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER DAVE REEDER dave@cpidubai.com M: +971 55 105 3773 GROUP DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL PAUL GODFREY GROUP MANAGING EDITOR MELANIE MINGAS melanie.mingas@cpimediagroup.com M: +971 56 758 7834 EDITOR DAVE REEDER SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER, HOSPITALITY DIVISION CHRIS HOWLETT PHOTOGRAPHER, HOSPITALITY DIVISION ANAS CHERUR GROUP DIRECTOR OF SALES CAROL OWEN DIRECTOR OF SALES, HOSPITALITY DIVISION ANKIT SHUKLA ankit.shukla@cpimediagroup.com M: +971 55 257 2807 SALES MANAGER RAVI SHANKAR ravi.shankar@cpimediagroup.com M: +971 56 7911328 PRODUCTION MANAGER, HOSPITALITY DIVISION JAMES THARIAN WEB DEVELOPER, HOSPITALITY DIVISION LOUIE ALMA DISTRIBUTION MANAGER ROCHELLE ALMEIDA SUBSCRIPTIONS www.cpievents.net/mag/magazine.php PRINTED BY Printwell Printing Press LLC, Dubai, UAE PUBLISHED BY

Head Office, PO Box 13700, Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 A publication licensed by IMPZ © Copyright 2014 CPI, All rights reserved.

While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

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UP FRONT / editorial board

Meet the board The Pro Chef Middle East is keen to serve its readership by addressing those areas of key interest, To help that task, we have invited a number of respected and experienced members of the F&B world to form an editorial board to help guide us into the future.

BOBBY KRISHNA TM PRINCIPAL FOOD STUDIES AND SURVEYS OFFICER FOOD CONTROL DEPARTMENT DUBAI MUNICIPALITY Indian-born Bobby Krishna brings a real passion to his job enforcing food hygiene and safety regulations to the F&B sector in Dubai.

MARC GICQUEL Regional Director of Food & Beverage, Arabian Peninsula Hilton Worldwide Born and educated in France, Marc Gicguel has wide experience of different parts of the F&B sector, from Disneyland Resort Paris to Jumeirah Restaurants and Nestle Professional before joining Hilton Worldwide.

CHRISTIAN GRADNITZER Corporate Director Culinary Jumeirah Group German-born Christian Gradnitzer moved a couple of years back from kitchens to management and is now a key element in Jumeirah RnB’s plan to establish Jumeirah Group as a leading operator of successful restaurants and bars globally.

MICHAEL KITTS Director of Culinary Arts and Executive Chef The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management UK chef Michael Kitts’ career has combined distinguished work in kitchens, global competition success and a major focus on mentoring younger chefs, all of which make his currenty job an ideal fit.

UWE MICHEEL Director of Kitchens, Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek President, Emirates Culinary Guild German chef Uwe Micheel is a highly visible member of the regional F&B scene with two decades of experience in the Gulf and a key role in driving the success of UAE-based chefs at culinary competitions worldwide.

MARK PATTEN Senior Vice President, Food & Beverage Atlantis, The Palm Dubai In place at Atlantis since pre-opening in 2007, Australian native Mark Patten has had a highly successful and celebrated career across the world. He now oversees more than 400 chefs and numerous outlets at the resort.

SAMANTHA WOOD FooDiva A distinguished ex-Hilton PR executive, British-Cypriot Samantha Wood now combines food journalism, hospitality consulting and the highly acclaimed FooDiva food blog.

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Website:www.shuraemirates.com

Tel: +971-04-4516363

Shura trading & Hotel Supplies is a Company established since more than 30 years back in Abu Dhabi. It was established to cater the ever growing Hospitality, HORECA & Retail business channel In UAE & GCC. Shura Trading & Hotel Supplies is a member of Al Mazroui group of Cos. based in Abu Dhabi.

The Chairman of Al Mazroui group is Mr. Rashid Al Mazroui and his brother Mr. Saeed M Al Mazroui as partner of the organization.

Shura’s Corporate Structure

UP FRONT / out and about

UAE hospitality grows HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, has directed the establishment of the UAE Hospitality Federation as a further move to position the UAE as a leading international centre of high-quality hospitality services.

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The new UAE Hospitality Federation is expected to position the UAE as a world leader in providing high-level hospitality services especially in terms of excellence, quality and creativity.

The Federation aims to make the local hospitality sector competitive in the international arena as well as supporting the development of skills and capabilities in the hospitality and culinary sectors while providing them with the best training in accordance with the global standards. The Federation will also facilitate the exchange of experiences and ideas regarding international cooperation and communication.

According to HE Ahmed Bin Hareb Al Falahi, General Manager of Za'abeel Palace Hospitality and the President of Dubai World Hospitality Championship, "The development of the UAE's hospitality sector is inevitable as the country is poised to attain regional and international excellence at all levels. The local hospitality sector is gaining momentum on an international scale as it keeps pace with the latest developments while maintaining the UAE's traditions. The establishment of the UAE Hospitality Federation embodies the vision of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, who aims to highlight the hospitality

sector's pivotal role in attaining sustainable development and positioning UAE as a leader in the global hospitality arena. The UAE is steadily moving towards positioning itself as a leading regional and international tourism hub. Thus, the hospitality sector plays an important role in strengthening the UAE's tourism sector. We assure that the Federation will support all efforts aimed at promoting the local hospitality and culinary sectors in the global business sector, media and tourism stakeholders."

The UAE Hospitality Federation is being seen as an essential goal of the Dubai World Hospitality Championship. Al Falahi continued: "In order to enhance the hospitality services in accordance with the highest international standards, we have to strengthen the education sector, establish national brands specialising in hospitality, support the industry to gain a foothold in the regional and international markets, and offer professional trainings to UAE nationals. The training will enhance their creative skills, enabling them to compete globally while promoting the UAE's traditions."

Ahmed Sharif, Vice-President of DWHC, added: "The UAE Hospitality Federation is the ďŹ rst of its kind in the region. It is a new major achievement added to the UAE's bright history, while reecting

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out and about / UP FRONT

DWHC COMPETITIONS This year DWHC, which begins on October 30, 2014 and ends on November 3, 2014 at the Dubai World Trade Centre and organised

by Za'abeel Palace Hospitality, consists of ďŹ ve competitions: t *OUFSOBUJPOBM $PNQFUJUJPO t )PTQJUBMJUZ 4FDUPS $PNQFUJUJPO t &NJSBUJ $PNQFUJUJPO t (VMG 1SPEVDUT $PNQFUJUJPO t (VMG &YIJCJUJPO "DDPSEJOH UP .BKJE 4BRS "M .BSSJ %JSFDUPS PG )PTQJUBMJUZ 4FDUPS *OUFSOBUJPOBM $PNQFUJUJPO "The second edition of DWHC is characterised CZ UIF QBSUJDJQBUJPO PG UIF ($$ TUBUFT BOE Arab countries will include activities and competitions in cooking and hospitality that XJMM IJHIMJHIU UIF 6"& BOE (VMG IFSJUBHF BOE culture. The event aims to introduce the rituals and traditions of hospitality and cooking in the 6"& BOE (VMG TUBUFT BOE QSFTFSWJOH UIFN GPS GVUVSF HFOFSBUJPOT *O UPUBM UFBNT XJMM CF QBSUJDJQBUJOH JO UIF *OUFSOBUJPOBM $PNQFUJUJPO SFQSFTFOUJOH UIF 6"& #BISBJO 4BVEJ "SBCJB ,VXBJU 2BUBS 0NBO &HZQU +PSEBO -FCBOPO Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco."

5IF )PTQJUBMJUZ 4FDUPS $PNQFUJUJPO IBT witnessed a remarkable rise in the number of participating chefs.

Around 400 chefs participated in this competition last year, but the second season

PG %8)$ JT FYQFDUFE UP TFF UIF QBSUJDJQBUJPO PG 1,000 chefs, who work in hotels and restaurants JO UIF 6"& JO DBUFHPSJFT JODMVEJOH JDF DSBWJOH sugar sculptures, chocolate sculptures and wedding cakes.

"T GPS UIF &NJSBUJ $PNQFUJUJPO "M .BSSJ QPJOUFE out that it consists of four categories: Traditional Cooking, Professionals, Amateurs and Kids Category.

He said: "The Traditional Cooking will provide B TQFDJBM QMBUGPSN UP IJHIMJHIU UIF 6"& TPDJFUZ and will test the talents in the outdoor traditional cooking, using wood and embers at the Heritage Village. The candidate team will prepare famous &NJSBUJ USBEJUJPOBM EJTIFT TFMFDUFE CZ B TQFDJBM committee which will also judge these dishes later on, based on the local style of cooking and the real nBWPVST PG UIF &NJSBUJ UBTUF The Professionals category will provide the participants with the opportunity to review their FYQFSJFODFT BOE UIFJS DSFBUJWF TLJMMT JO QSFQBSJOH UIF appetizers, main meals and traditional sweets. The Amateur category is for males and females between the ages of 15-27 years old and kids category between the ages of 7-14 years old from Dubai.

Under this category, the competitors will have to prepare sandwiches, decorate cakes and biscuits, and creatively arrange the dining table.

5IF (VMG &YIJCJUJPO XJMM JODMVEF QBSUJDJQBOUT GSPN UIF 6"& ,VXBJU 4BVEJ "SBCJB #BISBJO 2BUBS BOE

Oman. The event will showcase homemade QSPEVDUT XIJDI DPOUBJO B NJYUVSF PG SFBM avours such as alatchar, vinegar, Arabic ghee, coffee, and Arabic spices, among others.

5IF (VMG 1SPEVDUT $PNQFUJUJPO DPOTJTUT PG UXP DBUFHPSJFT OBNFMZ *OOPWBUJWF 1SPEVDUT BOE )PTQJUBMJUZ &RVJQNFOU 6UFOTJMT Al Marri said: "The contestants in the ďŹ rst category will have to prepare sandwiches, desserts, cakes, biscuits and other varieties. &WFSZ DPNQFUJUPS DBO DIPPTF IJT UPQ three food creations for arbitration at the event's venue. The second category of the competition will highlight the contestants' creative skills in decorating hospitality kits and utensils of delal and cups and dishes as well arranging the table, tablecloths, trays and waiters' clothes, among others."

The second DWHC will occupy 25,000 TRVBSF NFUFST PG QSJNF TQBDF BOE GPVS IBMMT PG %VCBJ 8PSME 5SBEF $FOUSF 4IFJLI 4BFFE Halls 1, 2 and 3, and the Arena Hall which has the capacity to welcome 10,000 visitors a day. &JHIU LJUDIFOT IBWF CFFO TFU VQ GPS UIF &NJSBUJ Competition, eight kitchens for the Hospitality 4FDUPS BOE BOPUIFS FJHIU LJUDIFOT GPS UIF *OUFSOBUJPOBM $PNQFUJUJPOT The Heritage Village will have its area EPVCMFE UP TRVBSF NFUFST

its interest and commitment to invest in Emiratis.

Since it is the ďŹ rst global event that celebrates the antiquity of the UAE's local heritage, we have been keen to encourage Emirati talent by forming an elected Emirati cooking team, which will represent the UAE in all international competitions. Headed

by Chef Musabbeh Al Kaabi, the team comprises seven of the UAE's well-known chefs, including Chef Ali Salem. In the ďŹ rst season of the DWHC, we surprised our audience with The Dream Team, which consisted of the most famous and talented chefs from across the world who had met for the ďŹ rst time on a single platform of the Dubai World Hospitality Championship. This provided an opportunity to visitors to take a quick overview about the latest trends in the culinary world and at the same time, learn about the latest innovations and cooking styles from around the world.

However, in the second season, we have decided to form an Emirati team with an aim to encourage our nationals who are familiar with the art of the UAE cooking. The UAE Hospitality Innovators Team comprise the winners of gold medals in the previous competition and will receive special training at the headquarters of the tournament in order to prepare them for far more exciting competitions fought by chefs in the ďŹ rst season.â€?

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UP FRONT / the eggs factor

The Filipino fridge Francisco Dela Cruz Pagtalunan Jr, Sous Chef at The Noodle House in Madinat Jumeirah grew up in Malolos Bulacan, Philippines, the youngest son in a family that loved food and loved to cook.

Both his mother and all his brothers were great cooks and inspired him to pursue a life in kitchens.

His cooking career started in humble beginnings when he worked as part of the kitchen staff in a quick service restaurant.

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the eggs factor / UP FRONT

A

fter gaining a BTech as Mechanical Technician from Bulacan State University before receiving an Associate’s Degree in Culinary Arts from the Center for Culinary Arts, Manila. He then started attending culinary training and seminars and joined RM Foods, a franchise owner of Chowking Foods, as a Junior Cook, which increased his interest and love of cooking. He quickly became Senior Cook in Lio Del Chow, also a franchise owner of Chowking Foods and, after a year of hard work, he became

a Head Cook in Denkenn, also a franchise of Chowking Foods.

It was at this stage of his career he was awarded the Certified Gold Standard Cook. He became a franchise kitchen trainer and was responsible for overseeing eight stores with responsibility for the management teams, managers in training and creating new menu dishes.

In 2005, Francisco made the life changing decision to move to Dubai where he joined The Noodle House in Deira City Centre. He had the

opportunity to become the Junior Sous Chef in The Noodle House, Saudi Arabia. Over the next two years, he helped establish the brand and develop the team. From Saudi Arabia, Francisco returned to the UAE and worked as Sous Chef in Yas Viceroy Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

He then re-joined The Noodle House and he is now running the flagship site in Souk Madinat Jumeirah, overseeing a team of 20 and driving standards higher and higher.

But what’s in his fridge at home?

ge...

What's in my fridlli is tasteless so I

food without chi - Chilli - I believe on hand. bird’s eye chillies always have Thai ce tant as they balan e - These are impor - Lemon and lim medicinal llies and also have the taste of the chi uce blood pressure. properties to help red - Tofu.

- Carrots.

- Cabbage.

ble similar to uth Asian vegeta - Kangkong - A So morning glory. redient. paste - A basic ing - Sautéed shrimp thigh or legs.

- Chicken, mostly enced flatbread e of Indian -influ - Roti canai - A typ onesia. , Singapore and Ind found in Malaysia lk.

- Fresh low fat mi - Eggs.

www.cpime www.cpimediagroup.com ediagroup.com

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FEATURES / market focus

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market focus / FEATURES

Room to spare Room service has been a key part of any high-end hotel’s F&B operation for a long time and has often been used as a differentiator between various hotel brands. There’s just one problem: historically, it’s a very expensive service to provide and don’t contribute much to F&B’s bottom line. Trends in the industry suggest that room service is due for a major shake up any time soon.

G

oogle ‘room service’ and it doesn’t take you long to find the complaints such as the couple in a Moscow hotel complaining that their ‘basic’ room service meal without alcohol that cost them well over $150.

Small wonder then that New York’s largest hotel, the New York Hilton Midtown, recently closed its entire room service operation. The reason? It was no longer financially viable. That sent shock waves through the New York hotel scene - if Hilton Midtown couldn’t make it work, what hope for them? So will more and more hotels drop the feature or price themselves out of the market?

After all, high prices because of a 24x7 operation will reach a point when customer dissatisfaction with cold, uninteresting food that guests will no longer be tempted. Is this a widespread trend, like the rethinking of minibar provision?

Mark Woodworth, president of the hotel consulting firm PKF Hospitality Research thinks that it marks the evolving state of the industry.

“More and more consumers prefer to ‘help themselves’ to what they need, and the increased use of automated check-in/check-out kiosks and complementary buffets are common examples of this,” he told CNNTravel. “If management is providing a service that, at best, is only marginally valued by the guest, then there is a strong motivation to end such a practice.”

As well as Hilton Midtown’s silver tray service disappearing, so will 55 jobs, although some will be absorbed in a new cafeteria-style restaurant based on self-service. Hilton has yet to announce if other hotels in its portfolio will follow suit, although more and more hotels are offering similar concepts, like a self-service 24-hour marketplace for guests when room service ends, or special discounts with nearby restaurants for delivered food.

However, in general, guests still like the concept of room service, mainly because it’s convenient. So

THINK OUTSIDE THE ROOM How about breakfast or lunch bags to go?

Keep them healthy and simple to prepare, then let guests pick them up at reception.

For breakfast, think juice, coffee, croissant, yoghourt and a breakfast roll; for lunch, maybe sushi, sandwiches or wraps with pre-made salads.

Or take a tip from South Africa where many hotels have a small grill on the pation of every room. Let the guest choose a picnic basket of ingredients for starters and main courses, letting them grill their own protein when they want, with all the extras they need.

“Like most full-service hotels, New York Hilton Midtown has continued to see a decline in traditional room service requests over the last several years as customer preferences and expectations continue to evolve.”

- A New York Hilton Midtown spokesperson.

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FEATURES / market focus

how can you sidestep the problem and increase your in-room dining reveneues? The first step is to look at emerging trends in the North American market, as lessons learned there are likely to trickle down globally through the major chains. And here are the top three.

The first issue to address is the old-fashioned room service menu, so beloved of many hotels - the Club sandwich, the steak and fries, the

under-sized pizza and so on. So innovation in the room service menu is critical and many chefs are looking at managing all F&B operations in a hotel to equivalent standards, to include in-room and lounge service. The obvious way to do this is not just to offer burgers and salads, but see what dishes from the hotels’ restaurants are suitable, thus making in-room service an integral part of overall F&B.

Executive Chef Dominique Crenn, from Luce Wine Restaurant at the InterContinental San Francisco, is now offering an excellent in-room dining menu, which includes grilled chicken with apple-and-mint couscous and grilled ahi tuna with truffle and white bean purée. At W Atlanta Downtown, all F&B is managed by the celebrated chef Laurent Tourondel who owns the in-house restaurant, BLT Steak. Here, in-room menus have

TECH TALKS Technology is transforming many aspects of hotel operations and now it’s moving on to room service as well. And it’s a win:win - hotels save money on employees who used to sit and wait for the phone to ring and guests use apps via their smartphone, which is now second nature to younger travellers.

And brands like Hyatt are finding on-line room service ordering a bonus for business travellers, as they can schedule meals in advance and reduce waiting time. 25-30% of Omni room service meals are ordered digitally with dinner having the highest percentage.

The W Doha Hotel & Residences, for example, has now installed a 24x7 interactive messaging service that works across popular social media such as Whatsapp and Twitter. The hotel already introduced Twitter reservations last April.

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FEATURES / market focus

similar dishes to the hotel restaurant, with Kobe sliders and hanger steak frits with béarnaise sauce. At the Park Hyatt in Washington DC, the room service menu offers house-smoked mackerel rillettes and braised beef ribs.

And guests at the Public Express at Public Chicago get gourmet meals for breakfast and lunch and dessert from the kitchen of Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. They can pick up the order or have it delivered to their room in a brown bag within ten minutes of ordering at no delivery charge.

The next clear trend is a spread of more general concern about and interest in sourcing of produce influencing in-room choices, so hotels are starting to source from local farmers and fishermen, making a point of the connections. Starwood's Westin Hotels, for example, now work with Dr Steven ‘SuperFood’ Pratt to deliver organically grown vegetables, fruits and grains to produce dishes like Broiled green tea-infused salmon.

HBalancing the desire for healthy eating is a rush towards comfort food which, nicely for hotels, are easy to prepare and relatively inexpensive - think crab cakes or shepherd’s pie. Boston’s Liberty Hotel is offering milk and cookies and The RitzCarlton Central Park South offers cheesecake and homemade ice cream.

View from the kitchen We asked a number of chefs and F&B professionals to give us a snapshot of room service provision in the region.

What are the key challenges of providing room service?

Nikil Patel: One of the biggest challenges of providing room service is being able to cater to a variety of expectations and dietary requirements.

With a diverse business mix of nationalities, leisure and corporate guests it is challenging to cater to each individual palate. This is also compounded by the fact that while in the restaurant environment it is easy to approach the guest during the meal, ascertain how satisfied they are and fix any issues on the spot, this is not the case for a guest that is dining in the room. The other challenge that we face is that we have a lot of competition - guests have the possibility to have their food delivered from the variety of fast food establishments in the vicinity of the hotel. To counteract this, we have in-room delivery menus from some of our outlets placed in the rooms.

Tarek Mouriess: Cost, manpower, ensuring good quality of food at delivery time and the design of hotels ie the location of the room service pantry.

Christopher Graham: In an operation as big as ours having the food delivered in a timely manner during peak times can be a challenge. It is also quite a challenge dealing with the ever growing amount of food allergies.

Claudio Marras: Speed in delivery and accuracy in order taking.

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Yagmur Gursoy: Delivery times may be a challenge during busy hours of hotel operation where housekeeping and engineering teams are also sharing the service elevators.

Sebastian Nohse: Timing, transportation and quality are the three main challenges however with today’s technology we have better options to maintain the food at its optimum temperature and therefore good quality. Point two is the transportation - often the food does not reach the end location the way it was presented. This can have many reasons and in-room menus need to be written with that in mind, so special attention needs to be given to serviceware, set up and menu selection so the dishes, while still refined, are still in good condition even after ten to 20 minutes in a hot box that gets pushed through various corridors etc. So many restaurant dishes would not work - a good example is always for me a simple burger, while in any restaurant the burger is fully built and the only thing the guest needs to do is eat it, however in in-room dining we have to be more clever and come up with a nice side presentation of the salad leaves the pickles and the tomatoes for example as they would most properly wilt away by the time the guest gets the food to eat.

Uwe Micheel: The location of the kitchen, staffing (inconsistent business), keeping the delivery time, keeping food hot or cold, or frozen and freshness of the food.

Hassan Massood: Food delay due to some factors like the distance of where the food was prepared to the room. For some customers, the

THE GROUP Matias Ayala, Executive Sous Chef, Hilton Dubai The Walk Nikil Patel, Assistant F&B Manager, Hilton Dubai The Walk Tarek Mouriess, Executive Chef, Fujairah Rotana Resort & Spa Christopher Graham, Executive Sous Chef, Atlantis, The Palm Claudio Marras, Executive Chef, The H Hotel Yagmur Gursoy, Director of F&B, InterContinental Dubai Festival City; Sebastian Nohse, Director of Culinary, JW Marriott Marquis Dubai Uwe Micheel, Director of Kitchens, Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek and President, Emirates Culinary Guild Hassan Massood, Executive Chef, Radisson Blu Dubai Media City.

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FEATURES / market focus

room service menu is a bit expensive compared to the normal a la carte menu in the restaurant - that makes them decide not to order room service. Any wrong order can make the guest wait longer and it will cost us more instead of earning revenue.

Unavailability of ingredients in the market - it is always difficult to reprint and change the menu frequently primarily because it is costly. Guests always want a huge variety of room service dishes even during the night period.

Are room service revenues declining in your property? If so, why?

Patel: No, on the contrary we have seen revenues increase in the property compared to last year.

Through regular reviews of our menu items and pricing strategy we ensure that our menus are relevant and revenues are not only maintained but have a healthy growth percentage.

Mouriess: Not really, but due to the economic situation in the world, as well as the changing of guest segments and what packages are they booked on - all-inclusive, half board and so on.

Graham: Yes, slightly, but I believe this is down to the increasing amount of restaurants on the market and the boom in quality casual dining outlets, offering good food at a reasonable price.

Marras: In summer it falls down, but in high season we have good revenues, mainly from GCC guests.

Gursoy: Room service revenues are not declining.

Nohse: No. In our hotel there has been strong revenue growth.

Micheel: No, it's pretty stable, but always depends on the market. GCC guests are using room service more than Westerners, business people more than tourists.

Massood: During Summer, specifically Ramadan, we do experience low revenue on room service due to the hotel's occupancy drop and the overall market in Dubai.

Are you still running 24/7 room service?

Patel: Yes and unlike several hotels where the room service menus offer only a limited selection through their night menus, we have ensured that our entire room serviceu is available 24/7. We realised that we had a good percentage of guests that order during the night, specifically with our GCC guests.

Mouriess: Yes. Graham: Yes. Marras: Yes. Gursoy: Yes. Nohse: Yes, we operate our full menu 24/7.

Micheel: Yes. Massood: Yes, our menu is 24/7 , but the night menu has more limited choices than what we have in the daily menu.

Guest perception has been that room service food is often uninteresting and overpriced.

In general, would you agree?

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Matias Ayala: We would have to disagree. We believe that with the right pricing strategy and regular menu analysis we can identify trends to develop a better understanding of our guests' expectations and needs, creating menus that are not only interesting but priced for value.

Graham: I wouldn't use the same words necessarily, but to cater for the diverse range of cultures Dubai sees is quite often difficult, with so many different nationalities expecting authentic cuisine from their own region readily available.

This can sometimes lead to an in-room dining menu containing more common items from each region, so I can understand guests getting this kind of perception of unimaginative menu items. I, for one, would much rather have a comfortable dish that I know I liked on a room service menu, more close to something I would eat at home, knowing I will be happy, than go for something adventurous and different. I would rather venture out to a restaurant to experience this.

Marras: We charge extra because of the service that is provided, but not a big percentage. We try to keep the prices in line to the rest outlets in the hotel. We try to give room service dishes a big importance on presentation and variety, as this is one of our showcases to our guests and then they can be motivated in coming to our other outlets and dine. I agree that in many places room service

menu and service is considered as a must have and not as a enhancement of the hotel’s experience.

Many have the normal stuff and most of them never have something ‘out of the tradition’ that can ring the bell to the guest for them to order.

Gursoy: Not really, since a good amount of alternatives and special requests are honoured as well as some outlet menus are available for room service delivery. Prices are mostly aligned with our competitors’ room service and the prices are slightly higher than the outlets due to high operating costs of a 24 hour operation.

Nohse: No, I strongly disagree, at the JW Marriott Marquis we have a amazing selection of clever plates and service utensils that allow us to cook good food and transport it with a clean, authentic and creative approach. In in-room dining, we run the same profit margin as in most of our restaurants so when talking about overpriced inroom dining most guests then talk about a burger that has the lettuce still in it when it is being served 30 minutes after it was cooked. The fact is that we need to work harder to deliver good food and value. If your processes are right and with attention to detail it is as easy as to run a good restaurant.

Micheel: No, not at all. In our property, we do have a big selection due to the outlets and, yes, the price is little higher that all day dining, but it's private dining.

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CHEFS / face to face

Passion on a plate In the year since she arrived in Dubai from London, chef/entrepreneur Silvena Rowe has consulted, created a pop-up, done private catering and researched the F&B market ready for her breakthrough: four new outlets promoting healthy but delicious takes on regional cuisine. A whirlwind of energy, we managed to get her sit down for a while and reminisce on her journey so far.

I

t’s the contrasts you notice when you meet Chef Silvena Rowe. The shock of blonde hair against the hard-as-steel business sense. The fashionable abaya against the pink Christian Dior pumps. The untrained chef against the celebrity chef career. The tsunami of action against the measure of control over her plates. It’s proven to be an irresistible mix, but the woman herself clearly likes to keep herself enigmatic and at times throws out statements that could well be true but equally well be artfully conceived marketing shadows.

For those who recall John Ford’s magnificent film ‘The man who shot Liberty Valance’, the quote from the local newspaper editor seems especially relevant: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

Not that there is anything malicious in this.

Instead, unlike many chefs in the region, Rowe is a very clever self-marketeer, with each level of her career building to the next - one possibly apocryphal story about her is that, when she first arrived in London, she knew only one English word, ‘hungry’. From untrained home cook who began using dinner parties to create a community in an unfamiliar new home country to the bestselling cookbook author, TV celebrity cook and F&B entrepreneur, it’s been quite a journey but her natural talent and relentless drive onward has created a true original. One that looks set to revolutionise the face of Arabic fine dining - a task, she points out, that chefs based her for years haven’t even started on.

Her story begins in Bulgaria, where her respected newspaper editor father encouraged her early delight in food.

You’re often referred to as a British chef, but you’re actually from Bulgaria...

Yes, I grew up in Plovdiv, the city of seven hills.

My mother, father, sister and myself lived in an

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apartment right in the heart of the city but would spend our summers at our villa in the country.

One of my early memories was of my sister and I pressing grapes with our feet from my father’s vineyard, ironic as I’ve never drunk alcohol in my life. There was so much fresh produce there raspberries, cherries, peaches, apricots, an orchard and even a 120 year old walnut tree. One of my father’s close friends was Director of the Higher Institute of Agriculture in Plovdiv and he would give my father seeds from the best strains. As I grew up, I used to eat a lot but I also did a lot of sport. I guess you could call me a tomboy. We were three hours from the Black Sea and would go there sometimes on holiday and my father and I would just talk about food.

What was food like at home?

Very traditional. Remember that Bulgaria then was a Communist country and so food hadn’t moved on like it had in West. Bulgarian food is influenced

by Turkish - like me, since my father is Turkish and my mother Bulgarian. She was very good in the kitchen but my grandmother was phenomenal.

And my father, on the occasions he cooked, was also very good doing things like succulent meatballs with the smoothest bechamel. From the villa, any surplus produce was preserved, of course, so there would always be jars of sauerkraut, cherries and tomatoes, even pomegranate juice.

We all loved food, except my sister who ate but was not very interested in it.

I’m assuming the family didn’t eat out very much, given the country was Communist?

No, on the contrary. There were lost of traditional restaurants and eating together and gathering over food is such a part of our culture. Even now, even in a business meeting, I want food in the centre of the table! Partying is in the Balkan nature, you know. The restaurants would all be

quite simple but often specialise in different styles the one for grilling and so on.

Did you enjoy other cuisines?

No, I didn’t even know about them really although my father would talk about food from his travels. It was only when I moved to London that I discovered other cuisines - growing up, I had no other influences apart from Bulgarian food and, even when we travelled, we preferred our own food.

Why did you move to London?

I met Malcolm Rowe who worked in the wine business when I was a teenager, married him and moved to London. It took some adjusting certainly. Back home, I knew I was very good looking and attracted a lot of boys but when I arrived in London - no attention at all! Not that I was looking for it, but the change felt strange.

But I fell in love with the food and we’d go out to eat and Malcolm would introduce me to Chinese or Indian or Japanese. I liked everything! Anyway, in time I discovered Quaglino’s in Soho and that was a turning point for me. Before that, I had no idea that food could be so beautiful, so incredibly exciting. After, I put my energies into a celebration of food. in what way?

I read books and recipes. I cooked. I even spent six months in Sardinia working in a small restaurant and, when I came back to London, I threw big parties with lots of food - not Bulgarian, but French, Italian, Continental. Although I was working as a social worker, nothing else excited me so much as food. My personal strength and passion is pastry.

How did food in London strike you as different from back home in Bulgaria?

Growing up, everything had been seasonal but it

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face to face / CHEFS

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CHEFS / face to face

was a real shock to find strawberries and tomatoes in the middle of Winter. I still try to stick to the seasons, as I think that’s important. Remember, at this time, this was really before the rise of farmers’ markets or celebrity chefs in Britain but I got lucky and started work at Books for Cooks - suddenly I was surrounded by so many cookbooks that I thought I’d never need to write one, but now I’ve published eight!

How long did you work there?

On and off for five or six years and then I started to get TV work and a weekly page in The Guardian with Malcolm Gluck, the wine writer, that lasted about four years. As I said earlier, I don’t drink but I had great fun publishing dishes that gave him difficulty in pairing, using chocolate or chillies, for example.

At Cooks for Books, did you work with Clarissa Dickson Wright?

No, we didn’t work at the same time. I loved her on Two Fat Ladies, of course. We did meet three years ago in Edinburgh and became close very quickly, after a 15 minute meeting in a deli. Her death was such a shame - she was a big force of nature. So, back to my life - after Books for Cooks, I started a catering company and did private work for Princess Michael of Kent, Ruby Wax and Tina Turner, amongst others.

Where do you get your energy from?

I think I have an amazing positiveness, but honestly I don’t know where the energy comes from. I just have it, even after 27 years of being a chef. So I got regular work on a UK food channel, Great (later Good) Food. It was great fun and it led to other opportunities such as the couple of years I spent as a restaurant consultant and then Executive Chef with the Baltic Group. I guess I just have a talent for innovating but I felt I wasn’t making progress as a chef so I took the post of Executive Chef at Pasha, a top Arabic restaurant in Kensington. I did that for a year at the same time as developing a range of dishes for Waitrose of Eastern Mediterranean food, which itself led to working with the Marks & Spencer in-house development team.

Why do you think you’ve been so successful?

I think I’m a very good organiser and good at picking staff. I’m supportive of my people but they always know I’m in charge. Anyway, after Pasha, I had the great opportunity of opening Quince in the Mayfair Hotel and chef/proprietor.

At this stage, you were a popular figure on TV food shows, but highly visible female chefs in leading locations were still quite rare in London, right? There was, what, Angela Hartnett and Hèlène Darroze...

Yes, but I faced bigger competition - this was Mayfair and we had to be different. The place was stuffed with celebrities but that wasn’t enough so Quince became about my Ottoman heritage, which had already found favour with my recent

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"All of us are addicted to things that are bad for us - myself, all my life I've had one starter, one main course and then six desserts! Now I want to show people that we can eat sensibly without sugar, without gluten and even without dairy. It's all about health."

cookbook, Orient Express, which celebrated the cuisine of Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. Quince wasn’t about the glitzy or the stuff business menu, it was about my culture, my food, so the menu would have little notes on it like notes as ‘My favourite meal!’ or ‘A homage to my grandfather Mehmed’.

By this stage, of course, I wasn’t so much a chef as an expediter and a patron making sure guests were happy and understood the food. To me, the most important thing is to constantly reinvent yourself.

In one year, for example, I did it three times! You always have to be a step ahead.

So what was the next change?

I had a good friend who came to Dubai and reported back that it was kitsch and completely over the top but we had a lot of diners in the restaurant from Dubai and they were all telling me

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CHEFS / face to face

that there was nowhere like it. I did some work for the Emir of Qatar and then we spent some time in Dubai. I didn’t want to stay in the city so we were out in the desert and came into town for shopping - the sheer energy of the place just hit me, it’s so fast. I had seven offers for partnership.

Why the shift to Dubai?

I had an iconic restaurant in the heart of Mayfair, full of celebrities - frankly, I couldn’t ask for more. But now, after just a year, Dubai is my favourite city if the world. Frankly, I wanted to do a lot of different concepts based on heathy, neighbourhood eating and Dubai has given me

“In time I discovered Quaglino’s in Soho and that was a turning point for me. Before that, I had no idea that food could be so beautiful, so incredibly exciting. After, I put my energies into a celebration of food.”

that opportunity. In general, people here eat very unhealthily but you can change. I’ve always been a greedy eater but I’ve lost 8kg in just six months eating the food I’m now serving at Omnia Gourmet. Since I’ve arriving, I’ve been so conscious of how unhealthy so many people are, so many with diabetes. So important to me has been delivering safe and guilt-free food. Normally, to slim, you have to sacrifice things but I wanted to make sure that people ate more heathily but didn’t feel they were giving anything up, that they still got the same level of satisfaction. Look, all of us are addicted to things that are bad for us - myself, all my life I’ve had one starter, one main course and then six desserts! Now I want to show people that we can eat sensibly without sugar, without gluten and even without dairy. It’s all about health.

When you moved, how did you orientate yourself to the local F&B scene?

My first priority was to eat where the local communities eat and I still really enjoy that - so I’d eat Goan food in Karama, Iranian food and so on.

The hotel-based scene? It’s fast and progressive but for me so much of it seems to be design led rather than concept led. So I knew I could bring some new concepts to the city, rather in the same way that Zuma made a new concept work so successfully, Where do you enjoy eating now?

As I said, still the small place in Karama and Satwa.

Fine dining? Well, Qbara I think is fantastic, Zuma is great and I do like La Petite Maison. But, to be honest, so many places are too predictable and hotel-based dining is too institutionalised. Apart from that, I love Chinese food though often now I’ll eat Korean, which is very similar in many ways.

Anyway, we

Any negative things about the dining scene here?

I’m sorry to say that all too often I see a lack of passion and a lack of individualism and energy.

Chefs need to get past the fact that this is just a safe tax-free job. Look, why is it that only in the last year have chefs like Colin at Qbara and myself tried to reinvent and revitalise regional food - what have other chefs been doing? They’re in the midst of a fantastic source of flavours and ingredients why do they ignore them?

And the future? What can you tell us about the third and fourth planned outlets?

Well, Omnia by Silvena, my fine dining restaurant in Downtown, will open in September. After that, I’m opening two more casual places. I don’t yet really want to say too much about them but you can take it that I will stick to the things I love doing and both of them will be in high footfall locations.

They’ll be very casual, based on Middle Eastern food - affordable luxury, you could say. After that?

Well, I’m very impatient and impetuous, but we’ll see. I’m looking at Abu Dhabi and I’d really like to open in Saudi Arabia and show them there what I can do with fine dining. As I don’t drink, the alcohol restrictions there are not an issue for me.

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CHEFS / face to face

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7/30/14 12:03 PM

face to face / CHEFS

Meat and greet The first Arab chef to receive the coveted status of Master Chef from WACS, Chef Tarek Ibrahim is a popular figure to consumers via his Fatafeat TV work and to the industry via his tireless work as Meat & Livestock Australia MENA's Corporate Executive Chef. We discover the back story to his success and what he still hopes to achieve.

A

ward winning and internationally renowned chef Tarek Ibrahim developed his passion and respect for food from a young age. Now a Master Chef and star of Fatafeat TV shows, with a cooking style influenced and inspired by eastern and western cultures, life as a young boy in Egypt was a very different story.

You grew up in Alexandria?

Yes, that’s right, right in the heart of the city. I was the youngest with two elder sisters and my aunt lived with the family. I remember sometimes having to wear my sisters’ clothes and I would get beaten up for that. I have to say I wasn’t spoiled at all. I had a very strong mother and, as in most Arab families, all hopes are placed in the son so I was encouraged to be very strong and to practice my leadership skills on my sisters, even though they were older than me.

What was your father’s job? Was he in the food business?

No, not at all. He was a cabinet maker and, I have to say, one of the best. He had a small business which he started because he hadn’t had a good education but he had very good hand skills, which I think I inherited. We lived in a large apartment and my mother ran it, she was a real manager. And I grew up surrounded by food, going to the market and so on. We always ate every meal together - just fresh traditional food. Every day I’d come home from school for lunch and, climbing the stairs up to our apartment, I would smell the different dishes and say “They’re having that today, or this dish.”

From an early age, I had a good taste and smell memory, as well as good knife skills. And I was

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always eating a lot of different dishes! In fact, later when I was in America, I met Charlie Trotter at a competition and he said I had an incredible ways of putting food together and that must be because of my taste memory. In fact, if you plug your nose you can train it! So by the age of seven, I knew I had this gift.

Did you help in the family kitchen?

No, I didn’t cook there mainly because it was a dangerous place - my mother used a kerosene burner and all prep work was done in the hand.

But at school I got interested in exchanging food with other pupils. As I was saying, I was being trained to have a hard life so I went to pubic school while my sisters were at French school so they’d become middle class. But my school was great I’d swap someone’s sandwich for my falafel and that exchange exposed me to lots of completely different food. As a family, we were poor but our food though made from cheap ingredients was always tasty.

Nothing wrong with poor food. Most of the great French dishes, for example, have peasant roots.

Exactly! If you’re poor, you want good food and so certain dishes stood the test of time. Anyway, my father although he wanted me to experience a hard life didn’t want me to follow him into his business, instead he pushed me to college to get a secure education and I spent some years as a cartographer and surveyor. Then I went to the US for the first time to study aviation. I used to talk to him about my passions: flying, cooking and singing. His response? “You want to be a servant?”

So after some years doing what he wanted, I told

August 2014 / The Pro Chef Middle East

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CHEFS / face to face

him I wanted to do what I wanted and he agreed provided I did it well.

Into the kitchen at last!

Yes! Of course, I’d been watching my mother and aunt but my first time in a professional kitchen was really exciting. I’d gone to Greece to look for some work as a cook and, on that trip, I met my future wife Sharon. I met her in the street and not even 24 hours later, I told her I wanted to marry her!

She went back to her home in the US, I went back to Egypt and then I moved to Minneapolis to be with her. I’d found the job I really wanted - making people go ‘wow!’ when they eat. That gives me such satisfaction still.

Where did you work?

The Upper Crust Bakery. Two years later I bought it. Before long I added four cafes to the bakery and ran them ffor ten years from 1998 - Dry Dock Cafe, The Americana, Gibraltar Cafe and My Cuisine. Oh yes, plus a catering company.

What sort of food were you serving?

Just very simple dishes. Lots of fresh food and everything made from scratch. I soon learned that the biggest problem a restaurant can have is lack of consistency so I kept total control.

After Egypt and your short time in Greece, what were your initial reactions to American food?

Such huge portions! Americans always insisted on dessert, where in my culture we finish a meal with a piece of fruit. But I had an eagerness and openness to learn so I was soon doing dishes like scampi with a little hummous. Reaction was great so I started to enter competitions and did quite well, for instance I was twice named the Prime Chef of America by the American Dairy Association!

Then I started teaching at the Arts Institute International in Minnesota - well, that lasted from 1999 to 2005.

What were you teaching?

Oddly enough, regional American cuisine though a lot of that felt quite familiar given that it’s tradition lies in European communities and we knew quite a lot of that in Egypt. For instance, spaghetti is a very Egyptian dish. Teaching was great - all my life I’d wanted to go to school to know if what I’m doing is right, so throughout my career I’ve attended seminars and training whenever I could. Anyway, to get onto the staff at AII, I was given a test - what did I want to cook for them? I thought I might as well go to the limit and, within 45 minutes, made both filo pastry and couscous from scratch! Then it became a bit of a hard time in America with 911 - as an Arab with flying skills I was a bit concerned but Sharon’s father, a policeman, said he’d cleared me with the agencies and that I shouldn’t worry. But times were changing - when I first moved to Minneapolis, there were less than a dozen Muslims and we were all professionals; when we left for Egypt, there

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“I was given a test - what did I want to cook for them? I thought I might as well go to the limit and, within 45 minutes, made both filo pastry and couscous from scratch!” were a million. You can understand the difficulties of any community trying to absorb such a change in their midst. It felt time to make a change for the family and for me.

What was your plan going back to Egypt?

Initially, I took a year off, spending time with my young daughter, settling back into the life then I had a chance to be Corporate Chef for a cafe but that wasn’t really me. I volunteered to help the Egyptian Chefs Association with a black box challenge and met the guys from MLA who soon after offered me a job in Australia, but we agreed instead that I would be based in Egypt and work across the Middle East. The brief was to visit hotels, kitchens and talk about Australian meat and demonstrate how to deal with it. I was a guru of meat! TV followed and now I’ve spent eight

years with MLA and the opportunities for travel and meeting people have been great, though I have moved to Dubai to be closer to the key markets. Longterm, perhaps I’d like to run my own restaurants again - Dubai, UK, Egypt and Australia maybe - but for now this is a great job, a great life.

You’re very passionate about Egyptian cuisine. What makes it special?

It’s a country of 90 million people who are passionate about food plus a food culture that’s over 7,000 years old. Compare that to Lebanon whose cuisine is only a century or so old, but Lebanese food has become synonymous with Middle Eastern cuisine through cleaver marketing and the Lebanese diaspora. But we Egyptians had the palate before everyone else! Our food is simple but delicious, such as fava beans with garlic and coriander. All we need to do to get our food out there is to think about it more carefully.

You’ve had a successful career. What have you done wrong?

Done wrong? Well, my weakness has always been desserts and now, as a consequence, I’m on a serious health kick! Despite my role as Australian meat ambassador, at weekends I’m now eating fish. I’m eliminating bread from my diet. I like to eat out but stick to a small number of favourites: Qbara, LPM and a tiny four table Indonesian place behind the St Regis.

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7/27/14 2:26 PM

CHEFS / face to face

Spicing up the French Raised in the South of France, Cedric d’Ambrosio, Executive Chef of Sofitel Dubai Downtown, first had his tastebuds expanded during military service in Tunisia. Entranced by spice and Arabic food in general, he moved to Dubai to be at the heart of modern Arabic cuisine, via a spell in the Marines.

G

rowing up in a small village between Nice and the Alps, Cedric d’Ambrosio was surrounded by fresh produce. “My grandfather had a potager [kitchen garden],” he recalls. “There were always fresh chicken and vegetables, but we waited for the seasons to have things at their best. It was very interesting for me to be in the middle of that.”

Now, as Executive Chef of Sofitel Dubai Downtown, he wants to deliver that same excitement of fresh, seasonal produce to guests.

“I’m a real believer that we need to work more with local suppliers and use more local produce.

Most of the vegetables we use here are local, our milk comes from Al Ain and so on. Yes, there are problems but we need to give local suppliers a chance to grow and improve.”

You’ve said you have vivid memories of fresh produce as a child.

Yes, I stayed quite a long time with my grandparents with the potager. I also stayed with my other grandparents in Nice and there I discovered the food I really loved - the classic Mediterranean dishes. By the time I was 15, I had made the decision that food was the right career for me and that I wanted to discover classic French cuisine. So I left school in order to learn everything I could about food amd went to Nice Culinary College. It was odd, after five years there only about 10% of my original classmates were still in college.

But your whole background was in French food?

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Yes, until I spent time in Tunisia during my national service, working in the Marines’ kitchen. That’s where I started to learn about Arabic food. Back in France, of course especially in the South, there were influences from North Africa such as couscous but when I was actually there in the country it was amazing to discover so many different recipes and flavours. I spent two months there and I found it very interesting and took every chance to taste what I could. After that I was doing regular two month trips and I took the opportunity to go on shopping trips with thr Executive Chef, taking a truck to the local market. In fact, I wanted to extend my time in the services by a year but in the end went back to work.

Where was that?

I went to Le Chantecler, a 2-star in Nice, to work for Chef Jaques Mamimin for a short time over the holiday. It was my first exposure to fine dining and that was a real shock to me - he was a genius, in my opinion. He saw in me that I could grow as a chef and said he’d send me on to another chef to learn something different. So I joined Nicolas Le Bec in Lyon - at the time it also had two stars - and then, in 1999 I was Chef de Partie at Ducasse’s Louis XV in Monaco for a year. All these places trained me hard, very old school kitchens.

That doesn’t seem like your style at all?

No, it isn’t. All those old school behaviours, well they’re now forbidden. But I was very young to be working in two star kitchens and it was vwery physical, very hard work. That’s how I grew up as a chef but I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. For

myself, I show, I explain and I explain again. Yes, there will always be a lot of pressure during service and perhaps at that stage I needed to grow up and be able to handle the pressure. Anyway, I was offered a short project in Hong Kong, training with local chefs, and it became a two year experience that saw me involved in fusion cuisine for the first time. I had a commission to introduce them much more to dairy products and utilise them in the local dishes. And I also did training at the Hong Kong Culinary School - altogether it was a very rich experience for me and it opened my eyes to a lot.

And then?

I took up a job with the Ricard family on the Ile de Bendor as their Executive Chef de Cuisine. There were four restaurants: fine dining, steakhouse, bistro and a hotel. That was very interesting though, of course, I had to make sure that any alcohol I used in cooking was a Ricard brand! After a couple of years, I had a job offer in Morocco. It was out of France and I thought that would be a very interesting move for me. In the five years I was there, I did two openings but also discovered the amazing richness of the cuisines - tasty and balanced. I was eager to learn all about spices and was creating two types of dishes: traditional ones and fusion ones. After that I took up a Head Chef job in the Maldives at a 5-star resort with seven restaurants and lots of events to cater for. Why go there? I think it was just curiosity, but supply issues are quite tough there. Fish, for example. The water is too hot for anything other than tuna, so most fish had to be sourced as with other produce interestingly, from Dubai! Any local producers I got

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face to face / CHEFS

“Without the right staff it’s hard to create and maintain a good restaurant which is about quality, consistency and transparency.”

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CHEFS / face to face

to know. However, we could see that the Maldives wasn’t right for a young family, so I started to consider other places.

Including Dubai?

Well, Dubai is certainly the place to be. There’s a lot of competition but I ďŹ nd things are very friendly between chefs, which I like. So now I’ve been here almost a year, but when I arrived most of the hotel’s F&B concepts were in place and the only real discussion left was about an Asian outlet.

Should it be Thai or Japanese. We went with Thai.

What is your overall strategy?

I’m committed to delivering authentic food. So, for example, I’ve hired Moroccan chefs who I worked with before. We have Turkish, Lebanese and Indian chefs so we can deliver the real dishes.

Your take on other Dubai-based chefs?

In general, I think going outside to taste other cuisines is so interesting. Chefs need to be more curious. Bring something new to Dubai, bring something authentic. Here in Dubai you can ďŹ nd everything from so many suppliers. I think too many chefs are playing it too safe here, just repeating what they’ve done before. But, as a chef, you need to adapt yourself to your surroundings, you need to understand the importance of limits but there are so many tastes to be had.

How do you ďŹ nd produce supply here?

I think the key to a good restaurant is to have good produce and to be open about where it comes from. Provenance is very important to me as is food safety, of course. Do chefs have a role in educating our guests about certain types of food or food choices? Of course, everyone has their own personal taste, but I understand how my dishes should taste and I’m open to making changes if people want something different.

Your major challenge in Dubai?

It’s very hard to ďŹ nd and keep good staff. When I was in the Maldives, staff retention was excellent, but here‚ luckily, part of my team have worked with me before and that helps. However, for too many people, food is not a career, just a way of making money. However, without the right staff it’s hard to create and maintain a good restaurant which is about quality, consistency and transparency.

THE SOFITEL DOWNTOWN CHOICE t (SFFO 4QJDFT 5IBJ t 3FE (SJMM 'SFODI JOTQJSFE t -FT $VJTJOFT PQFO JOUFSOBUJPOBM LJUDIFOT t -PCCZ 1BUJTTFSJF 'SFODI t "SBCJD -PVOHF -FCBOFTF

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We would like to invite you to join “The Pink Brigade” by wearing “Pinked” chef jackets throughout October in support of The Breast Cancer Arabia Foundation.

Cost of 1 Jacket - AED 100

Includes Julius Jacket, Pink Ribbon Logo, Full Name and Position, and delivery to property.

Please email lily.hymes@ihg.com for an order form.

Order forms should be completed and returned by 20th August 2014.

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CHEFS / recipe corner

Join the club Starting his career in Jaipur in 1992 before time in New Delhi, Chef Akil Ahmad moved to Dubai in 1995 to work at Dubai World Trade Center.

After time with Sofitel in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, he was appointed as Executive Chef at Novotel & Adagio Abu Dhabi Al Bustan earlier this year.

CLUB HOUSE SANDWICH, POTATO FRIES AND GREEN SALAD INGREDIENTS 50g mayonnaise 50g avocado guacamole 80g onion 30g brown sugar 3 slices multi-cereal bread 2 rashers bacon

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20g mixed lettuce leaves 50g iceberg lettuce 50g tomato 10g mustard 100g chicken breast 1 egg 30g butter 100g potato fries METHOD ∙ Season chicken breast then vacuum

pack and cook it in sous vide machine for 30-45 minutes. Cool it, cut into small cubes and mix it with the mayonnaise. ∙ Slice onion then sauté in butter until it gets light brown in colour, then add brown sugar. ∙ Cut the avocado very fine, add tomato, lemon juice, tomato, salt and pepper. ∙ Take three slices of bread then apply

mayonnaise, caramelised onion and shredded iceberg lettuce. On first slice, put chicken paste and avocado guacamole, then on second slice put fried egg, bacon and sliced tomato slice. Arrange slices on top of each other and grill under panini machine. ∙ Cut into three pieces and serve with green salad and potato fries.

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recipe corner / CHEFS

GRILLED T-BONE STEAK, TRUFFLE MASHED POTATO, CORN ON THE COB AND PEPPER SAUCE INGREDIENTS 250g beef rib eye 200ml mango juice 200g potato 100g butter 200g corn on the cob 1 brown loaf 30g shallot 300ml beef jus nutmeg powder, pinch

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3 red cherry tomatoes 20g agar-agar 200ml cooking cream truffle oil 200ml milk 20g mixed peppercorn 1 sprig thyme 30ml olive oil salt and pepper to taste METHOD

∙ For pepper sauce, sauté shallots, peppercorns and thyme in butter.

Add the beef jus and reduce until it thickens and develops the flavour

of pepper. Finish it with cream and butter. ∙ Reduce the mango juice, seasoning with salt and pepper, add agar-agar to make it firm then cut into small sizes. ∙ Boil potato with skin on a slow heat, peel and mash with a spoon, add cream, butter and a drop of truffle oil. ∙ Cook corn in milk and nutmeg until tender, then cut into three pieces and sauté in butter. Season. ∙ Marinate cherry tomato in thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper. Leave in hot

cabinet for 15-20 minutes.

∙ Twenty minutes before you start cooking, take the chilled steaks from their packing and pat dry with kitchen paper. Spread them on a board in a single layer so they come to room temperature and bloom. ∙ Grill the steak gently both sides, then finish in the oven as per your liking.

Once cooked, rest the steak on a rack. Cover with foil and leave in a warm place for up to five minutes as the juices pass through and full flavour and tenderness develops.

Then serve hot with all side dishes.

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CHEFS / recipe corner

A taste of China From a single restaurant to a multinational chain in less than two decades, Royal China has elevated traditional dim sum to a new level, helping the shift in perception of a Cantonese delicacy to a major Chinese cuisine. Under award winning Executive Chef Man Yuk Cheung, based in London, teams of chefs use traditional ingredients and skills to create countless seasonal dishes to popular acclaim.

LOBSTER NOODLES WITH GINGER AND SPRING ONIONS INGREDIENTS 50ml corn oil 600g fresh lobster 5g ginger 5g garlic 5g spring onions 5g corn flour 1 tbs oyster sauce pinch of salt pinch of sugar

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200g egg noodles 50ml chicken stock METHOD ∙ Clean and cut lobster into six pieces. ∙ Chop fresh spring onions, garlic and ginger into small slices. ∙ Mix 2g of flour with water to form a smooth paste. ∙ Place 200g of egg noodles in water, to ensure that noodles do not stick together when boiled. ∙ Combine the lobster and 3g of

corn flour together in a bowl and then shallow fry in corn oil for one minute once oil is at a minimum of 180C. Remove the lobster and place on a plate with kitchen paper to soak up the corn oil. ∙ Bring 50ml of water to the boil for the egg noodles. ∙ In a wok, sauté the spring onions, garlic and ginger and stir-fry in 1 tsp of corn oil. Add the lobster followed by 50ml of chicken stock and leave to cook for ten minutes. ∙ Add the egg noodles to the

boiling water and cook for ten minutes. ∙ Once cooked, drain the water and combine 2ml of corn oil to ensure noodles don't stick together. ∙ To the wok, add oyster sauce, salt and garlic and leave for one minute. ∙ Serve by placing the lobster on top of the cooked egg noodles on a large serving plate.

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7/27/14 1:57 PM

recipe corner / CHEFS

KING PRAWNS IN CHILLI AND SPICY SALT INGREDIENTS 2 tbsp plain flour 2 tbsp rice flour 1 tbspn salt 2 tsp white pepper 2 tsp chilli powder 1.5 tsp Chinese five spice 2l peanut oil 1kg green large king prawns, peeled leaving tails intact, deveined 6 sprigs fresh coriander lemon wedges, to serve METHOD ∙ Combine the plain flour, rice flour, salt, white pepper, chilli powder and Chinese five spice in a bowl. ∙ Preheat oven to 160C. Line a baking tray with five layers of paper towel.

Place the oil in a large saucepan or wok. Heat to 190C over medium heat - you know when the oil is ready a cube of bread will turn golden brown

in ten seconds.

∙ Place one-quarter of prawns in the flour mixture. Toss to coat. Shake off excess. Add to the oil and cook, stirring, for one minute or until golden. Use a slotted spoon to

transfer to the lined tray. Place in oven to keep warm. Repeat, in three more batches, with flour mixture and remaining prawns, reheating oil between batches. ∙ Add the coriander to the oil and cook

for ten seconds or until crisp. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel.

Place prawns on a serving platter.

Top with coriander. Serve with lemon wedges.

BANG BANG CHICKEN SALAD INGREDIENTS 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns 1 large cucumber, peeled, deseeded and cut into matchsticks 1 tbsp sesame oil juice of 1/2 lime handful of chopped coriander METHOD ∙ Toast the peppercorns in a small frying pan until they begin to darken.

Remove and cool, then crush with a large pinch of salt using a pestle and mortar. Mix in a bowl with the cucumber. Set aside. ∙ To serve, drain the cucumber and mix through the carrots, spring onions, sesame oil, lime juice and coriander.

Serve everything on a big platter to share.

∙ Put the chicken in a bowl and rub

CHICKEN INGREDIENTS 1kg chicken drumsticks and thighs 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder

in the oil and five-spice, leaving to marinate for an hour or use straight away. ∙ Cook on the grill, turning regularly, for 35-40 minutes until the chicken juices run clear.

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METHOD

SAUCE INGREDIENTS 140g chunky peanut butter 100ml low-sodium soy sauce 1 tbsp rice vinegar 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil 2 tbsp granulated sugar 2 red chillies, deseeded and then

finely chopped METHOD

∙ Whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce until smooth, adding water if needed.

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CHEFS / recipe corner

Ideal for summer Chef Paul Hage, Area Executive Chef for Habtoor Hotels, brings the lightness of his native Lebanon’s cuisine to a couple of ideal Summer plates for seafood lovers.

THAI STYLE MUSSELS WITH CHILLI PASTE INGREDIENTS 450g fresh green mussels, cleaned well 1 tsp sugar 3 tsp vegetable oil 1/2 cup sweet basil leaves 2 tsp roasted chilli paste 4 fresh chillies, cut into long strips 2 tsp garlic, finely chopped 1 tbsp fish sauce

METHOD

∙ Heat water in a pot until boiling, then scald green mussels in boiled water until cooked. Remove and drain. ∙ Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic to the hot oil and fry until golden. Add cooked green mussels and stir for 20 seconds.

Then add fish sauce, sugar, chilli and roasted chilli paste. ∙ Before removing from heat, sprinkle with sweet basil leaves and red fresh chilli. Stir fry for another ten seconds. ∙ Transfer to a serving dish and serve.

SPAGHETTI WITH SHRIMPS IN A SPICY TOMATO SAUC SPAGHETTI WITH GARLIC AND CHILLI INGREDIENTS 2 cloves of garlic, minced, or more to taste 1 dried chilli pepper, crumbled 25ml extra virgin olive oil 60g spaghetti 15g yellow zucchini, brunoised 15g carrot, brunoised 15g tomatoes, chopped Grated parmesan cheese METHOD ∙ Bring 500ml of lightly salted water to a boil and add the spaghetti.

Meanwhile, mince the garlic, crumble the red pepper and sauté them in the oil with the vegetables until the garlic begins to brown. ∙ When the spaghetti is done, drain well, transfer to a bowl and stir the sauce into it.

SHRIMPS IN TOMATO SAUCE: INGREDIENTS 2 tsp olive oil 150g large shrimp, peeled and

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deveined 30g chopped onion 2 cloves minced garlic 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper 2 tsp tomato paste 60g tomatoes, diced 60g tomatoes, peeled 2 tsp fresh parsley and basil, chopped METHOD

∙ Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Sprinkle shrimp with salt, add shrimp to pan and cook for two minutes on each side or until shrimp are done.

Transfer shrimp to a bowl. ∙ Heat remaining oil in pan, add onion, minced garlic, basil and crushed red pepper to pan, sauté for one minute, then add tomato paste and peeled tomato. Bring to a boil and cook for three minutes or until sauce begins to thicken then add the chopped tomatoes. ∙ Return shrimp to pan and cook for one minute or until thoroughly heated. Add parsley to the pan, stirring well to combine. Serve over pasta with grated parmesan cheese on the side.

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CHEFS / recipe corner

When you’re feeling blue Bangalore-born Dannet D'Souza was part of the pre-opening team of Jumeirah Creekside Hotel and is now Chef De Cuisine of the Blue Flame restaurant, working on menu development and more. Here, he presents dishes typical of the outlet’s style.

250 DAY ANGUS TENDERLOIN AND HALF CANADIAN LOBSTER 250 DAY TENDERLOIN INGREDIENTS 150g tenderloin 2g salt 1g pepper METHOD ∙ Clean, roll in cling film and cut into 150g portions. ∙ Season, grill and finish in oven to the required doneness.

CANADIAN LOBSTER INGREDIENTS 1kg Canadian lobster 2g salt 1g pepper METHOD

∙ Blanch the lobster for two minutes, then cut the lobster in half.

∙ Season, grill and finish in the oven.

CARROT PUREE INGREDIENTS 500g carrot 100ml olive oil 5g salt 2g pepper METHOD

∙ Peel and cut into rough dices 500g carrot. Season, drizzle with olive oil and cover with foil then cook at 180c for 15 minutes. ∙ Blend in the Thermomix for six minutes. ∙ Hang overnight.

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VEGETABLES INGREDIENTS 1 baby beet, cut in half 1 baby leek, cut in half 2 baby carrots, cut in half METHOD ∙ Peel and blanch then cool in ice water. Finish in a pan with butter.

BONE MARROW JUS INGREDIENTS 50g carrot 50g onion 50g celery 50g leek 20g garlic 300g bone marrow

250ml red wine 750ml beef jus METHOD ∙ Sauté the vegetables then add the bone marrow and red wine, reducing for three minutes. ∙ Add the beef jus and reduce for 15 minutes. Strain.35 seconds.

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recipe corner / CHEFS

PRAWN COCKTAIL, AVOCADO SALSA AND MARIE ROSE SAUCE VINAIGRETTE INGREDIENTS 40ml olive oil 10ml aged white vinegar 2g salt 1g white pepper powder 0.5g Dijon mustard METHOD ∙ Blend the vinegar, salt, pepper and mustard using a Thermomix. ∙ Continue blending and slowly pour the oil in a steady stream into the Thermomix till all the oil is over and the vinaigrette is emulsified. The oil and the vinegar should look as one liquid and not separated. ∙ Store in a squeeze bottle in the chiller.

PRAWN SHEET INGREDIENTS 100g prawns 16/20 3g salt 2g white pepper powder METHOD ∙ Blend the prawns in a Thermomix with the salt and pepper till completely blended, around one minute. ∙ Put the mixture in a medium size vacuum pack bag. Seal on high in the vacuum pack machine at the end of the bag. Once sealed, spread the

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mixture evenly all over the bag to make sure it is one thin layer. ∙ Place this bag in an immersion circulator preheated to 63C for two minutes, then shock in ice water. ∙ Cut the edges of the vacuum bag and peel the plastic off the prawn sheet on both sides. ∙ Season again with salt and pepper and vinaigrette.

AVOCADO SALSA INGREDIENTS 100g avocado 1g salt 0.5g white pepper powder 10g shallot 1g parsley 10g tomato 3ml lemon juice 5ml vinaigrette METHOD ∙ Cut the avocado, shallot and the tomato skin into brunoises. Chop the parsley. ∙ Mix all the ingredients together carefully and leave in the chiller, covered.

MARIE ROSE SAUCE INGREDIENTS 20ml mayonnaise 1g salt 0.5g white pepper powder 5ml ketchup 2g horseradish 0.5g smoked and sweet paprika powder

METHOD ∙ Whisk all the ingredients together until mixed completely. ∙ Transfer to a squeeze bottle and keep chilled.

AVOCADO ROULADE INGREDIENTS 100g avocado 1g salt 0.5g white pepper powder 20g green apple 20g iceberg lettuce 20g prawns 16/20 (cooked) 5ml Marie Rose sauce METHOD ∙ Cut the avocado in half. Remove the seed and carefully peel the skin making sure the shape still remains.

Slice the avocado very thin with a sharp knife, keeping the sequence of the slices together. ∙ Spread the slices on a butter paper overlapping one another by 1/4th of a slice, keeping a straight line. Place another butter paper on top. ∙ Vacuum pack the avocado with the butter paper on high in a vacuum pack machine. ∙ Open the bag and carefully remove the avocado with the butter paper.

Remove the top butter paper. ∙ Line the sliced avocado with a mixture of julienne prawns, apple, Marie Rose sauce, iceberg lettuce, salt and pepper. ∙ Pick the bottom end of the butter paper and carefully roll the sliced

avocado with the mixture in the middle into a tube. Remove the butter paper and season with salt, pepper and vinaigrette.

COOKED PRAWNS INGREDIENTS 100g prawns 16/20 5g salt 3g white pepper powder 1 lemon 500ml water METHOD ∙ Bring the water to a boil in a medium pot. Add the salt and pepper and squeeze all the juice from the lemon and add the lemon as well. Let it boil for a further one minute, then add the deshelled prawns to the boiling water. Cook prawns for one minute then strain and put the prawns into ice water. When cool, strain again and season with salt, pepper and vinaigrette.

TO PLATE

∙ Place the avocado sheet in the middle of the plate.

∙ Place the avocado roulade on the top of the sheet.

∙ Spoon the salsa in front of the roulade and then squeeze some Marie Rose sauce in front of that. ∙ Keep the prawns on the end of the sheet.

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CHEFS / recipe corner

Short but sweet After Summer intensifies, a short sharp shock of something cold and sweet is an ideal pick-me-up. Here are three refreshing ideas from the Nespresso team, guaranteed to bring a twist to your coffee offerings.

ICED LATTE INGREDIENTS 1 capsule of Dulsão do Brasil or Linizio Lungo Grand Cru 15cl of cinnamon syrup 1dl of milk 1 portion chocolate powder (5g) pinch of cumin powder METHOD ∙ Heat the milk and mix it with chocolate powder and a pinch of cumin powder. ∙ Pour the syrup into a latte macchiato glass and prepare milk froth using the steam nozzle of your machine or the Aeroccino. ∙ Pour the hot milk into the glass and mix it with syrup. Then, top the mixture with frothed milk. ∙ Prepare an espresso and add it slowly to the mixture in the glass. Finally sprinkle cumin powder on the froth

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recipe corner / CHEFS

MINT AND ANISEED ICE COFFEE SERVES 2

7 fresh mint leaves ice cubes METHOD

∙ Pour coffee into a cold glass jug with INGREDIENTS 6 capsules of Cosi, Capriccio or Decaffeinato Grand Cru (or the equivalent of six espresso cups) 1 small tsp of ground aniseed 1 tbsp of honey

ground aniseed and honey. Place the jug in an ice bucket to cool the mixture for ten minutes. Serve in small iced glasses topped with fresh mint, half a stick of liquorice and a few ice cubes.

COFFEE PISTACHIO SEMI-FREDDO INGREDIENTS 4 capsules of Ristretto Grand Cru 250g of pistachio ice cream, taken out of the freezer 15 minutes before 60 g of shelled toasted pistachios 100g of cream 3 pinches of cardamom sugar syrup or white sugar

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METHOD ∙ Mix whipped cream with sugar (or sugar syrup) and cardamom. In a large bowl, mix the flavoured cream carefully into the softened ice cream with the pistachios. ∙ Add 1 tablespoon of whipped cream into four individual glasses, then top with the ice cream mixture. ∙ Just before serving, pour a Ristretto Grand Cru over each dish. Decorate with the remaining whipped cream

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CHEFS / recipe corner

Simply snacks Shakuntala Saraf is a celebrated Indian chef who has hosted a cookery show on television and published several cookbooks. In response to the need in today’s life style for healthy and tasty food, she published Simply Starters - a collection of non-fried vegetarian appetisers, ideal for a buffet .

PANEER DUMPLINGS METHOD SERVES 8-10 INGREDIENTS 1 cup cottage cheese or paneer 1/4 cup mixed vegetables, finely chopped (carrots, green peas, french beans) 1 tsp green chilli, finely chopped 1 tsp sugar 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp semolina For the sauce: 1/2 cup soy sauce 1 green chilli, chopped 1/2 tsp ginger paste 1/4 tsp garlic paste 1 tsp spring onion, finely chopped 1 tsp sugar salt

∙ Mix soy, green chilli, ginger paste, garlic paste, spring onion, sugar and salt to make a sauce. ∙ Take the cottage cheese. Add sugar, salt, green chilli, vegetables and semolina. Divide the mixture into 15 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball. Using your hands, flatten each ball slightly. ∙ Take a pan and add a glass of water.

Boil the water. ∙ In a large sieve, arrange the cottage cheese balls. Place the sieve on the boiling pan. Cover it with a lid and steam it for five to seven minutes. ∙ Serve the dumplings with a bowlful of sauce.

CAPSICUM DHOKLA

METHOD

∙ Mix dhokla flour, yoghurt, salt and SERVES 10-12 INGREDIENTS 1 cup dhokla flour 2 cups yoghurt 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi dana) 8-10 green capsicums, cut into half and deseeded 1 tsp green chilli paste 1/2 tsp ginger paste 2 tsp sugar 2 tsp lemon juice 1/2 cup vegetables, finely chopped (carrots, beans, green peas) 2 tsp oil 1 tsp mustard seeds 8 to 10 curry leaves 1 packet eno fruit salt

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fenugreek seeds. Keep the batter aside for four hours. ∙ Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. When the blend sputters, add it to the batter.

Now add all the other ingredients as well as eno fruit salt. Mix well. Pour the batter into capsicum and steam. ∙ Serve with chutney or dill sauce.

DILL SAUCE INGREDIENTS 1/2 cup yoghurt 1 tbsp dill, finely chopped 1 tsp sugar 1/4 tsp black pepper salt METHOD ∙ Mix well and sauce is ready.

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7/27/14 2:09 PM

LEISURE / travel

Eager for a relaxing break away from the fast-paced, high-rise, food obsessed city of Dubai, the magazine’s Art Director Chris Howlett boarded a jet for the fast-paced, high-rise, food obsessed city of Hong Kong. Some mistake there, surely?

A

s the jet’s wheels lifted from the runway of Dubai, I settled back in my seat for the long flight and ran through the options of what I planned to do for the next five days in Hong Kong. As a semi-veteran traveller to Asia - with trips to India and Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietname, even Indonesia - I knew that hard and fast plans were likely to change, as random events overcame tight schedules and the lure of markets or intriguing shops would keep me away from any type of well-planned hour-byhour tours.

Luckily, I was able to make arrangements to stay with two sets of friends who live in the Central area of Hong Kong Island - that would provide a fixed base, friendly faces and some good advice for the novice traveller to Hong Kong . I knew otherwise that I’d be spoilt for choice - TripAdvisor alone lists over 850 ‘must do’ things in the city and I only had five days. I drew up my priorities.

As a designer, I’m always interested in graphics and visuals so I knew I’d spent time in places that the average tourist might pass by - graffiti covered walls, for example, or quirky shops full of strange packaging or magazine covers. Equally, there were some spots that I could miss such as the ferries, the Peak, the business district light show beginning at dusk and so on. And, of course, there was a wealth of food to explore, even if I had no intention of eating some of the delicacies that would be found on every street corner, like deep fried insects.

The hours passed as the flight headed east and finally we descended to Chek Lap Kok, an island largely reclaimed for the construction of Hong Kong International Airport - a crazily busy building but a spectacular one. Welcome to Hong Kong.

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After an evening catching up with my first set of friends, I set out to explore the city and, to get an overall view, took the Soho escalators up to Tram Peak. The views are stunning, but the constant crowds were more than I expected. In general the city is not just one of the most vibrant places I’ve ever been but also one of the most crowded - small wonder then that rental prices are sky high and most residents eat out cheaply to save kitchen space in their tiny apartments.

Next step for me was a ferry ride over to Lantau Island, home of the giant mountaintop Buddha.

Arriving in Mui Wo, it’s a bus ride across the island to Ngong Ping and then a cable car up to the magnificent site - just stunning. But enough of culture - time to hit Kowloon Market! Part of the fun of being in a strange city is wandering through markets, absorbing the sights and smells of fresh foods cooking street-side, seeing odd ornaments or household goods or just people watching.

However, after a couple of days I felt the pressure of the city getting to me and decided to spend the day on Lamma Island, a slightly more sleepy alternative for those residents who can no longer take the pace of Hong Kong Island or Kowloon. It’s the kind of place that draws artists and writers, although a last ferry to it at midnight rather limits residernts opportunities of getting out late at night. Not that I was worried as I chilled my way through the day.

And then, all too soon, my first trip to Hong Kong was over and it was back to the airport and - yes! - a free upgrade to business class on the way back, settling back in my extra comfortable seat and trying to sort in my head the kaleidoscope of images and experiences. I’ll certainly be back.

Street food Wan Chai And the food?

I thought I knew what to expect to find in Hong Kong in terms of food, but the reality was so much more - like a film that suddenly switches to 3D. Of course, for an international business community, every type of cuisine can be found here at all price levels, but it’s the street food that astounds you. Seemingly any spare patch of ground is fair game for a specialist food seller. You may be put off by a seeming lack of hygiene, but most food is cooked to order in front of you.

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travel / LEISURE

Roast duck Wan Chai

I didn’t try all of these, but here are the top street dishes: t Cheong fun, often called pig intestine noodles, are rice noodles covered in a mix of sweet sauce and sesame oil. A classic! t Curry fish balls are cheap, delicious and slathered in sauce. Nobody is quite sure what fish is in them, but they’re great. t Stinky tofu is definitely an acquired taste and not one I wanted to acquire! This is basically fermented tofu and not even chilli sauce can hide the rank smell.

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Insense, Lantau Island

View from Hollywood Road

August 2014 / The Pro Chef Middle East

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LEISURE / travel

t Siu mai is an on-a-stick classic with pork or fish with either chilli oil or curry sauce. t Squid tentacles and pig intestines are where Hong Kong’s street food starts to get adventurous. The first you can deal with, although the bright orange colour if offputting, but the second. t Organs in a pot is a remarkably prosaic description of a witches’ cauldron of a boiling brown stew containing entrails, innards, offal and who knows what else. t Roasted sweet potato and chestnuts are a winter classic and also, perhaps, just about the closest to healthy food that Hong Kong street vendors get. t Egg waffles or balls are fluffy inside, crispy outside and made of a kind of pancake batter filled with a choice of ingredients like chocolate, strawberry or sesame. t Bo lo bao or pineapple bun is about as simple as this stuff gets - a sweet white bun with a crispy crust on top. Ideal for a breakfast snack! t Dan tat or egg tart is a reminder that the first Europeans in Hong Kong were the Portuguese.

Lantau Island cable car

Historic doorway.

Wet market

Graffiti, Hollywood Road.

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“Kowloon Market! Part of the fun of being in a strange city is wandering through markets, absorbing the sights and smells of fresh foods cooking street-side, seeing odd ornaments or household goods or just people watching.” www.cpimediagroup.com

7/27/14 2:14 PM

travel / LEISURE

Lantau Island Restaurant, Luard Road

Street markings, Kennedy Road

Views from Robinson Road

Kowloon

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Text from Lantau Island

August 2014 / The Pro Chef Middle East

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LEISURE / last word

It’s not rocket science You wouldn’t think you could do much with the basic tools of cooking but a UK rocket scientist from Oxford University has reinvented the humble saucepan.

D

r Thomas Povey’s day job is designing cooling systems for jet engines, from his base in Oxford University. However, as a sideline, he has also invented a new pan with some rather revolutionary properties: it heats up more quickly, it cooks food faster and uses 40% less energy than a traditional pan.

The discovery happened because Dr Povey, being a keen amateur mountaineer, wanted to solve the problem of heating water at altitude, beginning with the realisation that a great deal of energy is lost just heating the pan, before you begin to boil the water. "The original idea was for the outdoor market,” he recalls, “We wanted to improve efficiency for cooking outside but we realised it was a problem that also applies to the domestic market, so we worked from there.”

The solution was to fashion cast aluminium pans with channels built into the side. This allows heat from below to travel up the sides of the pan so that food is warmed quickly from all side. The so-called Flare pan uses 40% less energy to heat up than an equivalent pan of conventional design. “There’s nothing wrong with a usual saucepan, but it loses a lot of heat, which means it has less energy efficiency, so it wastes more heat, energy, and gas," explained Dr Povey. “So, if you were boiling pasta, you may think it takes a long while to get the water boiling, but you would see a significant time improvement with this new pan and it would cook quicker. We’ve done a number of test kitchens and chefs seem to like it, mainly down to the even heat distribution.

But that is down to the good casting of the pan, as well as the product. The problem with the current shape of the pan means a lot of the heat is

dissipated into the air. So it is an aero-dynamic and heat transfer problem and we applied the science used in rocket and jet engines to create a shape of a pan that is more energy efficient. It is a very similar problem but it certainly is a different product than what we’re used to working on.”

Even before the official launch through Lakeland in the UK, Flare pans were an award winning product thanks to the Worshipful Company of Engineers, who awarded Dr Povey the ‘2014 Hawley Award’ for “the most outstanding Engineering Innovation that delivers demonstrable benefit to the environment”.

According to Matthew Canwell, Lakeland’s Buying Director: “People are becoming more energy conscience. This pan is energy efficient, it cooks quicker and it saves gas and energy. So it ticks all the boxes really.”

“The problem with the current shape of the pan means a lot of the heat is dissipated into the air. So it is an aero-dynamic and heat transfer problem.”

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