The Pro Chef, Issue 04 by The Pro Chef Middle East

MIDDLE EAST ISSUE 04 JUNE 2012

IT’S A PASSION!

Marco and Giorgio share their secrets

IT’S A BUSINESS!

Restaurant conference shares success

IT’S A CULTURE!

Parisian food shares love on a plate

PUBLICATION P PUBL UBL UB BLIC BL ICA ICAT IC CAT AT TIO IO LICENSED BY IMPZ, D DUBAI UB UBAI UBA U BA BAI B AII T A TECHNOLOGY ECHN ECH EC E CHN CH C HN H NO OLOG OL LOG LOGY OG GY AND AND M A MEDIA EDIA FFREE ZONE AUTHORITY

ISSUE 4 JUNE 2012

EDITORIAL Should chefs have morals? We call out Thomas Keller for his declaration that he serves so few people it really doesn’t matter if he doesn’t source responsibly.

THE EGGS FACTOR What’s lurking in the home fridge of dessert chef Claire Clarke? We expected the butter and cream, but who knew about the Marmite?

FROM THE WALK-IN Details of a couple of recent studies - one on the cost to the US economy on rising obesity levels and the other on how, after all, rice is healthy.

OUT AND ABOUT The recent Restaurant Business conference saw two days of industry debate and idea sharing. And Unilever Food Solutions found a regional winner for Chef of the Year.

ON DISPLAY If you have not one but three restaurants on a truly iconic train, shouldn’t the tableware be stunning? We look at the exclusive porcelain from Villeroy & Boch for the VeniceSimplon Orient-Express.

ON THE MARKET Tea is a classic beverage. We look at some of the trends in the tea market.

INGREDIENT Coffee goes artisanal, hi-tech, lo-tech, any tech in New York City. How many of these ideas would work here in the UAE?

PIMP MY PLATE The idea is simple: we take a favourite recipe and give it to a great chef. The challenge? Cook it as it’s written and then reinvent the dish to ﬁne dining level. Our next victims are the Rivington Grill team who have to tackle Catalan ﬁsh soup and end up with it on bread...

FACE TO FACE With radically different childhoods - one on a northern council estate, the other on the shores of Lake Comabbio Marco Pierre White and Giorgio Locatelli have become the faces of Italian food in Britain. We talk to them both.

ON THE PASSE Dishes from STAY by Yannick Alléno.

BOOK REVIEW We discover more niche food magazines! Who said print was dead?

TRAVEL Tourist or chef, who wouldn’t want to go to Paris to eat? Editor Dave Reeder, who can’t stay away from the city, offers some personal tips and favourite addresses.

THE LAST WORD Designing your menu for fun and proﬁt.

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ee to chefs are fr ther words, o In iver . el en d h in the kitc in order to sequences e no ethics n ar co e e er th th f o at ought ld saying th t without th here’s an o y ingredien an r, u o av fl r own chase any the plate. artly by thei sublime on demand, p g er in m h dients are o et st re m g cu so that the in n partly by e b ve ri ld d u , o at sh t th concern are now pas en a prime most chefs ve food, th lo u yo Of course, if l, al eliefs. After de, siding evolving b ainst the ti re, right? tu fu e th t firmly ag in u o le e b my la m ly ai co al av Keller has ed, is it re ef Thomas people I fe f ch . o ty es er ri m b b Ti m le u rk ut ce New Yo ly small n think so, b ntly in The the relative ce h it re d Well, you’d “W ke e. as d si rint?” he h the dark rbon footp instead wit stage or in y about ca rr o w r to ty , where on ce n re fe pressed thei n responsibili nt owner ex t Business co ra n au ra u st , ta re rs r es lie R rst ner afte cal supp k of CPI’s fi staurant ow bility and lo in the wee ter chef, re and tracea af ty ef ili I read this ch ab s, n n ai io race sust g conversat ted to emb networkin uality. at they wan th the right q n o at ti es ra ti ti an u q a Valley, t h sheer frust g the ri n in the Nap uldn’t find ic revolutio an no rg d o but just co an ’s ia es of Californ itional valu science. ion to trad n in the heart at co g a lig in b e tt o si av o r, farmers, n ere’s Kelle food, but h l h g ca in en lo az th rt o d am p n A to sup eate your es no need ve net. Sure, cr saying he se tut and mo re of his pla tu fu e uld go tutth co to e t g w en , in o m rk it sc comm n Franci vation, wo aurant in Sa y and inno st it dry re al n l u u q te La f o o h ch y chef of a for man The Fren st the head evening at n, a beacon h o ju it an ic as f w o w an e e is ag h am st If this man esn’t dre uld do a r lives. But ongst us do ing they co on with ou night wish to. Who am e at ir p p ee as sl ey to at th on’t go at a level th ung chefs d ow many yo H ? Se r orld or the Pe or ry on the w st u d in d n o bling. We ca Keller? act of the fo nts is crum ut the imp ia o g ab d e o re fo en ca sc on’t g the fast staurant this level d that the re for criticisin If chefs at e reality is moral basis th e t u And now? th b e change in rc en e, g fo th imate chan customers l suppliers, cl g ca f in o lo d t f n o an te te fa ut the ex s and dem ngst us abo htened chef argue amo ter as enlig et b e th r and fo is changing inking. th al n io it trad

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The eggs factor

What’s in the fridge? Every issue, we challenge a well-known chef to reveal the contents of their home fridge. What is lurking there? What secret food passions do they have? How many of the strange food items will they blame on their friends?

laire Clark is now a freelance pastry consultant based in London, whose absolute passion is chocolate. Best known for her time at The French Laundry, she’s also worked in some of London’s most prestigious kitchens, including The Wolseley,

Claridges, Ritz and The Bluebird amongst others. She’s now consulting for a wide variety of restaurants and other organisations, whilst she plans her ﬁrst restaurant. Along the way, she also picked up an MBE for services to the industry. She’s also working on making desserts and pastries without using the classical ingredients such as gluten sugar or eggs, mainly because of the danger of diabetes.

In the fridge today: I have included a list of what is in my fridge, but it doesn’t look too good for me! Marmite chocolate - a gift from my friend for Xmas as I have Marmite everyday. I could not do with out it. I like the chocolate but prefer the Marmite. Yoghurt and white chocolate covered freeze dried raspberries - tasting sample from Damian Allsop Chocolates. I opened them, really loved them and then vac packed them for my next dinner party. Benedict After Dinner Mints - I make a chocolate refrigerator cake and I add them into that as an extra. 1kg pack of wild smoked salmon - I have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs most Sundays for brunch but I also have it two or three evenings a week as my supper, as it’s so easy to prepare late at night! I always keep my eggs out of the fridge, as they’re no good for making cakes if they are cold. Marinaded Greek olives - I eat those in the bath along with my glass of red wine. I have a very strict bath time regime that always included a few olives and a glass of wine. It’s my down time, even if it’s 2am. Low fat crème fraiche - that goes in my oat bran pancakes that I make for my breakfast. I make three days’ worth at a time and carry them with me to work. It’s 6 tbsps oat bran, 2 eggs and 3 tbsp creme fraiche. Make as American pancakes in a pan. I warm them when I get to work and spread them thickly with Marmite. Pro active Flora spread - much better for me than butter. I take my butter in cake! Beef steak - I am on a protein diet but not doing too well on it! Prawn in chilli marinade. Fresh ginger - goes in the beef recipe. Fresh coriander. Fresh lemon thyme. Fresh rosemary. Bunch of carrots. Walnut and date paste - left over from the cheese board at a dinner party I gave last week 1/2 tin of baked beans - I love baked beans, quick and easy. I have them at least once a week. Mango trimmings in a plastic pot - left over from making jellies for a client for a photoshoot. Few loose grapes - left over from the same party. Tomatoes. New potatoes. Fat free milk - I hate milk. It’s the only one I use. 2 tins of Guinness - I had a chef friend over to lunch so had to buy it for them 2 tins of Stella lager - as above! 2 tins of ginger beer. 4 tins of Coke Zero - could not get my normal caffeine free Diet Coke so had to make do with that. 1 bottle Evian. 1 carton low sugar cranberry juice. 1 carton orange juice - brought for friend’s child. Jar of local honey - poured over the blue cheese at the dinner party. Jar of homemade strawberry jam - from my friend.

The eggs factor

500g butter - for making cakes. Small plastic of praline paste - left over from making a cake. 150g fresh yeast - for making bread. Normally I make a loaf every two weeks and freeze it as I live by myself and don’t eat a lot of bread, mostly for my baked beans on toast. 2 jars of English mustard - one open and one not

open. I bought another one as I forgot I had one! Jar of Dijon mustard. Jalapeño pepper relish - yummy good with everything. Flame roasted peppers - left over from the dinner party. Mixed veg pickle - I have no idea where that came from!

“MARMITE CHOCOLATE A GIFT FROM MY FRIEND FOR XMAS AS I HAVE MARMITE EVERYDAY. I COULD NOT DO WITH OUT IT.”

Photo courtesy Damian Allsop Chocolates Ltd.

From the walk-in

The cost of obesity If current trends continue, 42% of Americans might well be obese by 2030. That’s bad for health but also really bad for the economy...

old the front page - Americans eat too much. We can say that it’s their choice and nobody else’s business, but the truth is that it’s costing the US economy money from everything from higher insurance costs to all to lost days off work and lower productivity. In fact, last year the US Society of Actuaries worked out that up to $300b could be the total economic cost of overweight Americans and

Canadians, with 90% of that the result of America’s dietary behaviour. Now the American Journal of Preventive Medicine claims that another 18m Americans will join the super-fat club by 2030. That’s just over 10% of the total population and represents possibly $550b in medical costs every single year. Even more scarily, these ﬁgures are for adults only. Estimates suggest that up to a third of American children are either overweight or obese.

So what can be done? Increasingly, there are demands that over-eating should probably be looked at in the same way that smoking was, with government actively working to tackle the serious problem by legislation. Since all taxpayers bear the brunt of the cost of diabetes, heart disease and other fatal ailments, they argue that regulation on, say, advertising corn-syrup-sweetened drinks makes sense. So too does higher insurance premiums for the obese. On the other, more positive side, federal support maybe for cheaper fruit and vegetables in poorer neighbourhoods. These issues matter for us also here as the UAE and the rest of the GCC are seeing ever-rising levels of obesity and diabetes. Chefs need to take a stand for healthier food choice, though without labelling them with the offputting ‘healthy’ label. And government needs to address these issues before it’s too late.

“ANOTHER 18M AMERICANS WILL JOIN THE SUPER-FAT CLUB BY 2030. THAT’S JUST OVER 10% OF THE TOTAL POPULATION AND REPRESENTS POSSIBLY $550B IN MEDICAL COSTS EVERY YEAR.“ 6

From the walk-in

Rice eaters healthy? Eating white or brown rice helps improve diet as well as manage weight and other risk factors for disease, according to results from a recent US study.

ccording to Hanqi Luo, research scientist at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition, there are many reasons to encourage consumers to eat rice. “Rice is a staple enjoyed by most of the world. Our research shows that it contributes important nutrients to the US diet, such as folate, iron and potassium, and may help improve overall diet quality and reduce the risk of becoming overweight.” Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007-

2008, the Tufts researchers compared the diets of more than 8,000 adults and children who reported eating rice versus those who reported not eating rice, for important health parameters, including risk for obesity, cholesterol levels and diet quality. The results show that rice eaters, including children and adults, consume significantly more folate, iron, potassium, vitamins B6, B12 and A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin D, phosphorus, magnesium, copper and zinc. Both potassium and vitamin D are identified - 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans - as two important nutrients for the

general population. Growing research supports higher daily intake of vitamin D as beneficial. Folic acid fortification of grains is responsible for a 27% decrease in certain birth defects, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Rice eaters also consumed a lower percentage of calories from fat and saturated fat compared to those who did not eat rice. In addition, adults who eat rice are less likely to be overweight or obese and have a smaller waist circumference. “This study builds on and further confirms some previous published rice studies that demonstrate that individuals who consume rice are less likely to be overweight and enjoy a healthier diet than those who don’t consume rice,” explained Luo. “And, for the first time, there is data to support that rice is a positive addition to US children’s diets, which is important given the obesity epidemic. Taken together, these results suggest that the type of grain, as well as amount of grain, consumed may be an important influence on nutritional status.”

“RICE IS A NATURALLY NUTRITIOUS GRAIN THAT PROVIDES ABOUT 100 CALORIES PER HALF-CUP COOKED SERVING. BROWN RICE IS A 100% WHOLE GRAIN FOOD AND WHITE RICE IS ENRICHED WITH IMPORTANT NUTRIENTS INCLUDING FOLIC ACID AND IRON. WILD RICE IS A 100% WHOLE GRAIN.”

Out and about partner.” He challenged chefs and owners to think not just about food hygiene in their own kitchens but also to look closely at issues of quality and safety in the supply chain. “For some menu items, we’re seeing ingredients coming from up to 25 countries,” he pointed out. He then stressed the need to adopt ‘ hygieneomics’ - a balance of quality, safety and profitability. “We need to consider food safety as an integral part of the overall business process – not just something to be done to meet legal requirements. In other words, we need an holistic approach that is predictive, not retrospective.” As one of the key elements of any restaurant’s success is building a menu that works, Thomas Pendarovski, the Executive Chef of Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach, spoke passionately about his approach to the kitchen. “When I arrived at the hotel, the first thing I did d wa wass si sit it wi with ith m my y ch c efs and talk about seasonality y and ing ingre redi dien ents ts. I al ts a so made radical changes to the bu uff ffet et. t. To T be be ho hon nestt, ne I don’t like buffets - they y’rre me essy. Inste ead, d we e went for customised porrtio ons and the bu uffet look okss clean and crisp.” Picking up co omments fr from the food trends panel, he ag greed tha hat ch chef efss need ef ed d to talk more to customers. “T There’’s nothi thing ng g bet etterr ett for a guest than speakin ng to a ch chef hef - it it’’s a wow wow!” !” ” After a coffee/networrking b brreak, ea Zum ma’ss G Ge eneral Manager Spero Pana agakiss and che ef fo for hire Andy Campbell agreed tha ha at qua alitty prrod oducce is a great differentiator for a re esta es t urrant. Cheff Uwe Michel, President of Emirate es Culi lin nary na y Guilld and nd Head of Kitchens, Radisson Blu u Hotel el, Du ubaii Deirra Creek explained how he has champ mpiione ed th he re emoval of endange g red fish specciie es fr from om the the hot hot ote el’s el’ ’s menus.”We alll have e to to go ttog oget og ethe et h r on thi hiss or we we won’t succeed d. If gu uest ests ts a ask s n sk now w for for o hammo our u,I say to them ‘W We wa ant ourr chi chi h ld ldren n tto o enjoy y it in the future’. There are lots off greatt, susstaina abl ble e fish in the ma arket.” ” With aud dience e disscussion on,, they looked at the ch hang gin ing g state st e of local produce du uce and general sourcing ng g iss issue uess. ue Gold sponso or, th the e US D Dai airy ai ry Ex Export xp Coun unccil cil, l, is charged with increasiing expo ortts of A Ame merican i n cheese. However, as Angeliqu ue Holllisste t r, VP Cheese Marketing, explained, ge en nerral perce ce eption n is that American cheese is mere ely pr p ocesse ed sl slice es for burgers and so on, making itt the h world d’s lar arg gest producer of cheese. In fact, ass demo ons n trat ate ed ed by a wide variety of artisan cheese es tha hatt were re e sampled in the networking area, th he la larg rge e number of European immigrants into Am mer eriica ica brou brough ght ht with them their own cheesemaking tradition. Today, there are more than 400 artisan cheeses being produced in what Hollister calls “the new frontier” In the first of two short session, Boecker’s Regional Food Safety Manager, Hala Makhoul, gave a helicopter view of food safety issues. Her energetic style kept the audience riveted, especially when she recounted her university grduation celebration dinner where, suspicious of the food on the buffet, she was the only attendee not to be struck down sick! Everybody talks about the need for healthier eating and Heiner Werdeling, GM of the Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi, explained the hotel is undergoing

a complete rethink of its F&N outlets as well as a shift to more sustainable and healthier options, led by the hiring of California-baed chef Jennifer Lorenz, who is repositioning the hotel’s ﬂagship seafood restaurant Nautilus. “You need to be different in a crowded market,” he said. Lastly, before lunch, Zuma’s Head Sommelier, Jacquie Lewis, urged industry colleagues to more Media partner: creative with wine lists to drive extra value. Day two began with an energetic performance by Tribe Restaurant’s Chief Worrier Stefan Berg looking at strategies for investment and how to identify gaps in the market in the fast-growing casual dining sector. “There’s not enough data in this market - it’s woeful how little data there is on eating out,” he warned attendees. He saw the MIDDLE EAST key opportunites for the near future as “casual

dining with table service” and the development of regionally developed brands. He also urged the industry to adopt technology before it lost “two generations” for whom paper menus no longer make sense. This was followed by a panel on restaurant branding and reinvention involving ex-Caprice David O’Brien, now Director of the new consultancy Ghaf, Rima Hechaime, who has wide experience of restaurant branding in Lebanon with Brainstorm, as well as Stefan Berg. Hechaime stressed the importance of consistency in branding: “Don’t say one thing and then translate it into something else. The messaging has to be the same.” O’Brien agreed: “We need to spend more time building loyalty.” Berg believes that “brand value is the most important thing”, although he

Ra R alph Omarr

David id O’ O’Br Brie ien

Abdul Ra ashid

Liesa Eu uto ton n

Today restaurant management teams are caught between shrinking margins and the need to constantly attract new business and continuously satisfy longterm regular guests. The recent two-day Restaurant Business conference was designed to give executive chefs, restaurant managers, marketing professionals and general managers the chance to step back from the day to day pressure, gain inspiration from success stories, rethink their approaches and emerge ready to embrace change and increase business. Jacquie Lewis

www.cpidubai.com/rbc

11 9

Chef Thomas Pendarovski

38 hotel managers, executive chefs, purchasing managers, restaurant managers and food service suppliers gathered for two days last month at the Restaurant Business conference, held at The Address Dubai Marina. Organised by CPI Conferences, a division of CPi, the publisher of The Pro Chef Middle East, the conference under the theme of ‘Dining value – Driving value’ spotlighted ways in which the ﬁne dining sector can adapt amidst increasing competition. Delegates from the USA, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Levant listened to and discussed topics such as food trends, kitchen hygiene, menu development, quality produce, wine pairing, rebranding, designing for success and the supply chain. Topics from the ﬂoor centred on local sourcing and staff training. Host and moderator Liesa Euton is a former restaurant owner and hotel manager, with a wide understanding of issues raised by the conference. Day one began with her introducing Ralph Omar, CEO of Restaurant Secrets. The company is a fast growing and successful restaurant consultancy and he shared insights about how the right systems are required to guarantee restaurant success.

Chef Andy Campbell The ﬁrst panel saw Samantha Wood (former inhouse hotel PR and marketing and now popular local food blogger, FooDiva), Jonathan Harris (former restaurant and operator for Hilton in the USA and now a restaurant consultant and Dave Reeder (editor of this magazine) discussing food and ﬁne dining trends. All agreed that sustainability and traceability would continue to be a key trend, but also felt

that increased cuisine specialisation would help restaurants distinguish themselves in the market. Harris thought Korean food would be a winner and Reeder argued for regional distinctions Venetian or Roman food for example, rather than generic Italian. All wished gourmet food trucks might become a trend and all spoke passionately about the need for great service and creating relationships with customers. Although everyone at the conference understood the importance of hygiene in the kitchen and the need to be aware about food safety, they paid special attention to Abdul Rashid, who is Director and General Manager of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Middle East. He has an enviable record in this ﬁeld and was part of the initial team in Dubai Municipality that seriously addressed food safety issues. “Ten years ago, there was no budget for food safety,” Rashid reminded delegates. “Now there’s been a complete change, driven in large part by Dubai Municipality’s shift from industry policemen to industry partner.” He challenged delegate to think not just about food hygiene in their own kitchens but also to look closely at issues of quality and

“IF GUESTS ASK NOW FOR HAMMOUR, I SAY TO THEM ‘WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO ENJOY IT IN THE FUTURE’. THERE ARE LOTS OF GREAT, SUSTAINABLE FISH IN THE MARKET.” - Chef Uwe Michel, President of Emirates Culinary Guild and Head of Kitchens, Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek

Out and about safety in the supply chain. “For some menu items, we’re seeing ingredients coming from up to 25 countries,” he pointed out. He stressed the need to adopt ‘ hygieneomics’ a balance of quality, safety and profitability. “We need to consider food safety as an integral part of the overall business process – not just something to be done to meet legal requirements. In other words, we need a real holistic approach that is predictive, not retrospective.” As one of the key elements of any restaurant’s success is building a menu that works, Thomas Pendarovski, the Executive Chef of Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach, spoke passionately about his approach to the kitchen. “When I arrived at the hotel, the first thing I did was sit with my chefs and talk about seasonality and ingredients. I also made radical changes to the buffet. To be honest, I don’t like buffets - they’re messy. Instead, we went for customised portions and the buffet looks clean and crisp.” Picking up comments from the food trends panel, he agreed that chefs need to talk more to customers. “There’s nothing better for a guest than speaking to a chef - it’s a wow!” After a coffee and networking break, Zuma’s General Manager Spero Panagakis and chef for hire Andy Campbell agreed that quality produce is a great differentiator for a restaurant. Chef Uwe Micheel, President of Emirates Culinary Guild and Head of Kitchens, Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek explained how he has championed the removal of endangered fish species from the hotel’s menus.”We all have to go together on this or we won’t succeed. If guests ask now for hammour, I say to them ‘We want our children to enjoy it in the future’. There are lots of great, sustainable fish in the market.” With audience discussion, they looked at the changing state of local produce and general sourcing issues. Gold sponsor, the US Dairy Export Council, is charged with increasing exports of American cheese. However, as Angelique Hollister, VP Cheese Marketing, explained, general perception is that American cheese is merely processed slices for burgers and so on, making it the world’s largest producer of cheese. In fact, as demonstrated by a wide variety of artisan cheeses that were sampled in the networking area, the very large number of European immigrants into America brought with them their own cheesemaking tradition. Today, there are more than 400 artisan cheeses being produced in what Hollister calls “the new frontier”. In the first of two focused session, Boecker’s Regional Food Safety Manager, Hala Makhoul, gave a helicopter view of food safety issues. Her energetic style kept the audience riveted, as when she recounted her university graduation dinner where, suspicious of the food on the buffet, she was the only attendee not to be struck down sick! Everybody talks about the need for healthier eating and Heiner Werdeling, GM of Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi, explained the hotel is undergoing a complete rethink of its F&N outlets as well as a shift to more sustainable and healthier options, led by the hiring of California-based chef Jennifer Lorenz, who is repositioning the hotel’s flagship

seafood restaurant Nautilus. “You really need to be different in a crowded market,” he said. Lastly, before lunch, Zuma’s Head Sommelier, Jacquie Lewis, urged industry colleagues to more creative with wine lists to drive extra value. Day two began with an energetic performance by Tribe Restaurant’s Chief Worrier Stefan Berg looking at strategies for investment and how to identify gaps in the market in the fast-growing casual dining sector. “There’s not enough data in this market - it’s woeful how little data there is on eating out,” he warned attendees. He saw the key opportunites for the near future as “casual dining with table service” and the development of brands from the region. He urged the industry to adopt IT before it lost “two generations” for whom paper menus no longer make sense.

This was followed by a panel on restaurant branding and reinvention involving ex-Caprice David O’Brien, now Director of the consultancy Ghaf, Rima Hechaime, who has wide experience of Lesbanese restaurant branding with Brainstorm, as well as Stefan Breg. Hechaime stressed the importance of consistency in branding: “Don’t say one thing and then translate it into something else. The messaging has to be the same.” O’Brien agreed: “We need to spend more time building loyalty.” Breg believes that “brand value is the most important thing”, although he expressed amazement that a Candian brand like Tom Horton’s could “hit the ground running” without general awareness of the brand. Thomas Klein International has helped many restaurants open, addressing everything from

Ralph Omar

David O’Brien

Abdul Rashid

Liesa Euton

Jacquie Lewis

Chef Uwe Micheel

Vasudevan K, Farah Sawaf, Antonia Felgner and Louay Al-Samarrai

concept to design, menu to staff. Principal and Managing Director Daniel During spoke about how design and decor can be used – indeed, must be used – to build success. Although reinvented shawarma company Wild Peeta only has one outlet, it is punching well above its weight through the clever use of social media. Co-founder Mohamed Parham Al Awadhi shared some of the secrets of success in a world of Twitter and Facebook, challenging attendees to be creative and think differently. “What we’ve done is turn thousands of followers into people involved in our brand. What colour should we paint the walls? What about the new menu? Those 10,000 people are our virtual board members and free consultants. That’s the power of socia media.” He stressed: “it’s not the number of followers, but how you measure the influence on-line. The reward, however, is priceless - you cannot pay any amount of money to get the same return as special media when it works.” A business that doesn’t know its customers is almost bound to be one that’s underperforming, but what are the best ways of finding out about their needs? A selection of F&B and non-F&B experts discussed ways to find the answer. These were experienced consumer marketeer and now market analyst Vasudevan K (Director of Navo), co-founder of boutique PR agency Active PR, Louay Al-Samarrai, enthusiastic marketer Farah Sawaf, owner of Soul Communications, and, from the Hyatt Group, Antonia Felgner, who is F&B Marketing Manager. According to Sawaf, “you can’t just say ‘this is my customer’; instead you need to categorise them into target segments”. Al-Samarrai agreed. “I think it’s very interesting how clients describe their customers instead of actually finding out who they are. Hotels have so many customer touch points you could use to gather information and spread influence.” “I think it’s all down to the personal touch,” Feigner summed up. Touching on food supply chain problems, Royal Culimer’s MD, Jeroen Tollenaar, gave a crash course in helping to understand the issues. Finally, a general panel brought it all together, with a selection of experts sharing what they learned over the two days and allowing delegates to discuss issues that concerned them. The panel consisted of independent restaurant consultant Jonathan Harris, Chef Paul Lupton (busy at the St Regis Abu Dhabi preparing for the opening of Rhodes 44 after the summer), former chef and restauranteur Tony Culley who has set up the regional arm of Oakleaf which is bringing in regular supplies from Rungis Market and Boecker’s Regional Food Safety Manager, Hala Makhoul. Conference Director Nayab Rafiq hailed the success of Restaurant Business and urged delegates, sponsors and speakers to provide feedback to make next year’s conference even better. He can be reached at nayab@cpidubai.com. More details on the next event can be found at www.cpidubai.com/rbc.

Mohamed Parham Al Awadhi

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Roasted Mushroom and U.S. Pepper Jack Ravioli Makes approximately 140 raviolis

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The U.S. Pepper Jack cheese makes a nice creamy blend with the deep ďŹ&#x201A;avors of the roasted vegetables. The pepper heat from the cheese is a great combination with a rich red sauce, but also works well in a white sauce. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget to top the dish with some U.S. Parmesan or U.S. Asiago.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Chef John Esser, Consultant Chef for USDEC

Ingredients:

Procedure:

1k cremini mushrooms, quartered 300g yellow onions, chopped 150g garlic cloves, chopped 200ml olive oil 2 tbsp Italian herbs, dry 1 tbsp salt 1 tbsp black pepper 700g U.S. Pepper Jack cheese, shredded 15g ďŹ&#x201A;at leaf parsley, minced Pasta sheets, thawed (or your own fresh house-made sheets)

Pre-heat convection oven to 200 C. Place mushrooms and onion in a large bowl. In small bowl mix garlic, olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper; pour mixture over mushrooms and toss well. Place mixture on sheet pans in a single layer. Roast for 10 minutes; decrease oven temperature to 140 C and roast for another 30 minutes. Take mushroom mixture, chop ďŹ ne and chill. When chilled, mix in cheese and parsley. Place 10g of mixture into each ravioli and seal tightly. Filled ravioli can be steamed or boiled; they can be fresh frozen on parchment paper for later use.

U.S. cheese is already available in your market, check today with your local importer/distributor or contact USDEC for a list of local suppliers: # $! )* . !#(+* ! &'& . % #$ %- %! , !(# &!* $ . "'&!

The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) is a free resource to help you ďŹ nd additional information on U.S. cheese applications and distribution channels. We are a non-proďŹ t, independent membership organization that represents the global trade interests of U.S. dairy producers, proprietary processors and cooperatives, ingredient suppliers and export traders.

Time for networking and a coffee

Learning about American artisan cheeses

Delegates take a break

A quick social media lesson

Industry topics under discussion

David Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien asks a question

Discussing kitchen hygiene

Out and about

The SoďŹ tel team hard at work

Audience involvement

A question for the speaker

Stefan Breg in action

And thanks to our sponsors...

Gold sponsors

“The conference provided us with an excellent opportunity to network with the key decision makers in the restaurant businesses and the retail sector in general, as well as a platform where we could present our professional services to an audience who were keen to see what we could offer and how best we could support their businesses. With over 200 participants attending our presentation, it gave us the opportunity to interact and respond to their queries more effectively. At the same time they were able to get a far better understanding of the range of services that we are able to provide.” Abdul Rashid, Director and General Manager, CIEH Middle East

“It provided an excellent venue for the US Dairy Export Council to connect with the key players in the UAE’s ﬁne dining scene. Our gold sponsorship provided great exposure for the US cheese industry and allowed us to showcase specialty cheeses that can add great value to high-end menus. The event was an ideal platform to share ideas and learn more about up and coming food service trends; it featured knowledgeable and dynamic speakers who encouraged participants to think about how they could use the information in their own business. Very rewarding!” Anglique Hollister, Vice President, Cheese Marketing, US Dairy Export Council

Silver sponsors

Sponsors “The event was excellent and the participants were really good. The topics presented at the event were also interesting and I believe, including me , that everybody enjoyed the knowledge sharing. The audience were very much interested on our Khazan products, in terms of the product quality, tasting and way of presentation and explanation and many of them are now interested to buy the products for their hotels or restaurants.” Khaja Ahmed, Deputy General Manager, Khazan Meat Factory

“This was something the industry really needed. I was surprised at the popularity of the event. It was a great turn-out and the conference touched on all the relevant topics for the F&B industry today.” Lloyd Lamprecht, Key Account Manager Middle East, Villeroy & Boch

“It was a very successful event and we have have a closer touch with decision makers. We found in-depth and even hidden information that more people in the industry should be aware about. Compared to similar events, I found it more informative especially the panel discussions.” Ameer Kokash, Divisional Manager, Sara UAE

“CPI did a very good job and I can see myself working with them again. The beautiful aspect of the event was the two days. Each day had a totally different audience which widened the clientele and gave us greater business development opportunities.” Antoinne Messi, Country Manager, Boecker

Supporting organisation

Artisan cheeses from the USA

Refreshment from Highland Spring

Food safety tips from Boecker

Sara’s selection

Specialty products on display

Disposable plastics from Cosmoplast

Heading for South Africa An annual competition to ﬁnd Chef of the Year, organised by food service giant Unilever Food Solutions [UFS], saw ﬁve regional chefs compete in Dubai for a place in the global competition, scheduled for South Africa in September.

selection of young chefs from regional fine dining hotels was selected to take part in the regional finals of Chef of the Year, held at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management. Representing top hotels in the region, they vied for the top honours at the Unilever Food Solutions Chef of the Year regional competition, held at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management. Contestants at the competition, held between 8am and 3pm, were five chefs from the UAE and one each from Kuwait and Qatar. A seven-member jury, representing top culinary experts from renowned hotels in the Gulf and Middle East, adjudicated the competition. The judges were Chef Sascha Triemer (Executive Chef,

The winning menu

Paul Bussey

Wael Riachy, Executive Chef, UFS

STARTER: Salmon and langoustine tortellini, slow roast cherry tomatoes and coriander volute and eggplant crisps

Atlantis), Chef Joachim Textor (Executive Chef, Media Rotana), Chef Mark Patten (Vice President Culinary, Atlantis) Michael Kitts (Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management), John Redding (Executive Chef and Sales Manager, Chef Middle East) and Stephane Buchholzer (Executive Chef, Mina Seyahi Complex). The rules of the competition were explained to the contestants by Wael Riachy, UFS’ Executive Chef: the young chefs would be talked through the supplied Unilever products, have some time to familiarise themselves with their randomly chosen stations, look through the green boxes of fresh ingredients and then have an hour to draw up a three-course menu - starter, main and dessert. These would then have to be written up as recipes and judges would check that quantities

MAIN: Pan fried chicken breast with seared foie gras onion puree, poached asparagus, roast fricase vegetables oregano, demi-glace

DESSERT: Vanilla pannacotta, cherries and raspberries, plantain crisps

Out and about MYSTERY BASKET

were accurate in the final dishes. Then, without the recipes with them, they had three hours to produce the meal, one per course. Judges would look at the recipes and then taste the food in a blind tasting. Meanwhile John Redding acted as kitchen judge, checking on skills and tghe correct use of the chefs’ stations. According to Eelco Camminga, Unilever Food Solutions’ Vice President for South Africa, Middle East, and Pakistan: “For us, the competition is about pushing the boundaries of creativity, imagination and skills; about uniting behind our talented chefs and going to great lengths to provide them with solutions and inspiration for use in their own kitchens every day.” The contestants - Paul Bussey (Dubai), Maxime le Van (Dubai), Roger Sakr (Kuwait), Talal Aridi (Qatar) and Georgiy Daniloff (Abu Dhabi) - were judged on number of UFS products used, innovation of UFS products, originality of recipes, difficulty and skill required for fusion of flavours, portion obedience, presentation, method and techniques.

“THE CONTESTANTS WERE JUDGED ON NUMBER OF UFS PRODUCTS USED, INNOVATION OF UFS PRODUCTS, ORIGINALITY OF RECIPES, DIFFICULTY AND SKILL REQUIRED FOR FUSION OF FLAVOURS, PORTION OBEDIENCE, PRESENTATION, METHOD AND TECHNIQUES.” The winner was Paul Bussey, Executive Sous Chef from Bonnington Hotel. Second place went to Maxime le Van, Kitchen Head of the Ambassador Lounge at Grosvenor House. Third place went to Georgiy Daniloff from the Grand Millenium Alwahda, Abu Dhabi.

UNILEVER PRODUCTS Knorr demi-glace Knorr tomato pronto Knorr chicken stock Knorr ﬁsh stock Knorr teriyaki sauce Knorr mexican sauce Knorr soya sauce Knorr primerba herbs Hellman’s mayonnaise Knorr corn oil Pfanni mashed potato Carte d’or wild fruits Carte d’or strawberry topping Carte d’or toffee topping Knorr basil and thyme dressing Carte d’or pannacotta Carte d’or chocolate mousse Sharing table: Balsamic vinegar, saffron, olive oil and a mix of spices. Tasting the plates

Protein: 500g fois gras 1 corn fed chicken 2 pieces salmon shank 1 piece langoustine 200g turkey bacon Vegetables/fruit: 1/2 pomegranate 6 brussel sprouts 400g shitake mushrooms 1 piece endive 1/2 bundle coriander 350g beetroot 400g plantain 350g green jumbo asparagus 1 garlic bulb 300g fresh spinach 200g cherries 2 pieces baby eggplant 2 medium white onions 2 sticks celery 150g raspberries 1 grapefruit 1 yellow zucchini 1 pack fresh oregano 1/2 pack red cherry tomatoes 2 limes 1 red capsicum 1 green capsicum 1 turnip Groceries: 80g walnuts small jar honey 400g sugar 100g caster sugar 1 pack polenta 1 tin coconut cream 250g dark chocolate 250g white chocolate 500g flour 4 sheets gelatine 50g icing sugar 890g white almonds, flaked 1 vanilla stick 200g corn flakes Dairy: 6 eggs 1l fresh cream 250g Greek yogurt 1l milk 100g Parmesan 200g Boursin 300g butter 200g chevre

On display

ndividualisation is a key global trend that sweeps through all areas of our lives, the F&B industry included. Whether on the plate or the table, the creativity of the cuisine and the presentation of food are becoming an expression of the individuality of the establishment. It’s an expression the guest can experience directly. For many years, the Hotel & Restaurant Division at Villeroy & Boch has developed the perfect staging of foods with tableware items strong in design: unconventional shapes, extravagant colours and decors underscore, unobtrusively and insistently, the special exclusivity and quality of the cuisine served. The Hotel & Restaurant Division also offers a special design service that allows customers’ emblems or logos are to be emblasoned on tableware, cutlery or glassware. They can also integrate special company colours or designs into the final product, with the designers at Villeroy & Boch devising creative and at the same time decorative solutions for each and every customer. The porcelain is elaborately decorated, crystal sand-blasted, and cutlery is etched, stamped or engraved as the customer wishes. This lends all tableware, cutlery and glasses the individual accents that emphasise the personal touch of the restaurant or hotel in a special way. One recent high-profile customer for this service was Orient-Express which, amongst a range of activities, runs the legendary Venice Simplon-Orient-Express - undoubtedly one of the most famous trains in the world. It is a train that never fails to conjure up evocative feelings of excitement, romance and intrigue and its vintage carriages enable its guests to step back in time to rediscover an age of romance and elegance. Part of this experience, of course, is unique high quality tableware present in three on-board restaurant cars. A need that was perfectly fulfilled by Villeroy & Boch for the start of the 2012 season with three exclusively designed tableware series

On display The Venice SimplonOrient-Express in Lucerne, Switzerland (Photography: Ron Bambridge Contract 16)

Eating on the move The Orient-Express has been a synonym for stylish and exclusive travel since 1883. The Venice SimplonOrient-Express, also known as the ‘King of Trains’, serves European routes in more than 13 countries, stopping in Paris, Venice, Budapest and many other cities. Villeroy & Boch designed exclusive tableware for the train’s three distinct restaurant cars. 21

On display

Head Chef Christian Bodiguel greets guests at dinner (Photography: Matt Hind)

L’Oriental, Etoile du Nord and Côte d’Azur, all made of premium bone porcelain. The L’Oriental decor has, as the name suggests, an oriental theme: majestic water birds meet oriental reeds and grasses. The black glaze of the petit fours plate provides both an unusual and captivating contrast to the coloured birds and grasses. Using warm shades with a floral theme, the Etoile du Nord collection co-ordinates well with the predominantly wood interior of the car that bears the same name. Inspired by the world renowned glass manufacturer Lalique, the deor Côte d’Azur has a particularly delicate and artistic flair. The small plate displays the same figures that decorate the walls of the restaurant car. And the dinner plate is fringed with pyramids of grapes, tendrils of which also trail among the original figures. Breakfast is served in the cabins using the finest porcelain of the Orient-Express collection. The golden decor draws inspiration from the 1920s style of René Prou who designed the oldest sleeping car of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. All the decors are custom-made, rendering each distinctively individual, but all meet the same high aesthetic standards of the Venice Simplon-OrientExpress with its vintage art deco style interiors. With dressing to impress a must on board the legendary train, the new crockery ensures that

TAKE THE TRAIN

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (Photography: Matt Hind)

Orient-Express Hotels is the name behind a unique collection of luxury hotels and adventure travel experiences. The OrientExpress name first became synonymous with stylish and pioneering travel in 1883 with the inauguration of Europe’s most celebrated and sophisticated train service. The company has offered exceptional luxury travel experiences since 1976, when it first purchased Hotel Cipriani in Venice and then, shortly afterwards, recreated the celebrated Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, linking London, Paris and Venice, along with other European cities. Today the Orient-Express brand also embraces 49 hotel, cruise and luxury rail businesses in 24 countries. Forty of these are highly acclaimed hotels, each individual in style, from Rio’s Copacabana Palace and the Hotel Splendido in Portofino, to the Grand Hotel Europe in St Petersburg and Hotel Monasterio in Cuzco, Peru. The company also operates six luxury tourist trains, two river cruise operations and the ‘21’ Club, one of New York’s most iconic restaurants.

Serving up fresh ingredients since 1868.

A dash of creativity. A pinch of inspiration. Add to that the delicious range of Knorr seasonings, sauces and soups and you get the perfect meal that will keep your guests coming back for more! Unilever Food Solutions: Tel. +971 4 881 5552 | UAE Distributor: +971 4 347 0444 / +971 4 347 3455 For more information, email: mohammad.shanawani@unilever.com

On display even the tables are dressed to the nines, adding an extra special touch to the dining experience, which is almost as famous as the train itself. The cuisine, created by Head Chef Christian Bodiguel and team is produced with the ﬁnest ingredients resulting in dishes such as Roast gilt-head bream and carpaccio of scallops with ﬁnger lime caviar and Raspberry macaroons with Szechwan pepper ice cream. The new crockery will be the perfect stage for each culinary masterpiece, the real star of the restaurant cars. “The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is an institution of incomparable elegance with a long history of tradition that today continues to stand for a luxurious and romantic way to travel that is unparalleled. My team and I have enjoyed working on this exciting and successful co-operation,”

“WE ARE VERY EXCITED BY OUR NEW RANGE OF CHINA FOR THE VENICE SIMPLONORIENT-EXPRESS.” - Gary Franklin, Managing Director of Trains & Cruises, Orient-Express

says Burkhard Schmidt, Director of Villeroy & Boch’s Hotel & Restaurant Division. Gary Franklin, Managing Director of Trains & Cruises at Orient-Express, sums up delightedly, “We are very excited by our new range of china for the Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express. We were looking at ways of bringing out the details found throughout the train and Villeroy & Boch were very imaginative in ﬁnding beautiful and creative ways to achieve this whilst also respecting the history and heritage of the train.” Selected pieces from the exclusive dinnerware collection are available in the on-board boutique. This latest project from the Hotel & Restaurant Division joins a list of prestigious references such as the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi and the Qatar National Convention Center.

The new ranges

Designed for the Etoile du Nord restaurant car

Breakfast selection

Designed for the Côte d’Azur restaurant car

Dinner selection

Designed for L’Oriental restaurant car

Picking the world’s finest teas, for the world’s finest connoisseurs.

BREWING MOMENTS OF INDULGENCE SINCE 1890.

As the world's no. 1 tea brand, Lipton Tea is enjoyed in over 150 countries and trusted by industry professionals the world over.

Unilever Food Solutions: Tel. +971 4 881 5552 | UAE Distributor: +971 4 347 0444 / +971 4 347 3455 For more information, email: mohammad.shanawani@unilever.com

Trending - Tea Tea is the world’s oldest cultural beverage. Discovered over 5000 years ago in China and always a popular drink, tea has recently become fashionable with hot trends and new niche products appearing on the market. The organisers of World Tea Expo, the largest and most prominent B2B event for the industry, recently pinpointed quality tea, growth in tea retail, cold brew green tea, green tea popularity, Matcha lattes and tea-enhancing wares as six of the key tea trends to look out for.

here will be others, no doubt, but for the moment here are the hottest trends in the tea market for the year ahead.

QUALITY TEA The tea industry is constantly educating tea consumers about quality, improving their palate and desire for better tea. And, as those consumers

increasingly look to buy better teas, they want to know what makes certain teas high quality rather than relying on the manufacturer’s word or enticing packaging. At the same time, industry members continue to ask one another: ‘How do we internally deﬁne quality’. So lots of questions are being asked in the industry about what Fair Trade really means,

or if products calling themselves ready-to-drink [RTD] tea should contain a minimum of tea’s total dissolved solids, or if tea-ﬂavoured sugar water should be allowed to call itself tea. TEA RETAIL INCREASES The tea retail trend hit its stride in 2011, according to World Tea Media, and it will continue to move

On the market up quickly in 2012. For example, Starbucks Coffee recently hired tea-retail expert Charles Cain as its new vice president for Tazo tea merchants and operations, which is leading to much speculation regarding Starbucks’ plans to launch tea retail outlets. Will tea ever be as big as coffee? In some territories such as India or China it already is, of course, but looking at the United States, there are currently more than 25,000 coffeehouses and around 3,500 tea retail locations. GREEN TEA Green tea is rapidly moving ahead of ﬂavoured and blended herbal teas, in terms of popularity. This is no doubt due to its association with health and the preferences of ageing Baby Boomers and conscious Millennials, green tea is experiencing a growing consumer base, and that will continue this year. In the USA, green tea is currently the number two top ﬂavour for US tea product introductions, closing on blended teas. Among households purchasing loose leaf tea, green tea edges out herbal and fruit/spice teas with black tea as still the favourite. Inceasingly, green tea is the leading selected specialty tea product selected by customers at many restaurants and retail establishments.

KEY FACTS Tea is the world’s favourite beverage, after water. Independent scientists also place leaf tea second only to water as the most ideal beverage in the world. All leaf teas are naturally zero calories and so can help with your weight management programme. Tea provides ﬂavonoid antioxidants. Antioxidants are thought to help keep our body healthy by preventing every day wear and tear by free radicals. Lipton is the global market leader in both leaf and ready-to-drink tea, with a global market share nearly three times larger than its nearest rival and is available in over 110 countries. The Lipton Tea Factory in Jebel Ali is the second largest teabag factory worldwide and produces ﬁve billion tea bags a year in addition to packet and pyramid tea bags.

TEA-ENHANCING TEA WARES Glassware maker Reidel creates some of the ﬁnest wine glasses and decanters - it’ said that these special glasses make a signiﬁcant difference in the

Ronnefeldt’s teas - as individual as your guests Ronnefeldt supplies the top hotels and the most exclusive restaurants in over 60 countries. It is the most recognised and exclusive tea brand in the world.

Ronnefeldt Trading LLC, PO Box 81411, Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971 4 394 66 10 Fax: +971 4 347 95 65 E-mail info@ronnefeldt.ae

On the market taste of wine, bringing out the depth, flavour and balance. And now, as people continue to build a sophisticated palate, innovators are emerging and looking at ways they can enhance the tea drinking experience on a more sophisticated level. Not only are more and more tea enthusiasts embracing particular tea tools to steep specific tea types, we’re seeing contemporary ceramic tea ware to enhance a particular tea type’s taste. Industry watchers expect this cup philosophy will begin to change the way we drink tea in 2012. This trend is starting with advanced tea drinkers and spreading to the everyday consumer - just how it did with Reidel and wine drinking. COLD BREW GREEN TEA Cold brew green tea is expected to be big in 2012. Japanese manufacturer Yamashiro Bussan launched the first cold brew green tea last year and it has been joined this year by new brands such as Swirl Tea by Breezy Springs. Key selling point: people enjoy green tea without worrying about over-steeping it or water temperatures causing the tea to taste like burnt grass. MATCHA LATTES Unlike the poor quality Matcha lattes that have crashed and burned in the past, there are now superb product offerings in the market. All of these use real and high-quality Japanese Matcha, blended with minimal sugar but packed with flavour, such as AIYA America’s Matcha Zen Café Blend. Matcha lattes are already wildly selling in Canadian foodservice establishments and it could be a rapidly expanding market elsewhere this year. They are easy to make, require no additional equipment, taste delicious and are packed with the nutritional benefits of Matcha - a wonderful alternative to over-roasted coffee after dinner. Photography courtesy of Ronnefeldt

GET WITH THE PROGRAMME The Ronnefeldt TeaMaster Program of the Frankfurt tea company has been in operation for over nine years. Service personnel from the best hotels in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, India, Singapore, Japan, Korea and Australia have been awarded the qualiﬁcation of TeaMaster Silver or Gold in this multi-level programme. The training to TeaMaster Silver includes the theoretical exploration of the most important tea cultivation areas and their harvesting and processing methods. The practical component of the course includes learning different tasting techniques and various methods of preparation and presentation. The training to TeaMaster Gold is real on-the-job training and takes place on location in the tea-growing areas of Sri Lanka. According to Jan-Berend Holzapfel, GM of Ronnefeldt, “The trained TeaMasters bridge the gap between the expectations one has of

a ﬁrst class hotel and the everyday service in the hotel on location. They pass their tea expertise onto the guests, employees and colleagues. They stage afternoon teas, conduct seminars and advise their hotel or restaurant on the choice of teas for their individual collections. They give impulse to

the F&B departments for the expansion of the tea value creation chain in areas such as more original cocktails, summer iced tea creations and the trendy ‘Cooking with Tea’. There are currently more than 250 Ronnefeldt trained TeaMasters working.

On the market

“THE HORIZON FOR TEA INDEED LOOKS BRIGHT. FACTORS SPURRING CONTINUED OVERALL GROWTH INCLUDE THE SUCCESS OF REFRIGERATED AND RTD TEA, THE RAPID EXPANSION OF SPECIALTY TEA RETAILERS AND THE CONTINUED RECOGNITION BY CONSUMERS OF TEA’S HEALTHY PROPERTIES AND THEIR SWITCH TO TEA FROM CARBONATED SOFT DRINKS.” - David Sprinkle, Research Director, Packaged Facts.

What’s brewing? Coffee is a key part of Arab culture, central to both social activity and the welcoming of guests. The name even derives from the Arabic ‚‘qahwa’. Strange then that, in the UAE, only recently have we seen an expansion of coffee drinking, driven by an ever-expanding population and lots of innovation by competing coffee brands. In fact, it is now the fastest-growing coffee market in the world by volume, with sales predicted to rise by 80% between now and 2014, according to a recent study by market research company Euromonitor International.

Ingredients

offee drinking is an ethical minefield. A major global commodity, it is largely grown by the world’s poorest farmers in the developing world and then drunk by some of the planet’s richest consumers. That has led to two of the most interesting trends in the coffee sector over the last few years: an emphasis on fair trading and a sophisticated appreciation of the product itself, with coffe drinking now embracing organic and niche beans, roasted in individual ways to suit the beans’ flavour profile. This is part of what’s been dubbed ‘the third wave coffee movement’ which is seeing coffee translated from a commodity product into an artisanal one. Yet, despite this enthusiasm from coffee lovers, “Black tea is the leader by a wide margin among hot beverages in UAE. The country’s population comprises of ethnicities which are largely tea rather than coffee consuming. Globally, demand for hot beverages is strongly divided by ethnic lines. UAE has a very mixed population but is predominantly tea drinking,” claimed a study by Emirates Industrial Bank (EIB). It pointed out that large expat groups from Iran, the Indian sub-continent, China and the UK are mainly tea drinkers, whilst of the large groups only the Philippines is a major coffee drinking population. Arabs, of course, drink both. The study also said that tea would remain the dominant hot beverage, with a key advantage over coffee: it’s cheaper. However, that provides an opportunity for those in the F&B sector to chase higher margins on coffee sales and one interesting way of doing that is to look at the trends apparent in the world’s most hyped up coffee market: New York City. As international key accounts department manager Daria Illy of Illy coffee said recently: “This is a similar market to the US. People are dedicated to their brands and to quality.” So, what’s happening in the Big Apple? Well, gone are the days where you just brewed a pot of coffee or poured boiling water onto granules. Coffee culture has gripped the city and both innovation and differentiation in a crowded market are essential. Here’s what to expect. Coffee pop-ups We’re used to the idea of chefs playing loose and light with a pop-up restaurant but some of the hippest baristas are getting into the fun also. Typical is Kickstand, a collapsible café from the staff of Gimme! Coffee, which moves location via

a number of bicycles - from fair to baseball field nd so on. Even Illy ran a weekly pop-up espresso stall at Lincoln Center for a while. If you asked the Italian coffee master a question, you got a free cup. Clearly licensing is an issue here in the UAE, but you can imagine some larger properties like Le Meridien, Atlantis or the Mina Seyahi complex making money from the deployment of moving specialty coffee stands. Hot gear Once you have premium coffee, you need the latest and best equipment to brew it. Both restaurants and coffee shops are upping their game and going for things like the Über Boiler - the so-called Rolls-Royce of kettles which can brew single cups within a programmable 1C temperature range. Or maybe you’d prefer a Japanese slow drip cold brew machine that takes up to 12 hours to produce a batch? However, you may feel that Eleven Madison Park went a step too far with its tableside coffee cart with both a traditional chemex machine and a siphon - a complicated multi vessel device with its own flame-lit heat source. Though, given, the love of bling and excess here, that could be a draw for customers. Going French Old school coffee machines are out and, in their place now, for many are individual French presses, tableside, or urns filled with several pots made from these traditional devices. Does the coffee taste better? Not many people say so, but it sure looks cooler. Not a cafe, but a boutique If you have a constant supply of agonisingly hip coffee drinkers spending time in your cafe then why not maximise your profits by having cool retail opportunities. It’s a great differentiator. If you want to know how to do it properly, then take a close look at the chic Lafayette Espresso Bar & Marketplace. Consistency We see this all the time. People get excited about a brand or an outlet and then standards slip. Keep an eye on the details. Try using secret sippers who’ll honestly critique your operation. Just pour it This is achingly hip and may just see the end of the drip. Basic method of the pour over is simple: pack a ceramic or metal cone with a filter and

BASIC METHOD OF THE POUR OVER IS SIMPLE: PACK A CERAMIC OR METAL CONE WITH A FILTER AND FRESH GROUNDS, THEN SLOWLY POUR HOT WATER OVER IT IN A STEADY STREAM. THE RESULT? AN INDIVIDUAL CUP OF COFFEE. 31

Ingredients

fresh grounds, then slowly pour hot water over it in a steady stream. The result? An individual cup of coffee. Artisanal drip We all may look askance at the old-style drip machine but new technology and a price tag that can run to the thousands of dollars is now proving irresistible to many coffee shops. If you pay close attention, then your coffee will be consistently good. Light roasting We should all know that coffee beans aren’t coffee coloured, right? They start out green, get roasted very dark for French or Italian roasts, then medium dark for American roast or even light roast. The latter may add to the acidic taste but experts believe it brings out more of the natural qualities of ther bean. This is a major trend. Cold brew Iced coffee? So last year. Latest trend is to forget adding ice cubes to hot coffee or letting brewed coffee cool down; instead, it’s cold brewed using coarse ground beans and cold water (ratio 1:4).

Leave this to soak for 12 hours minimum, strain and serve. Smooth! Sourcing Traceability is key: coffee growers now add country of origin, the region, the farmer’s name and even the elevation it’s grown at. Key too is roasters bypassing importers and creating direct relationships with farmers. Micro roasting Small outlet roast their own beans and then sell them to local businesses. It’s another good way of increasing variety and another differentiator. Sip it, save it Single-cup cartridge or pod coffee has been a game changer. When it was ﬁrst introduced, few people thought that it would overcome the high cost per cup, but the systems are now ubiquitous. A good change is coming, ﬁnally: after years of complaints, the pod manufacturers are starting to take environmental complaints seriously and we should soon see some major steps towards much more easily recyclable products.

COOKING WITH COFFEE Hard night’s service yesterday? All you want in the morning is a double espresso? Try thinking instead of cooking with coffee! We’ve all been used to thinking of coffee flavouring in desserts but, if added to meat dishes, it brings out the meat flavour without overpowering the dish. Try freezing leftover coffee in ice trays to use in iced coffee, stews, and sauces. Remember: he smaller the grind, the stronger the flavour. And, if you find the grounds too acidic, add a pinch of salt. Try some of these dishes with coffee: Meatloaf Nut bread Baked beans Barbecue sauce Risotto Grilled chops Roast meat Gravy

Suquet and sea The idea is simple: we take an old recipe and give it to a great chef. The challenge? Cook it as it’s written to understand the heritage and then reinvent the dish to ﬁne dining standards. Up for service this month are Head Chef Scott Stokes and Sous Chef Adrian Bandyk from Rivington Grill. All they have to do is reinvent the Catalan ﬁsh stew suquet to suit the comfortable British style of Rivington Grill.

ike bouillabaise or bourride from Provence or the Californian-Italian cioppino, suquet has its roots in the fishing fleets. Fishermen needed hearty food to sustain them and a stew or thick soup was the easiest thing to prepare on board, especially as it could use up any fish not worth taking to market. Spiced up and served hot with crusty bread, the dish gradually moved from its roots and suquet is now a staple of Catalonia, with increasingly expensive fish being used as ingredients as you move up the fine dining ladder. And, of course, there’s no single recipe for suquet - arguments even occur about

whether it originated in the north or south of Catalonia. Suquet derives from ‘suc’, the Catalan word for ‘juicy’ so whilst the mix of ﬁsh may vary widely , it can also be served at any point between a soup or stew. “We looked at it and both said, almost at once, ‘It’s a toast item,” explains Scott Stokes, Head Chef of Rivington Grill. “As I’ve never been to Spain, it was a bit hard to imagine the dish as served in Catalonia but I saw a big, communal bowl and everyone ripping up chunks of bread and just dipping into it.” “Yes,” agrees Adrian Bandyk, Sous Chef. “A heavy, hearty stew using ﬁsh. Being from Poland,

I’m very used to big stews like that. However, unlike Scott, I worked in Spain for six months so I was very comfortable with the ﬂavours. We saw it really working as summer on a plate but making it a toast item meant it would appear quite original on the menu and be quite easy to move.” “The way we work, though, is that a tasting team from Jumeirah Restaurants tries out all dishes. I don’t see any reason why this wouldn’t get through that process - it’s really light and in the Rivington style. But I see it more as a blackboard item - the kind of dish that people see and are intrigued by or order through word of mouth.”

Preparing the dressing

Sardine on the hot plate

The elements coming together

“IT’S REALLY LIGHT AND IN THE RIVINGTON GRILL STYLE. BUT I SEE IT MORE AS A BLACKBOARD ITEM - THE KIND OF DISH THAT PEOPLE SEE AND ARE INTRIGUED BY OR ORDER THROUGH WORD OF MOUTH.” - Scott Stokes, Head Chef, Rivington Grill

Pimp my plate

Adrian Bandyk, Sous Chef, Rivington Grill

Pimp my plate The problem they faced, Bandyk explains, is that all the ﬁsh stews or soups are really quite similar. “There’s no point just doing something similar - that’s not a challenge. And what we ended up with is so much more a summer dish than a stew.” “Once we decided to turn the soup into a sauce, it just came together,” Stokes recalls. “It all came together really fast which was great - some people can play with a recipe for three years before it works.” “The direction is the important part,” explains Bandyk. “Of course, we know ﬂavours and how to combine them.”

What, then is the Rivington Grill style? Stokes is quick to answer. “Food that reminds people of home but a restaurant quality. For us, what’s critical is the quality of the ingredients we use.” Dishes typical evolve on the menu at Rivington. How could they develop this dish. “Just about any oily ﬁsh apart from salmon would work well with the tomatoes. Even octopus,” Stokes thinks. “Once the sauce is there then the dish ticks all the boxes and is easy to develop,” Bandyk continues. “And, in the winter, we could turn it back into a soup!”

Traditional suquet Serves 6

Deep frying the calamari

A ﬁnal stir of the sauce

On the passe, ready to plate

Toast placed on a swirl of mash

Toast with the sauce

The ﬁnal dressing added

Ingredients: 12 small clams 1 tblsp coarse salt 1/2 cup olive oil 2 cloves garlic, peeled and unchopped 8 blanched almonds 1 tblsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 tblsp water 1 onion, finely chopped 1 tomato, halved crosswise, grated on the large holes of a handheld grater - discard the skin pinch of saffron 6 cups fish stock 45g monkfish fillet, cut into small pieces 90g hake fillet, cut into small pieces 45g squid, cleaned and cut into thin rings 6 large shrimp in the shell with heads intact 12 medium shrimp, peeled 125g mussels, scrubbed and debearded 25ml sparkling white wine Method: 1 Scrub the clams under cold running water, discarding any that fail to close to the touch. In a large bowl, combine the clams, coarse salt and water to cover. Let stand for at least 30 minutes so that the clams release any trapped sand. 2 Meanwhile, in a deep pan, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the garlic and fry, stirring often, until golden. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the garlic to a mortar. Reserve the oil in the pan off the heat. 3 Add the almonds, parsley and water to the mortar and pound with a pestle until a paste forms. Set aside. 4 Return the pan to medium heat, add the onion and saute until soft. Add the tomato and saffron, mix well and cook for five minutes longer to blend the flavours. Meanwhile, in another pan, bring the stock to a boil, then decrease the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. 5 Add the monkfish, hake, large and medium shrimp to the deep pan and mix well with onion and tomato. Stir in one cup of the hot stock and cook for 30 minutes, adding the remaining stock one cup at a time at five minute intervals. Season to taste. Drain and add the clams and mussels. Cook for five minutes until they open. 6 Serve immediately.

Pimp my plate

Rivington suquet on toast Serves 4 Ingredients: 150g calamari (cleaned, scored and sliced) 4 sardines (whole or cleaned) 4 scallops 8 shrimps (crevette) 50g plain ﬂour 5g paprika 1 garlic clove 8 slices of sour dough bread Maldon sea salt and fresh black pepper to season For the sauce: 4 red peppers 20g almonds 1 red chilli 1 tsp tomato puree 2 banana shallots 1 clove garlic

10g flat leaf parsley (chopped) 50ml virgin olive oil Maldon sea salt and fresh black pepper to season For the dressing: 50ml virgin olive oil 30ml lemon juice 50g Morecambe bay cockles (cooked and shelled) 2g dill, chopped 75g tomato concasse 5g coriander seeds Maldon sea salt and fresh black pepper to season Method: 1 Start by preparing the dressing and toast the coriander in a dry pan to release all the flavour, before removing from the heat. Add to the warmed olive oil and leave to infuse. Strain after 20 minutes and add the tomato concasse, squeezed lemon juice, cockles, chopped dill and finally seasoning. Set to one side so all flavours can marry together.

Rub oil to the red peppers and season them. Roast the peppers in the oven until the skin begins to blister. Remove and put into a container and wrap in cling film. Toast the almonds in a dry pan for a couple of minutes and set aside. Then, remove the chilli seeds and finely chop them. Peel and brunoise the shallots into very fine cubes. Skin the peppers and deseed before roughly chopping them. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the oil and sauté the shallots, chilli then garlic. Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute. Add the roughly chopped red peppers and let all the ingredients cook out together. Remove from heat and fold in the almonds and chopped parsley. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Dust the calamari in the seasoned flour mixed with paprika and fry for two minutes. Meanwhile season and sear the scallop, cook the sardines and the prawns. Grill the sour dough bread after brushing with olive oil and rubbing with garlic. Finally, reheat the sauce before plating the dish.

Chef’s tip This dish can be enjoyed as a light lunch or dinner with a nice glass of cold white or chilled red wine.

Face to face

The great white shark Growing up in a Leeds council estate, Über-chef Marco Pierre White never dreamed he’d become the youngest chef ever to achieve three Michelin stars and the first British chef to do so. Leaving school with no qualifications, he decided to train as a chef, beginning his training in the kitchen at the Hotel St George in Harrogate and later at the Box Tree. Moving to London as a 16-year old, he famously missed his late night transport and found himself entranced outside Le Gavroche. He returned the next day and talked the Roux brothers into giving him a chance. He retired from the kitchen in 1999 and returned his stars to Michelin, devoting himself ever since to his three loves: hunting, fishing and running restaurants.

hether all the stories about Marco Pierre White are true or not, they should be. Did he really throw diners out of Harveys if they annoyed him? Yes. Did he charge a customer for his time after hand cutting and cooking the chips he’d asked for as a side? Almost certainly. Did he slice the back of a young chef’s jacket and trousers with a paring knife after he complained about the heat in the kitchen? Absolutely. He is that rare thing: a hugely popular public ﬁgure, loved by people who have never eaten any food that he’s cooked, as well as a tremendously respected icon for fellow chefs, even when he makes a small fortune advertising Knorr stock cubes. His response “Working with companies like Knorr allows me to stand onto a bigger stage and enrich people’s lives. Michelin stars, they’re my past.” As a restauranteur - and sometimes TV personality - White has kept busy for the past dozen years. In 2000, he set up White Star Line with Jimmy Lahoud - it currently owns the Belvedere and L’Escargot restaurants in London. He’s a dining consultant to P&O Cruises, also running a ﬁne-dining Mediterranean restaurant called The White Room on board the cruise ship Ventura. He owns or franchises a growing collection of dining pubs across England, owns the MPW Steak & Alehouse in the City of London, as well as operating the Kings Road Steakhouse & Grill in Chelsea. More famously, he also owns Wheeler’s (also opening later this year in Dubai) and Frankie’s (franchised in Dubai). The Titanic at the new Meliã hotel in Dubai is typical of his approach to dining. Classically simple food reinvented with style. A mix of old favourites and new dishes. And a restaurant that offers the choice of formal dining room or stylish lounge, with the dishes suiting either location. A bon viveur and raconteur, we

finally found time for a “quick” interview at midnight. An hour of non-stop talking later, he headed back to the after-launch party before flying back to the UK to finalise on four new pub acquisitions. For a man who has supposedly ‘retired’, he certainly doesn’t rest! I just want to begin by saying I’ve wanted to meet you ever since I ate a few times at Harveys... That was a mad time! It had been a butcher’s shop and then a wine bar before I took it over. We had 15 tables and would seat up to 75 people on a Saturday, cooking from a tiny, over-heated kitchen. Are you tempted ever to go back to that life, even for a short while? No, that young man was obsessed, not just passionate but addicted. Now my passion is being a restauranteur - I dream concepts and then replicate them. But from my time at the Box Tree, which had two stars, I was driven, just obsessed with gastronomy. I dreamed of going to all the great French restaurants. And which ones did you make it to? Well, here’s the funny thing. I never did. I

achieved three stars without ever eating in France! I never walked through the doors of a Michelin restaurant in France but I worked for some great guys and I picked their brains ans everything I saw told me a story and taught me. Today, I’m still obsessed but by different things. I’m always doing something. Why didn’t you go to France? I never found the time to do it, I suppose, just cooking six days a week, year after year. You know, I’ve never really stopped to think about this. I’ve eaten in France lots of times, of course, but in little restaurants not starred ones. I was homegrown, thanks to people like Albert Roux and Pierre Koffmann. Now I’d love to go and eat in them, so I might even take a year out and just do that. But your key influence was French classical cuisine, right? Yes, one of my true loves in life is gastronomic history, especially from the 1930s to the 1980s - you know, great chefs like Paul Bocuse and the Troisgros family. My dream as a young chef when I first entered a kitchen was to replicate the great French restaurants and when I finally got my three stars and five forks and knives, I had achieved my dream.

After Le Gavroche... Time with Pierre Koffman, Raymond Blanc and Nico Ladenis led, in 1987, to opening Harveys in Wandsworth. He gained his ﬁrst star almost at once and became notorious for his bad boy image, his no holds barred approach in the kitchen and his ability to pick and train future stars, including Mario Batali, Gordon Ramsay (who he reduced to a broken, crying man after one brutal service), Eric Chavot, Heston Blumenthal, Bryn Williams and many others.

Yet you stepped away from it and gave the stars back. You said once, “I was being judged by people who had less knowledge than me, so what was it truly worth?” Do you feel it was wasted time to have achieved them? At the time, I was desperate to get them because that’s what every great French restaurant had, but it’s a bit like climbing Everest - you have to step down and pass the baton on. It’s lovely up there but you realise one day that you’re like a fairy, just happy being in a bubble.

craft and then needs to show off his ability. It’s the same for any great craftsman. However, as you grow more confident, then I think the more you do the less you need to do. We need to keep things simple. I entered the kitchen at the time of the old Escoffier world of specialisation, in many ways a golden age. Albert Roux never missed a service! In those days nobody was famous; today, everyone’s on TV. Last year I turned down offers of five shows. With The Cutting Block I was uncomfortable. If people want a Gordon Ramsay character then that’s not me, it’s not me. I like everyone to be a winner.

There’s talk of Michelin coming out here to the region. Do you think they ever get it right outside Europe? Look at the number of one stars in New York. If that level is one star then there should be another 500 in the UK. I think with Michelin, you have to go to France. Do you miss service? You know, very few great chefs stay loyal to the stove and very few have the courage to step right away. In my restaurants, I want the chefs to be behind the stove, never forgetting what makes them great. For me, food is and never can be as good when the chef is not in the kitchen. So, to be completely honest to myself, I don’t cook professionally any more and, without those stars, I’m free to do whatever I wish. I would never pretend to cook and tell a lie. I believe it is important to be honest. You still cook for yourself, of course. What kind of things? I tend to cook Italian food. I like to cook a big pot and put it in the centre of the table, so the meal becomes an occasion. I remember from my time at Le Gavroche, even at the staff meals before service, there was always a sense of occasion.

What makes a great chef? I think they have three things in common. They respect that Mother Nature is the true artist. They understand that everything they do or create is an extension of them as a person. And they realise that they’re representing the world on their plates. Even as a young boy in Leeds, I saw nature and food as very sensual - picking figs or peaches, drinking milk fresh from the cow. My father used to take me to Leeds Market and I still remember the sheer visceral shock of seeing giant cuts of meat with their different textures, the colours and shapes of the fish. You had figs in Leeds? No, we used to spend time in Verona where my father’s family came from. Both he and my grandfather were chefs so I was always surrounded by food. Look, what is gastronomy all about? I think it’s the emotional impact of food. At the moment, back home it’s my favourite season and so I think of the simplest food - a gull’s egg with mayonnaise and some celery salt. The textures are amazing. Do you think young chefs today are too impatient for fame? I think it’s natural. A young chef goes to work in a great establishment, learns his trade, his

Are you a fan of the current craze for molecular gastronomy at all? I prefer a world of refinement rather than one of invention. All those small portions is like being at the best ever canape party. But we need to remember that chefs have been scientists for a long time - neither souffles or confits were invented in the last decade, were they? So my belief is this: keep it simple. Perfect temperature. Perfect seasoning. And, if you’re in search of the Emperor’s new clothes, then good luck to you. What interests you now? In the UK I’m buying up old coaching inns, you know ten to forty bedrooms. We’ll serve good simple food. I do like a pub. In many ways it’s the perfect place to eat with every level of society side by side. I like the idea of having regular customers, they’re very important - with a three star restaurant, you don’t really have regulars. I’m in the business of making life fun! I like straightforwardness and the emotional impact of food. It’s all about the eating. What makes a good restaurant? The most important aspect of any restaurant is the feel of the establishment and the service. If you’re served with a smile, then you immediately start to enjoy yourself. Technical service is one thing but diners need to feel they’re being looked after. And what makes a bad one? Wanting to do what you want to do rather than thinking about your customers. Start with this: what price do people in this area want to pay? If it’s $50 for a meal then build your business around that. Never forget that the bill is the last course. for your diners.

“IN MY RESTAURANTS, I WANT THE CHEF TO BE BEHIND THE STOVE, NEVER FORGETTING WHAT MAKES THEM GREAT. FOOD IS NEVER AS GOOD WHEN THE CHEF IS NOT IN THE KITCHEN. SO, TO BE HONEST TO MYSELF, I DON’T COOK PROFESSIONALLY ANY MORE AND, WITHOUT THOSE STARS, I’M FREE TO DO WHATEVER I WISH. I WOULD NEVER PRETEND TO COOK AND TELL A LIE.” 40

Face to face

Grilled yellow fin tuna, Sicilian style Serves 10 Ingredients: 2kg yellow fin tuna steak filet 500g lemon 350g black olives 50g fresh coriander 15cl olive oil, 1 cup white vinegar 1 cup caster sugar 200g capers 20g Maldon salt, salt and pepper Method: 1 In a saucepan, combine white vinegar and caster sugar. Reduce until syrupy consistency is achieved. Let cool. 2 Cut the lemon segments and then dice the flesh. Remove the skin with a peeler and then julienne. Blanch three times consecutively by changing the water every time. Reserve in the syrup made previously. 3 Prepare four small bowls placing each item individually along with some olive oil and reserve warm. 4 Season the tuna with salt and pepper, then grill to taste. 5 Arrange tuna on a plate and then scatter over the steak and partially on the plate the following ingredients: diced lemon segments, capers, diced olives and lemon julienne. 6 Sprinkle with micro coriander leaves and finish with pinch of Maldon salt. 7 Serve immediately.

Carpaccio of scallop, fresh ginger and coriander Serves 10 Ingredients: 30 pieces medium scallop 30g fresh ginger, julienned 10 wedges lime, juiced 120ml extra virgin olive oil 60g fresh coriander 100g micro leaves 10 pinches Fleur de sel 20g butter Method: 1 Slice each scallop horizontally into six circular slices. 2 Squeeze drops of lime juice and olive oil onto the plate. Starting from the rim of the plate, arrange the scallop slices in circles. 3 Arrange the julienned ginger on top of the scallops - think of the ginger as a seasoning and don’t overpower the dish. 4 Scatter over the coriander, micro leaves and pinch of salt.

Face to face

La cucina Italiana, Giorgio-style Based in England for more than 25 years, highly respected chef Giorgio Locatelli still hasn’t lost his strong Italian accent or his Lombardy roots. Born into a restaurant family, he trained in Italy and Switzerland before moving to London and the kitchen of Anton Edelman at The Savoy. After a spell in Paris, he returned to London as head chef of Olivo, before opening Zafferano in 1995, which won a Michelin star four years later. Spighetta and Spiga followed, but he found real fame when Locanda Locatelli won its ﬁrst star in 2003, which it has held ever since.

iorgio Locatelli is a big fan of Dubai. One of the stars of this year’s Taste of Dubai, he’s a regular hands-on chef at his Ronda Locatelli at Atlantis and is now negotiating for several possible locations for his ﬁrst non-UK Locanda Locatelli. We caught up with him shortly after the announcement that 50% of Atlantis had been sold to Istithmar World, a unit of Dubai World, which seemed a good place to start our conversation. Do you think the sale will affect your operation here? No, we’ve a long relationship with the property and the restaurant is performing really well, despite strong competition. As for Locanda, well we’re keeping the door open but no decisions have been made yet. Can you explain to us why most diners believe that there’s a generic Italian cuisine and that regional specialities aren’t worth looking for? This is our problem. Italian food is the least understood but the most used in restaurants!

It’s partly our problem - our luxury dishes were exported to the French court and our own traditions didn’t keep up. Immigrants to America, mainly from the south, made very simple, family food partly because they couldn’t get the ingredients they were used to. But everyone could make pasta or spaghetti with meatballs in tinned tomato sauce and so it became a pidgin cuisine. True, pizza is now more understood than foie gras but we’ve lost that understanding of regionality. However, I think it can be changed. We’re seeing some changes in London but some of the experiments have already gone down the drain. There’s not enough enlightenment. So how did you escape that trap? Because, in my 20s, nouvel cuisine arrived like a breath of fresh air. I am who I am because of where I was then. Chefs took on different personalities, but we don’t cook like that any more. Everything evolves and part of our job is to move the profession along whilst still respecting the past. Look, some of the techniques of the kitchen will always be there - how we control

temperature rise of cooling. But things change when I was young I always had a pencil behind my ear, now my boys have thermometers! Is that an advance? I think so. Now we can be really precise in recipes and that’s a real aid to delivering quality. But I look back at my grandmother, say - she never had a book of recipes! Maybe some chefs have gone too far into a hard, technical personal style. But the new techniques do help to demystify cooking and do mean chefs are trained properly. What sort of places do you go out to eat? Well, with respect, I’d never take my wife to Heston’s! Meals for me are all about conviviality. Not that I’m against these priest of science but I don’t think we need to prostrate ourselves. Technicality is what interests me now but as a way of ensuring I can pass on my knowledge. So being in the kitchen still thrills you? Oh yes, every day is exciting. Every day you learn something! Just the other week, I saw one of my

“I LOOK BACK AT MY GRANDMOTHER, SAY - SHE NEVER HAD A BOOK OF RECIPES! MAYBE SOME CHEFS HAVE GONE TOO FAR INTO A HARD, TECHNICAL PERSONAL STYLE. BUT THE NEW TECHNIQUES DO HELP TO DEMYSTIFY COOKING AND DO MEAN CHEFS ARE TRAINED PROPERLY.” 43

Face to face boys from Nepal chopping something with two knives held together. To be honest, I’d never seen anything like that! In the kitchen, there’s always something to learn and I’m always intrigued by food. For instance, as an Italian, I’d never been to Sicily so when we went there I was a foreigner but it was such an experience, the cooking was so different and such a great revelation. My book took almost six years to write, because I had to undergo great emotion to achieve it.

So you’re not trying things before you start sketching? Yes, we taste a key ingredient - white asparagus, say. But then most of the development is in our minds. Once we have a key ingredient for the season then the recipe will change slowly in daily specials. we’re looking for consistency in what we do above everything. How much are you sourcing locally for Ronda Locatelli? We’re looking all the time. I’ve just tasted some delicious organic carrots from Abu Dhabi. But there’s so much that could be done - here we have so much space that’s not used. Imagine a city like Dubai with allotments or schools where the kids get involved in growing their own food. These things are so basic.

When you’re developing new dishes, how do you tackle the process? What are the thought processes and method? For me, it always starts with the ingredients. Asparagus, perhaps. We see them every year but something new, something different occurs every year. And you get ideas from everywhere. I was at Massimo Battura’s L’Osteria in Modena and he does the most amazing modern Italian cooking. Some of it is hard to understand perhaps - he’ll take an ingredient like Parmesan and treat it ﬁve ways in a single dish. It may be hard to understand what he is doing but you can sympathise completely.

What food trends do you see as most likely for the year ahead? I think Mexican food is going to be seen as really sexy - it’s being raved about all across Europe, especially in Paris. Moving south, Peruvian seems to be getting popular. Overall, I think sourcing is going to be the key concern - people want to eat closer to the source of their food. And more and more people will realise that we can’t run a world based on meals of meat and two vegetables - if China, for instance, goes that way then it will blow the world apart! So look at places like India where they use 65 different grains in their diet. In New York, just three!

Can we expect to see Italian fusion food in your view? Well, fusion is at the base of Italian food. We’ve borrowed so many ingredients from other cultures - tomatoes, pasta, chillies. And real Italian ingredients like Balsamic vinegar are very particular and maybe very hard to stand up with other cuisines. I think Italian food has to be about doing the best and being creative with our own ingredients.

Where do you eat? To be honest, when I go out it’s more about the people I’m having a meal with than the food, but often it’s Thai or Chinese.

Do you see a real future for ﬁne dining? Of course, we all suffer from Americanisation but people still get dressed up for a good meal whether they’re in Dubai or Modena or Sicily. But it’s true that in Italy, more and more Michelin starred restaurants are suffering. I think we’ll see a great revival for little places - you know, 25-30 cover osterias - with the quality we’ve seen in the great restaurants translating down to them. What’s your personal style in the kitchen? What we’re doing is business, a big business between Dubai and London, but what I do in the kitchen is more like an expression of my personality. I want quality to shine through my dishes. When I was growing up in some great kitchens, I don’t remember chefs bossing the brigade or being rude to guests in the restaurant. The team needs to ﬂow with a natural rhythm,

Are you an artist or an artisan in the kitchen? Deﬁnitely an artisan. I mean, have you ever met an artist? With some chefs today, I am shocked - “Are you selling this?” Sure, art is important but you need to take pride in your work because that’s a reﬂection of the pride you have in yourself. You need to care about the way you relate to people. It’s not just about the money. so we have an accord that let’s us develop dishes without needing to rush. Normally, we’ll draw a dish a few times before we even start cooking then cook the one we like the most. At this stage, we’re not bothered too much about temperatures or exact quantities, but if we’re happy with what we’ve achieved then one of the chefs will take over and produce an exact recipe for four to six portions and detail exact ingredient quantities.

Is fame a hindrance? Well, I see some friends with success and they seem to live in a bubble. Fame isn’t bad in itself but you musn’t let it get in the way. What helps me is that the kitchen is a very intimate place and I feel my team is great everyone props me up. I love going to work and I think I’ve found the right balance.

“ART IS IMPORTANT BUT YOU NEED TO TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR WORK BECAUSE THAT’S A REFLECTION OF THE PRIDE YOU HAVE IN YOURSELF. YOU NEED TO CARE ABOUT THE WAY YOU RELATE TO PEOPLE. IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE MONEY.” 44

Face to face

Busiate al pesto trapanese This pasta is one of the most famous recipes around Trapani, made with the pesto sauce that is named after the city. At a restaurant in Trapani, I watched one of the women making fresh busiate long twists of durum wheat pasta - by hand, with the lightest, quickest touch I have seen in my life. And yet her hands must also have been so strong to have worked this pasta in the same way for years, the way her mother and grandmother had most likely done before her, rolling the lengths of pasta around a special needle, then sliding them off into spirals that stayed perfectly in shape when she laid them on trays to dry. You can also use any long twisted pasta or bucatini, broken in half. Serves 4 Pasta Ingredients: 175g semolina ﬂour 75g 00 ﬂour plus extra for dusting 1 egg yolk 1 tsp olive oil 1 tsp sea salt

Method: 1 Put all the pasta ingredients into a food mixer with a paddle and whiz until everything comes together in a dough, then leave it to rest for 20 minutes. Have ready a baking sheet, dusted with flour. To form the busiate, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 2mm thick. Cut it lengthways into strips 1cm wide. Take each strip and coil it tightly along the length of a large skewer or clean knitting needle. Roll the skewer or needle gently over your work surface, so that you flatten the pasta slightly and help the coil of pasta to stick to itself, then push it gently off the skewer or needle and lay it on the floured baking sheet. 2 Repeat with all the strips of pasta, laying them on the sheet in a single layer to dry for about an hour, until they hold their shape. 3 Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add salt. Put in the busiate and cook for about five minutes, or if using packet pasta, for one minute less than directed. Drain lightly, put back in the pan, add the pesto and toss all together.

Pesto Ingredients: 75g almonds 500g plum tomatoes 4 garlic cloves sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 40g fresh mint, shredded 50ml olive oil Method: 1 Heat the oven to 180C. Lay the almonds in a single layer on a baking tray and put into the oven for about eight minutes. As long as they are in a single layer you don’t need to turn them. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn and, when they are golden, take them out and chop them. 2 Peel the tomatoes and then them in half, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and chop the ﬂesh. 3 Grind the toasted almonds with the garlic, using a pestle and mortar, to a paste. Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and mint and pound again very brieﬂy, just to crush the tomatoes a little. Then add the olive oil a little at a time, working it into the paste.

Face to face

Ivan’s cassata This is a kind of deconstructed cassata that our pastry chef at Locanda, Ivan Icra Salicru, came up with after seeing something similar in Sicily. It keeps all the ﬂavours of the traditional cake, but presents them in a very different way.

Serves 4

Ingredients: 400g good fresh ricotta 120g caster sugar 160ml milk 160g chopped candied fruit 1 x pistachio sponge, chopped into pieces 250g pistachio ice cream a little good chocolate (70% cocoa solids), grated

5 For the pistachio sponge: 50g pistachios 75g plain ﬂour 1/2 tsp baking powder 25g ground almonds 150g caster sugar 200g egg whites 150g unsalted butter, melted and cooled For the candied nuts: 165g pistachios 100g caster sugar Method: 1 Preheat the oven to 180C. Lay the pistachios in a single layer on a baking tray and put into the oven for about eight minutes. As long as they

are in a single layer you don’t need to turn them. Keep an eye on them - make sure they don’t burn. Put the sugar for the nuts into a pan with 45g of water and heat to 117C until it forms a thick syrup but hasn’t started to caramelise. Add the warm nuts and keep stirring until the syrup sticks to them. Spoon out on to a sheet of greaseproof paper and leave to set. Put the ricotta, sugar and milk into a bowl and hand-blend until the mixture is smooth and has the texture of double cream. To make the pistachio sponge, first grind the pistachios either using a pestle and mortar, or in a blender. Mix together the flour, baking powder, ground almonds, ground pistachios and sugar. Add the egg whites and then the melted butter and mix together well. Spread in a baking tray, leave to rest overnight in the fridge. Heat the oven to 180C. Remove the baking tray from the fridge, let the sponge mixture come to room temperature and then bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Turn out and cool on a wire tray. Sprinkle half the candied fruit, some pieces of pistachio sponge and some of the candied nuts into each of four small bowls. Spoon some of the ricotta mixture on top, then add the rest of the candied fruit, caramelised nuts and sponge, arranging some of the pieces of sponge in a rough square shape in the centre to make a base for the ice cream. Spoon two quenelles of ice cream on to the pieces of sponge and finish, if you like, with a sprinkling of grated chocolate.

Castrato con fave verdi Castrato is neutered lamb. The neutering is done to take away some of the slightly bitter taint that can flavour male lamb meat, so that it stays more delicate. It can be eaten young, but it is also eaten when the sheep is more mature, at about two years old, so it develops a stronger, more gamey flavour, the equivalent of mutton. Serves 8 Ingredients: 2kg boneless leg of lamb or mutton juice of 1 lemon or 2 tblsps of vinegar (for mutton) sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 6 tblsps olive oil 2 tblsps parsley and garlic plain flour 1 tblsp garlic oil 1 medium white onion, chopped 60ml dry white wine 2 litres lamb or chicken stock 500g podded fresh broad beans (or frozen beans) extra virgin olive oil Method: 1 If using mutton, put the meat into a bowl with the lemon juice or vinegar, three tablespoons of the olive oil and a pinch of salt. Leave overnight in the fridge, then rinse under running water, pat dry and cut into chunks. This is just to take some of the gamey-ness from the meat. Make slits in the meat and insert some of the parsley and garlic into each slit. Have the flour ready on a plate. Season the mutton or lamb with salt and dust with flour. 2 Heat the rest of the olive oil and the garlic oil in a large pan, then put in the meat and brown over a medium heat. 3 When the lamb is well browned, add the onion and cook for a few minutes until translucent. Add the white wine and bubble up until the alcohol has evaporated, then add the stock. 4 As soon as this boils, add the broad beans and cook for about 1.5 hours, adding a little water (or more stock, if you have any left) from time to time as needed, until the meat is tender and the sauce has thickened. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil.

On the passe

Simple French style Yannick Alleno was awarded three Michelin stars for his work at Hotel Le Meurice, Paris in 2007 and has since joined the elite circle of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest chefs. Elected Chef of the Year by his peers in 2008, his talent lies in reinventing traditional cuisine, using the ďŹ nest ingredients and local products with a combination of classic and modern inspiration. He now has 17 restaurants in six countries. In 2010, Alleno collaborated with One&Only The Palm to develop distinct dining concepts: ZEST, 101 Dining Lounge and Bar and STAY by Yannick Alleno, his signature restaurant. 47

our background is in ﬁne dining. Why then has your signature Dubai outlet STAY by Yannick Alleno feel more relaxed? It is a place for people to bring their families and friends and come to visit time and again. I want to stay away from the phrase ‘ﬁne dining’ when I talk about STAY as people think it’s too fancy, too expensive and that’s not the idea I want to give people. But you still deliver quality? You can have roast chicken or maybe a grilled sea bass. If you do the simple things well, with great ingredients and a talented chef behind that, then you have something very special. You’re still enjoying what you do? I feel like a racing driver with the greatest car in my hands, I am so lucky, we are lucky that we can completely focus on the quality and for us, then nothing is impossible, so to work under those conditions is amazing‚ to work with One&Only and with Le Meurice in Paris is a privilege. It enables me to create something that is superb.

Soya bean risotto with almond, Parmesan and chives Serves 4 Soya bean risotto Ingredients: 600g soya bean sprouts 40+20g unsalted butter 150g button mushroom brunoises 200g vegetable stock 5cl lemon juice 40g water 20g corn starch Method: 1 Remove the yellow part of the sprouts and wash them in ice water, strain and slice them at an angle, 1.5 cm long. Once done set them aside to dry on tissue paper. Create portions of 85g per person and place in small round containers. 2 Melt 20g of butter in a pot and cook the button mushroom brunoise with the lid on. Deglaze with the lemon juice and reduce by half then add the vegetable stock, reduce by half again and mix the two together with the corn starch already mixed in water.

Mix in the remaining 40g of butter and place on a ﬂat tray and cover with a cling ﬁlm, allowing it to cool in the fridge.

Almond and Parmesan Ingredients: 30g almond ﬂakes 1 bunch of chives 1 lime 10g chopped garlic 8ml soya sauce 5ml olive oil 50g grated Parmesan Method: 1 Chop half of the chives and slice into sticks 2 cm long. Roast the almond ﬂakes in butter and strain. 2 Cook the soya sprouts quickly in olive oil, add the garlic and deglaze with the soya sauce. 3 Put some base in a small pot adding the sprouts, while cooking, continuously stirring. Add the chopped chives and grated Parmesan, season and check the consistency, adding more vegetable stock if the mixture is too stiff.

“YOU CAN HAVE ROAST CHICKEN OR MAYBE A GRILLED SEA BASS. IF YOU DO THE SIMPLE THINGS WELL, WITH GREAT INGREDIENTS AND A TALENTED CHEF BEHIND THAT, THEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL.” 48

On the passe

Slow-cooked John Dory with avocado, coriander and citrus, pilaf rice Serves 4 John Dory Ingredients: 2 whole John Dory, ﬁlleted 10cl avocado oil salt white peppercorns 2 avocados 1 grapefruit 1 orange 1 lemon Espelette pepper and Fleur de sel Method: 1 Peel the skin off the grapefruit, orange and lemon and dice them. 2 Cut the avocado in quarters and in a mixing bowl roll the avocado in the dressing with the diced citrus, add the Espelette pepper and the Fleur de sel.

Season the John Dory filets and roll in the avocado oil. Place the filets under the grill at 150/160C to cook slowly for four minutes on each side. Plate the John Dory and arrange the avocado quarters on top of the filets. Pour over the citrus dressing and garnish to serve. Serve the pilaf rice separately.

Citrus dressing Ingredients: 8g acacia honey 16g orange jus 32g avocado oil 1/2 bunch coriander Method: 1 Mis the honey and orange jus. 2 Beat in the avocado oil, drop by drop, slowly adding the chopped coriander.

Pilaf rice Ingredients: 500g nisiki rice 1 bouquet garni 850g chicken stock 120g chopped white onion 80g unsalted butter Method: 1 Peel, wash and chop the white onion and make the bouquet garni. Bring a pot of water to the boil, adding the chicken stock and mix well. In another pot, melt the butter, add the chopped onions and add a little bit of salt and cook slowly for few minutes. 2 Add the rice and cook for a further few minutes, adding the boiled chicken stock and the bouquet garni. Once it starts to boil, cover with a lid and cook it in the oven at 200C for 16 to 19 minutes. Once done, allow it to cool.

Book review

Getting close and personal Over the last two issues, we’ve looked at some interesting new food magazines: David Chang’s game-changing Lucky Peach, the quirky Put A Egg On It and the more literary Fire & Knives. But more keep coming out of the kitchen cupboard - a regular feast of idiosyncratic, individualistic and original content by food lovers of all shapes and sizes. Recently, the the ﬁrst Food Book Fair was held in Brooklyn and a whole host of other titles surfaced. We provide a brief guide to the more interesting ones.

eard of the word ‘Foodieodical’? No, neither had we. It refers to one of the new breed of obscure independent food magazines that take a more thoughtful, more arty, more intellectual approach to food - some don’t even show food on their covers. One, the very weird White Zinfandel, has been described as if “Marcel Duchamp guest-edited Bon Appetit”. What is common to many of them is the themed issue, where reminiscences, recipes, art, travel, photography and anything else related to the issue’s subject is thrown into the mix. But a mix doesn’t mean lacking in value - many of these are virtually academic journals - but all of them we found inspiring in some way. Check them out!

A typical luscious image from Gastronomica

Gastronomica

Culture

meatpaper

This one is serious - it’s published by a university press! Look for academic discussions of food as well as poetry, photography and more. Started in 2011 by professor Darra Goldstein, it aims to renew “the connection between sensual and intellectual nourishment”, using food as an important source of knowledge about different cultures and societies, provoking discussion and encouraging reflection on the history, literature, representation and cultural impact of food. Topics? Parrot-eating in the Renaissance, the ethics of eating apes, the diet of sumo wrestlers in Japan, cooking shows as pornography, wine and global warming, the cultural ramifications of the Atkins diet, genetically modified foods in Zambia and the meaning of terroir. Read this if: you want to get serious about food as a cultural signifier. www.gastronomica.org Quarterly

Who doesn’t like cheese? But Culture takes the subject to its limits, covering producers to shops to discussions of emerging dairy trends. It even has a gorgeous cheese-themed centrefold! As its blurb says: It’s cheese, up close and personal. Interestingly, in the middle of a renaissance of American artisan cheesemaking, this American magazine takes a global view of the subject, with regular travel features on cheese regions and loads of tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese. Typical articles include an overview of English Cheddars or a history of French provincial cheese caves. Read this if: you really like cheese, without being too obviously cheesy. www.culturecheesemag.com Quarterly

Now it gets hardcore with a magazine entirely devoted to meat culture. It also waves a pretty polemical ﬂag: “Now that the vegetarian nightmare is over and we are back to our diet of meat and deep in the sway of our dark and beautiful habits and able to speak with calm of having survived, let the breeze of the future touch and retouch our large and hungering bodies. Let us march to market to embrace the butcher and put both the year of the carrot, the month of the onion behind us and let us worship the roast or the stew that takes its place once again at the sacred centre of the dining room table.” Topics can range from the rise of meat glue to notes on eating human placenta. A recent issue interviewed San Francisco sushi chef Tim Archuleta about his restaurant and the Japanese culinary philosophy of “eyes, nose, mouth”. So it’s not just about meat, then. And it’s quirky too. The lastest cover includes portraits of 30 American presidents holding large hams! Read this if: you like your reading visceral. meatpaper.com Quarterly

The Art of Eating Published by Ed Behr for over a quarter of a century, this magazine is very similar to Gastronomica, with pages devoted to detailed explorationsu of food from various perspectives. It’s very traditional in its approach but also quite eclectic, covering ingredients, travel and restaurants. The publisher’s comment is revealing. “We look for the logic of geography, methods and culture that make good food good - that give character and the ﬁnest ﬂavour. We visit passionate growers to understand why some raw materials are so much better than others. We seek the most accomplished artisans to understand their methods. Their best products, rare as many are, still set the standards of excellence by which even mass-produced food and drink are judged. Besides superior foodstuffs, we seek exceptional timehonoured recipes, the products of generations of cooks. Not that everything old is good. The Art of Eating is also about the new when it’s better.” Typical subjects? As you’d expect, they are pretty eclectic! Almost at randon, they can include great bread in California and Paris to the best chocolate, the most delicate and aromatic olive oil, wines of the Loire Valley, the ideal roast for coffee, dry-aged steak, farm cheeses of Provence, gumbo in Cajun Louisana, the food and wine of Tuscany, cloth-bound Vermont cheddar, pizza in Naples, the great blue cheese of Roquefort, the current state of food in Paris and more. Read this if: you really miss Gourmet magazine. www.artofeating.com Quarterly

spenser Although this is digital, reading it for free online makes it feel like print. Its key aim is to help readers sourcing everyday provisions, whether by purchasing, preserving, growing, curing or foraging. It also highlights perspectives and voices from professional chefs, home cooks, farmers, butchers, bartenders, bloggers, travellers, designers and distillers. The spenser team believe that, collectively, they represent a fresh, new viewpoint that will inspire readers to personalise the food and drink they share with friends and family. By the way, ‘spenser’ is the Middle English word for butler or steward, which derived from the Old French despencier or larder. Read this if: you like free stuff. www.spensermag.com Bi-monthly

Diner Journal Published by the Brooklyn restauranteur Andrew Tarlow, this contains art, literature and recipes that support the growing and exciting American artisanal food movement. With not a single ad in sight, it focuses on everything from cheese shops to menus. Its recipes are beautifully presented - in fact, the design and photography overall are stunning, especially the regular centrefold of a feasting table. Read this if: you want to feel hungry, very hungry. dinerjournal.com Quarterly

Edible This one is confusing - it’s not a magazine but a whole collection of free local editions from Manhattan to the Hawaiian Islands, each of which focus es on the food community of its region. Co-founder Carole Topalian explains some of the issues that interest her. “Local is subjective to a certain extent. Practices like the Hundred-Mile Diet are great, but depending on where you live, can often be difﬁcult to stick to, particularly for families. I like a simpler philosophy: pay attention to the foods that naturally and seasonally grow in your region and seek those out from local sources. If you live in Boston and you’re shopping for apples, you should look for ones grown at the hundreds of New England or New York orchards, rather than apples shipped from Chile or even Washington State. To me, buying local means purchasing local foods whenever possible and being conscious of the abundance of seasonal foods that grow where I live. One of the broader goals of this movement is to bring back the respect, integrity and appreciation of the art of farming.” Read this if: you want to know about local US and Canadian food communities. www.ediblecommunities.com No set publishing schedule

Alimentum

White Zinfandel

A literary review about food that will appeal to those who love travel pieces full of food detail. Typical articles are the elusive huitlacoche in Mexico, butchering your first rabbit, bad hospital food, the Scandinavian fermented fish and a daily pie diet. Here’s sort of what you can expect, by Paul Graham on his maple tree: “The holes go waist-high on the western side, which receives more sun and delivers more sap. I sink two taps with a rubber mallet. I reserve a third in case one dries up. Immediately the juice starts running, dribbles to the metal lip and trembles in the sunlight before falling into the bucket with a flat plunk. It seems impossible that I’ll empty these buckets twenty, thirty times, but I will. The sap, when I lift a drop to my lips, tastes of the purest, cleanest water.” Read this if: you want a lazy read that will fire your imagination. www.alimentumjournal.com Semi-annually

Described as a “mash-up of art, food and culture”, this is not for the traditionalist. A great combination of food and art, it’s ready to tackle any subject - the latest issues looks at the banal world of the TV dinner! The basic idea is simple: pick a food-related theme and then let contemporary artists interpret things as they will. Equally important and missing for us, the publishers organise high conceptthemed dinners for issue release parties. So, for issue two, there was a TV dinner-themed meal at Manhattan’s Jack Hanley Gallery, using specially made TV dinner trays for serving. Main dish? A takeoff on chicken pot pie described on the menu as Vol au vent de pigeon au quatre facons, trufﬂe noire d’Oregon. So the magazine also plays with high/low juxtaposition, spotlighting creativity outside of its normal context. Read this if: you’re into modern art and food and juxtaposition. www.whitezinf.org Bi-annual

Book review

“Fill a jar with heavy whipping cream. Get some rope and tie it to your belt loop. Walk around with it there all day.” Read this if: you like homemade and offbeat. therunciblespoon.info Quarterly

Remedy

The Runcible Spoon A handmade food zine that almost deﬁnes offbeat and quirky, such as a Swimsuit issue (an annual Sports Illustrated tradition) featuring topics like fried superfoods or lard pie. The zine was founded by Malaka Gharib in 2010. She edits and also illustrates many of the pieces, aiming “to capture the pleasure of eating food and present it to you in a half-collage, halfillustrated, all-magic little magazine”. The spring 2012 issue includes an interview with Bompas & Parr, the English ‘jellymongers’ who forge edible art installations out of gelatinous, fruit-ﬂavored moulds, inspired by Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes. And check out the recipes for lazy but curious chefs, including this one for butter:

Another ad-free food magazine focusing on food stories and recipes. It was inspired by various community cookbooks and the core editorial belief is that “food is something that brings people together. Every one has a story to tell, and more often than not, food is involved.” Sample articles range from a Madagascan market to urban gardening in Detroit. The latest issue features Orianne Cosentino, an American chef who worked in Paris cafe kitchen and an interview with Bonnie Slotnick, the owner of a justiﬁably famous cookbook shop in the New York’s West Village. Read this if: you like old-fashioned recipe books and you’re green. www.remedyquarterly.com Quarterly

Swallow Magazine Not so much a magazine but a hardcover book that combines great writing on chefs, arts, culture and fashion. Each issue has a speciﬁc regional

feel. The ﬁrst, for example, was Nordic with essays on local mushrooms, beautifully rendered pencil illustrations of reactions to dishes during a family dinner, food label scans, ﬁshing trip photo journalism, black metal pubs and Karelian pasties. The latest is dedicated to the Trans-Siberian railway, though the editor is careful to point out that it “deviates from the original Russian route to include the Trans-Mongolian branch from Eastern Siberia, through the Gobi Desert to our endpoint Beijing”. This allows, amongst other things, a great photoshoot of Mongolian nomads mixed with 750-year-old quotes from Marco Polo. The forthcoming issue is all about Mexico City and should arrive sometime this year. Design and photography are amazing - you even get the cover embossed. Read this if: you don’t just love food, you live it. www.swallowmagazine.com Annual (sort of)

Graze The youngest of the bunch and devoted to the food culture of Chicago and beyond. As they make very clear: “This isn’t a Martha Stewart publication - there will be no recipes, no table scapes, no restaurant reviews. We’re not trying to commodify food. We’re trying to look at the ways food is in the background or foreground of politics, human relationships, locations, events and so on.” See it as a semi-annual literary magazine that focuses on what’s on the table as much as the people sitting around it. It offers a platform for writers with stories that often sprout from food experience. “Food is becoming trendy in this thin sort of way, and we think there’s a lot going on in a socioeconomic way, gendered way, religious way,” says Graze’s co-founding editor Cyndi Fecher. “It seems like that should be discussed, at least alongside the ten ways to make ﬂan.” Intriguingly, its dimensions - nine inches by nine inches - are the same as the standard dinner plate. Read this if: your interest is what happens around food. grazemagazine.org Semi-annual

Travel

Love food? Love Paris!

Whether it’s a hot chocolate and croissant as a snatched breakfast at a ‘zinc’ café or a full-on, silver service dinner of French classic dishes at a Left Bank brasserie – or all the other eating opportunities in-between - there’s nowhere quite like Paris if you love food, whether you’re a newcomer to the city or an old hand. Dave Reeder helps you plan a great gourmet break, with words and photography. partly through the French post-Napoleonic love of control, which sees massive amounts of produce sucked up to the capital’s wholesale market at Rungis before being redistributed again back throughout ‘the hexagon’. So, eating in Paris is a food lover’s delight, right? Well, sadly, not always. Let me guide you then through the things to avoid and the things to embrace when eating in Paris, plus give you some ideas for one of the most exciting Paris holidays – renting a self-catering apartment and cooking like a Parisian. So, to let’s move to table!

rnest Hemingway famously spoke of Paris as “a moveable feast”, but he wasn’t imagining a day spent wandering the streets in seach of great food. However, the idea seems irresistible to me! Paris is, of course, a city of culture, a city for lovers and a shining city on the hill for artists and writers. Okay, been there, done that. Now, what is there for us to eat? You can argue that Lyon is the gastronomic heart of France, but Paris is the place that counts: for ambitious chefs in search of Michelin stars, for retailers of specialist produce, for the gastrointelligensia – are Gault-Millau and Michelin headquartered in Lyon? No, they’re not! – and, of course, for simple lovers of French food. That’s partly because it’s a capital city and

How to eat badly… The quickest way of eating badly in Paris is to be a tourist. Sure, like any major city, there are lots of poor places to eat and you’d shun them in Paris as you would in London or Melbourne and, equally, you’ll tut-tut like the rest of us at the growth of ‘le fast food’ and McDo culture. No, the places to avoid are the busy restaurants near all the key spots – hey, full of diners, so must be okay, right? Actually, I don’t think so and my two absolute commandments of Parisian dining are to walk quickly past any restaurant offering a multi-language menu or a menu with photos of the dishes. You may have a decent meal but why take the risk of a bad one – besides, who wants to eat in Paris surrounded by loud groups of tourists reliving their morning at the Louvre? And, talking of the Louvre, the food court there is absolutely the number one place to avoid – it is unbelievably bad! The reason for shunning tourist spots – and number one amongst these I count the ChampsElysees, which acts as a magnet for tourists – is simply that the majority of customers are onemeal wonders. They eat, they move on and they don’t return. If you were a restauranteur with that clientele, would you focus on developing stunning food or on maximising your proﬁts? Exactly. So, shun the popular spots. And don’t think that restaurants with loads of empty tables are a good bet – they’re empty for a reason! Next guarantee for a bad meal is to eat like an American – apologies here to my American friends! By that, I mean trying to eat as if you’re

Travel

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Travel back home – demanding menu substitutions, drinking Coca-Cola and speaking too loudly in English. The reason why Parisians have the reputation of being bad-mannered is precisely because so many tourists are incredibly obnoxious in their behaviour. Behave like them and you’ll eat badly – it’s as simple as that! Finally, remember that the pricey drink at a café is buying you real estate not just the drink – you are welcome to sit and watch the world go by for an hour or more for the price of a coffee or glass of wine… So, avoid these simple mistakes and you should eat well, right? If only it was that simple… How to eat well… The secret of eating well in Paris lies in eating like a Parisian. It’s that simple. Firstly, understand that to the French in general and Parisians in particular, food is a very serious business. It is something to be savoured, enjoyed and lingered over. That’s partly why seeing people eating as they walk in the streets is unusual; that’s certainly why you should never, ever try to catch one last “quick” lunch on a Sunday with frequent glances at your watch as check-in time at the airport approaches. And, most of all, food is a communal pleasure, although in my experience solitary, serious diners are always treated with respect. So here is your number one lesson: look on dining as a serious process run by professionals and you’ll get the greatest benefit and pleasure. What do I mean? For a start, the maitre d’ and the waiting staff treat their job as a real career and they take pride in what they do – so respect them. Please don’t make the common schoolboy mistake of snapping your fingers and calling “Garcon!”, for example. Entering any restaurant, make eye contact, be polite, throw in a “Monsieur” and take the opportunity of being shown to your table as a good moment to demonstrate that this is part of a process in which you understand the rules. Want to sit outside? Of course. Want to have a view of the room from the banquette? OK! And, when the menu arrives, at least have thought if you want a pre-meal drink, because that will be the first automatic question. Don’t dither. If you just want water, don’t be afraid to ask for “un carafe d’eau” instead of pricey bottled water. You’re the customer and, if you demonstrate your knowledge of the game, then you’ll get great service. Rule number two – unless you have a serious

EATING 101 Here’s the quick summary: To eat badly in Paris, follow the tour groups into any place with a ‘menu touristique’ or with pictures of dishes outside. To eat well and cheaply, look for one of the ‘menus’, rather than eat a la carte – for instance, ‘le menu a €50’ or the daily menu chalked on a blackboard. This will, typically, give you a simple but good meal of classic French dishes with, probably a glass of wine. Your choice could be a starter of pate or crudites, a main of grilled meat or ﬁsh and a dessert of chocolate mousse or cheese. If you want wine, the red or white house wine will always be cheap and reliable. Water is drinkable and, unless you want sparkling, don’t bother with mineral water (eau

minerale, avec gaz or sans gaz). Restaurants are obliged to provide tap water – un carafe d’eau. If you want to eat at odd times, that is always possible in the centre – just look for the larger bistros, with a sign like ‘service a toutes heures’ ior ‘service non-stop’. If in a hurry, look for ‘restauration rapide’. Do not eat at any of these spots, unless you are crazy or willing to be over-charged: overlooking the Seine, the Louvre, or any other major monument, on the Champs-Elysees or in a fast food joint. The only exception to this rule is Alain Ducasse’s Le Jules Verne on the Eiffel Tower, but reserve a table! Above all, take your time! You’re in France for a reason – to enjoy the food, the ambience and the culture.

“LOOK TOO FOR THE INCREASING NUMBER OF HEALTHCONSCIOUS MENUS (BIO). AND DON’T PASS UP THE MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PICNICS – A BAGUETTE AND CHEESE, SLICES OF QUICHE OR SALADS FROM A SPECIALIST SHOP, FRUIT TARTS AND A SCREWTOP BOTTLE OF WINE.“ 57

Travel medical condition, do not ask for substitutions on a set menu! Every restaurant will have daily menus, based on the chef’s whim and the best buys from the market: if the fish course is sole meuniere then don’t ask for truite amandine, order from the a la carte menu instead – it’s as simple as that! I am violently allergic to mussels, so it’s fine to ask for them to be omitted on, say, a plate of fresh shellfish, politely explaining the allergy, but not to ask that today’s fisherman’s

stew be made from scratch for me without the mussels that everyone else will ﬁnd in their bowls. Next, ask questions. Professional staff will delight in responding to them – how is this dish prepared? What wine would you recommend? And so on. You may ﬁnd, in some restaurants, that the tables are set very close together. This doesn’t mean that you have to interact with neighbours – a slight nod as you sit down and perhaps a quiet

“Bon appetit” when their main courses arrive is more than enough. They will respect your privacy also. So where will you ﬁnd the perfect meal? I have a simple rule of thumb, developed over two or three visits to Paris a year since I was in my early 20s: 30% of your meals should see you return to places you really enjoy, 30% should be recommendations (more on that in a moment) and 30% should be fortuitous ﬁnds. The other 10%? A

ing food, but they are very Parisian. So Le Dome (14e) is nice and very French. Fogon (6e) serves the most fantastic Spanish food – the paella… Some Asian places – I like the Enjoy sushi bar (17e) for the family atmosphere and there’s a Korean place in Trocadero too. Great Italian food at Casa Bini (6e) also. Where else? Very, very good meat at Au Boeuf Coronne (19e). But, really, in Paris there are so many places… We’re seeing the old bistros come back into style. The quality everywhere is coming up. Young people seem interested in food and new districts become fashionable again – so things change a lot. For the new chefs, look in out of the way places – Batignolles or around place Clichy (both 17e), for example. And use the restaurant guides!

most famous gardener, Joel Thiebault. Amazing quality! For wine, Caves Taillevent or Caves Auge are both extremely good (both 8e). Meat? I would pick Boucherie Hugo Desnoye (14e) – extraordinary. Fish? Poissonerie du Dome (14e) is the best in Paris - absolute quality, absolute freshness. Bread from Poilane (3e) and cheese from Fromage Rouge (14e), which is the very best place for cheese in Paris. Or I’d suggest Marie-Anne Cantin (7e) or Alleosse (17e), which is in the rue Poncelet market that I enjoy very much. I would also suggest he goes to Bon Marche (7e) - you can ﬁnd all the produce you want there.

VIEW FROM THE TOP Chef Pierre Gagnaire manages to straddle with ease the twin horses of eminence grise of the Emirates’ restaurant scene (with his Reﬂets in the Dubai Festival City InterContinental now recognised as one of the top hotel restaurants in the world!) and enfant terrible of the French avant garde food scene (albeit with four Michelin stars for his Parisian outlets). Perhaps more importantly, he is a man of true passion and of a relentless drive for quality. Who better to ask for advice on eating out in his adopted city – given that his restaurants are stations on any serious gastro tour of Paris? What for you represents the essence of eating badly in Paris? A sandwich on the Champs-Elysees! However, there are good places nearby – not just my restaurant! You know, some places in Paris are now impossible. If you want to see Montmatre, go at 5am – after that, impossible… So how should one choose a good restaurant? I think some planning is required. Look, the best places, they don’t really change – chefs stay a long time, so you can think ahead and, of course, make your reservations ahead of time from Dubai. For the smaller addresses, it is a little more work. A single review – well, the critic may have had one extra glass of wine, the owner’s wife may have smiled at him, they’re human. So I would suggest taking three guides – Michelin, Lebey and Pudlo Paris – and look for a convergence of opinion. But in Paris you must remember that quality is not cheap and fashion can be very expensive! Do you have favourite addresses you would share with us? To be very honest with you, I don’t eat out very often – I just do not have the time. With my family, my wife takes us to a trattoria for pizza – it’s not for me, but our kids enjoy it. Yes, I do have places I return to – surprisingly, perhaps, they may not have the most amaz-

An enthusiastic chef comes to Paris. Where would you advise they go for their produce? Start with the market – Marche Iena, for example, on avenue du President Wilson (16e). Choose your vegetables – here, you’ll ﬁnd produce from Paris’

If we gave you one place, one taste, one dish, one experience to sum up what Paris means to you in terms of food, what would it be? Well, of course I do not know everything! What to choose? I think something as simple and as Parisian as this: a plate of oysters! No, a large assiette de fruits de mer! That’s Paris for me…

“I THINK SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AND AS PARISIAN AS THIS: A PLATE OF OYSTERS! NO, A LARGE ASSIETTE DE FRUITS DE MER! THAT’S PARIS FOR ME…”- CHEF PIERRE GAGNAIRE 58

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Travel

Travel picnic, a quick sandwich in a bar or clutching your over-worked stomach on your hotel bed… Finding new places to eat is simple. Before anything, get yourself the latest Michelin guide to Paris restaurants – as well as all the starred establishments, the fertile hunting ground is what is known as the Bib’ restaurants, named after Bibendum, the Michelin tyre-man mascot. These are smaller, cheaper, great quality places often opened by chefs who trained with a master but see no immediate opportunity of running a 3-star place. Frequently out of the way, they may offer great regional food, for example. Next, check the press and Web (www.lefooding.com is great) for the new openings, but be well prepared to ﬁght half of Paris for seats if the place is hot! Ask friends who’ve been to Paris recently to suggest places they like – I’m sharing a number of my favourites for you in a box out, which may help. Lastly, keep your eyes open. If you are strolling and are hungry, then walk a street or two away from the tourist joints and see what you can ﬁnd.

Think of the way Paris works – wherever there’s a food market, there will be interesting options. For example, the monstrous Les Halles – a concrete nightmare built on the site of the old food market - is now a major transport hub, which is why you’ll see crowds of hip-hop youth in from the outlying suburbs. Ignore them – they enjoy the feeling that they’re freaking people more than they are actually dangerous, given the large police presence around here - and ﬁnd a large old church (SaintEustache), around which are the tiny streets that used to feed the market porters. It’s a great place to eat and I would recommend rue Montorgueil if you can pronounce it! One thing to remember is that French life is changing. The old, multi-course, structured lunch is on the way out – hey, we’re busy people now! So even the swankiest places will not look askance if you go for starter and dessert. Look too for the increasing number of health-conscious menus (bio). And don’t pass up the many opportunities for picnics – a baguette and cheese, slices of quiche or salads from a specialist shop, fruit tarts

and a screwtop bottle of wine as you linger in the Jardins de Luxembourg – sorted! Easier to ﬁnd too these days is non-French food – Indian around the passage Brady, Chinese and South-East Asian in the 13e and Belleville, Japanese around rue Sainte-Anne, Moroccan in Ménilmontant, South American on the montagne Sainte-Geneviève and Africa/Caribbean in the Chateau-Rouge area. Finally, if you are on the Michelin star trail, note that many of the major chefs have more than one outlet – by eating at, for example, L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon instead of La Table, you’ll get the master’s touch but still have some Euros left in your wallet! And many ﬁne dining restaurants are now offering special, more affordable menus at different times in response to economic downturn – do your Net research before you arrive in Paris

The French don’t do fusion food very well, but they celebrate a colonial past at this Vietnamese restaurant. Popular and reasonably priced, with a great neighbourhood vibe. Coin des Gourmets 39 rue Mont Thabor, 1e

A small, friendly, neighbourhood bistro that is usually my ﬁrst stop in Paris – dependable, great shellﬁsh and unhurried atmosphere despite the crowds. A favourite for many chefs. Don’t miss the fully laid table struck upside down on the ceiling – don’t ask why! Le Ballon des Ternes 103 avenue des Ternes, 17e

How to get the best… Once you’ve been to Paris a couple of times and got the feel of the place, then as a chef you’ll be consumed by the frustration of being surrounded

MY SECRET ADDRESSES Okay, I’ve had my arm twisted. Nothing works in Paris better than word of mouth, so here are the places in Paris I return to again and again, in no particular order. And, if I can’t find a seat in the future, I know who to blame… I suggest you search Google for all these places – you’ll get a map and also a link to any restaurant’s Web site. I’ve given the arrondissment (eg 8th or Huitieme shown as 8e) for guidance. I’m a complete sucker for the classic Parisian brasserie – old-fashioned décor, classic menus, magically professional service. Wepler is one of the best and I’ve been a fan since I saw a queue of Parisians collecting giant shellfish platters one Christmas morning. Onion soup, bouillabaise and sauerkraut are classic or go wild with crayfish in cherry sauce… Wepler 14 place de Clichy, 18e A new favourite – I was drawn by news of a redesign by Philippe Starck – this is a great spot for a fast and stylish pause. The menu swings between healthy (fresh juices) and sinful (ice cream with fudge and dark chocolate)! Paradis de Fruit 47 ave Georges V, 8e Amazing art and great food – what more do you want? Surprisingly, Georges at the Centre Pompidou is still one of the capital’s hot tables some years after opening, helped in part by great views over the city as much as its world cuisine and funky décor. Georges Centre Pompidou, Level 6, place Pompidou, 4e

Think a bouillon is just a soup? Think again, it’s also the word for the classic workers’ soup kitchen and, thankfully, Chartier keeps the traditional alive. A protected interior, magniﬁcently gruff service and astonishingly cheap meals – three courses and a bottle of house red for under €20! Long may the tradition last! Chartier 7 rue de Fauborg-Montmartre, 9e If you follow Chef Gagnaire’s shopping advice (see box out) then you’ll be drawn to the Iena street market. If you’re a fan of Princess Diana then you’ll be drawn to the Pont d’Alma and her memorial. Either way, stop for lunch at this informal and (for the area) reasonable seafood place, next door to the more upscale Marius et Janette. On a sunny day, it feels like the south of France, despite glimpses of the Eiffel Tower through the trees! Le Petit Marius 6 avenue George V, 8e Somewhat overshadowed in many people’s minds for far too long by the classic and iconic Café des Deux Magots opposite, this traditional brasserie is once more delivering again on its promise of great food, served quickly and impeccably. Just watching the waiters at work is a pleasure and the food is reliable and comforting. Brasserie Lipp 151 boulevard Saint-Germain, 6e

This place you’ll either love or hate – eat familystyle on communal tables on cheap classic fare, serving yourself from the stove and picking wine from the racks around the small space. A big hit with a number of leading US food critics. La Cave de l’Os a Moellee 181 rue de Lormel, 15e Finally, a real find, so please leave a seat for me! A tiny fishmonger close to the Saint Honore market but right at the back, past the stunningly fresh displays, are half a dozen seats and a seagull soundtrack. Tiny menu, amazing food, fascinating ambience. The fishmongers are happy to chat but they’re usually run off their feet by hordes of hungry shoppers. Great for a light lunch and the Jardin des Tuileries are a couple of minutes away for a lazy afternoon. L’Ecume Saint Honore 6 rue du Marche Saint Honore, 1e And, for the times when you really don’t know what to eat, there are astonishingly wide ranges of outlets in the Marais (old part of the city, now hip and funky), Bastille (cheaper and cheerful), around the Sorbonne (think hungry students, if your budget is tight) and around Trocadero (food less interesting than Eiffel Tower views!).

Travel by amazing produce in the markets and shops, but unable to cook any of it! Pate or cheese on a baguette in your hotel room just doesn’t satisfy your inner chef. The answer is simple: take the plunge and, for your next trip, rent a self-catering apartment (www.parisattitude.com, for example). Prices are very reasonable compared to hotels, many are well-equipped and all of them give you that unmissable feeling – if only for a week! – of being a Parisian. They’re easy to ﬁnd on the Net and many of the ﬁrms or landlords speak English. The only tricky moment is ensuring you can properly schedule key collection – my last apartment saw me and the landlord both arriving early, but the one before had me worried in the street for the best part of an hour before I thought to ask in the local café and discovered the landlord at the bar, oblivious to time! Pick an apartment near a market and holiday heaven is within your grasp. Sightseeing in the morning, lunch in a restaurant, afternoon food shopping and evening cooking – what more do you want out of a holiday? There are markets all over Paris, of course, but these are I think the best: the the rues de l’Annonciation, Daguerre, Lepic, des Martyrs, Lévis, Montorgueil, Mouffetard and Poncelet, for example. Although you will be delighted at the range in most supermarkets, you’ll also certainly want to check out the high end: Fauchon (26 place de la Madeleine, 8e) is over the top but wonderful, Lafayette Gourmet (40 boulevard Haussmann, 9e) is an essential stop and Lenotre (16 boulevard de Courcelles, 8e) is a compete source of inspiration. There are too many specialist food shops to mention, but stick with the French style and shop with precision at the experts: fromageries for cheese, patisseries for cakes and so on. And if you want to cheat, don’t forget the traiteurs for lots

THE TOP CHEF’S TOP TIP

“I eat at Clos des Gourmets two or three times a week when I’m in Paris. They only use seasonal ingredients and always add a touch of wackiness to very classic dishes. I suppose it’s new classic French cuisine. Unbelievable.” Michel Roux Sr.

of ready-prepared treats. And where better than Paris, home of Cordon Bleu, for some cookery lessons? Inspired by Meryl Streep’s ﬁlm, ‘Julia and Julie’, you can take private or group lessons, one-offs or short courses all over Paris, often combining cooking with wine courses. Again, too many to list but search at www.parisinfo.com for ‘gastronomy courses’. A rite of passage for many enthusiastic cooks is braving the ferociously rude assistants at Paris’ oldest kitchen equipment shop, Dehillerin (1e). Truth is, they’re focused on professional chefs who know just what they want and you, as an apparent tourist, are an unwanted distraction, especially if you can’t speak French! Get past that

because you will not believe the range and quality available – everything (yes, everything) from your dreams is here. Want a specialised knife for slicing whole salmon? No problem. Apart from the professional quality of the products, the good news is that the staff will look after you, if you can win over the attitude. Tip: check a product’s reference number on the price list posted at the end of the aisle rather than asking an assistant and getting a stream of French sarcasm… But nothing beats an insider’s view of the city. A number of companies now offer guided gourmet visits and tours, though to my taste they’re a bit pricey – try www.succulent-paris.com or www.qrius.com for a start. More interesting, perhaps, is the Paris Greeter service (www.parisgreeter.org) which puts you in touch with volunteers who’ll show you around the Parisian’s city. In French or English, you can specify interests and a trip round some of the food markets could be a great way to orientate yourself to shopping, French-style. Finally, as a capital city for food lovers, there’s nearly always a special event happening somewhere – the start of October has an annual wine fair, with massive bargains city-wide, for example. On my most recent trip, a group of 20 farmers and manufacturers from the South-West set up stands in the road outside my hotel, offering tastings of cheese, breads, saucissons and wine from 9am to 9pm. Nothing starts a day off like a dozen oysters a glass of white wine before a morning of culture in a museum! I hope my whistlestop tour of Paris has given you some ideas. It’s a city that both constantly changes and stays the same – every visit for me sees a reconnection with old favourites like the tiny market on steep rue Mouffetard (5e) and every visit brings fresh discoveries like the dilapidated wine bar Le Baron Rouge (1 rue Theophile Roussel, 12e), with 100 great glasses on offer whilst Parisians ﬁll large plastic containers from giant barrels of cheap red wine.

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The last word

Object of desire A menu that works is one of a restaurant’s best weapons. But how do you design a good one? We look at some general tips and then, using a menu from to New York French bistro Balthazar, we show the secrets to success.

any restaurants don’t give much attention to their menus, which is a real mixed opportunity. Most are based on cookie cutter designs, without any thought put into maximising orders and helping highmargin items to look more appealing. Strangely, this is a world where big chains spend a lot of time and money researching what works they want your mouth to water and your wallet to open! To first thing to realise is that menu design is more about the look and feel - crucially, it’s using science and research in your favour. For most people, for example, their eyes naturally fall halfway down a page - the hot spot. Maximise your profits by putting high margin items and signature dishes here - these are the ones that make you most money and the ones that will get customers returning. Interestingly, here one hot spot is focused on high price and one on customer retention. Traditionally, most menus are designed with a hierachy that reflects the way that a meal is served - starters, mains, sides, desserts - but even here designers can use tricks in order to maximise sales. Research shows that people look most often at the first and last menu items in a section, so prioritise high profit dishes here. One area that needs careful attention is the wording of your menu. There’s a fine line to be drawn between menu writing that makes dishes sound appealing and completely over the top descriptions that put off many diners. So, by all means describe a fish as coming from Omani waters but resist the temptation to say it was lifted at dawn as the sun kissed the white-

capped waves. That said, let’s look at a traditional menu that works - the dinner menu from French bistro Balthazar in New York City. It looks solid and standard, but numerous tricks have been used to make it really pop. Before diners’ eyes fall on the hot spots, they first gravitate to the top right so Balthazar places a desirable, hot ticket item there - an expensive pile of seafood. However, it steps back from using photography because of the connotations with lower-rent outlets and instead opts for a line drawing that suggests the dish and, by extension, creates a bistro resonation. Note too that placing the most expensive dish on the menu here makes other dishes nearby look like real bargains - such as the smaller platter. What size is it? The menu designer doesn’t tell you but at $70 as opposed to $115, it must be a bargain, right? And, by placing high-profit items like other fish dishes near the hot ticket item, they also look more reasonably priced. One problem area for restaurants is that many diners will just run down a column of dishes and choose the cheapest, so don’t make a big deal of prices. By listing the price as 85 rather than Dhs 85.00 you’re making the diner focus more on the menu item, which is where you want them. The fancier the box, the more you will shift high-profit items like a cheeseboard. Use a simpler box for daily specials - traditionally, these are low-margin items that regular customers like. And look also at how they play with portion sizes in the hors d’hoevres section - if you don’t specify the actual size, chances are diners will trade up.

“LET’S LOOK AT A TRADITIONAL MENU THAT WORKS - IT LOOKS SOLID AND STANDARD, BUT NUMEROUS TRICKS HAVE BEEN USED TO MAKE IT REALLY POP.“ 64

The perfect recipe for success from our chefs

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