The Pro Chef, Issue 07 by The Pro Chef Middle East

MIDDLE EAST ISSUE 07 SEPTEMBER 2012

GO CERAMIC!

What’s new on the tabletop

GO ORGANIC!

From sand to soil to salads

GO DYNAMIC!

San Francisco’s food scene

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ISSUE 7 SEPTEMBER 2012

EDITORIAL Save us from the perils and boredom of all day dining!

FROM THE WALK-IN Details of some recent studies - food service chains to grow even more, Chinese food is world class and the dangers of popcorn.

THE EGGS FACTOR What’s in the fridge of Chef Kasim Senturk, the culinary director of Rixos The Palm Dubai? Expect some Turkish delights, of course.

SOURCING Greenheart Organic Farms are now delivering in quantity. We learn the background.

ON THE TABLE What’s new on the tabletop? We talk to local manufacturers and suppliers oif tableware on trends in the local market

COUNTRY FOCUS Prime produce, organic focus - time to take a good look at Austria and its exports.

TOQUE TO ME French master chef Paul Bocuse under the spotlight as we assess his inﬂuence on a country’s cuisine.

PIMP MY PLATE This month’s challenge for Gaucho’s Head Chef Jamie Robertson was to bring a South American twist to the Vietnamese classic beef and noodle soup, Pho.

ON THE PASSE As part of the ongoing reinvigoration of the culinary outlets of Rafﬂes Dubai, we see what Chef de Cuisine Jan Scheu is up to at Fire & Ice.

FACE TO FACE Chef Gabi Kurz talks wellbeing and healthy alternative whilst Chef Luis Salgueiro beats the drum for authentic Portuguese cuisine.

BOOK SHELF The late lamented Gourmet is back! But this time as an app. What is going on?

TRAVEL The city by the Bay - San Francisco - is a food-lover’s paradise, full of quality ingredients, innovative chefs and a fascinating mix of cuisines and cultures. Plus a photo feature on food from Puerto Rico!

THE LAST WORD It’s so crazy it’s a wonder that nobody thought of it before - the Anti-Griddle freezes on contact. Just think of the possibilities.

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From the walk-in

Popcorn? what’s that? Popcorn has been touted as a healthy snack, complete with antioxidant powers, but now it’s being labelled as a potential health hazard.

he artificial butter flavour that makes cinema-bought popcorn seem almost irresistible has been linked to Alzheimer’s in a new report. The problem is the use of diacetyl, which is the chemical compound used to make the butter flavour and smell - it is claimed to be a contributing factor to the progression of Alzeimer’s disease, according to the the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology. However, the effects have only been seen so far in test tube studfes rathe than full clinical trials. Some health writers are already asking this very simple question: whoever thought that an agent to add flavour that you could smell a hundred yards away and which production workers in chemical plants need full-protection suits to deal with was a good idea for a food additive? Popcorn remains a healthy and low calorie snack when popped and eaten dry - however, it’s the artificial butter that’s the problem.

From take-out to takeover? At the recent World Conference of Food Science and Technology held in Brazil, one of the major competitions in the food industry, a Chinese product - Baixiang Pork-bone Instant Noodles - won the top global award.

aixiang Pork-bone Instant Noodles is an innovative product with self-developed natural bone soup from the Baixiang Food Group. Its success is claimed to derive from taking the very Eastern food concept of boen soup as a nutritional product to a wider, global market. By making soup with bones and then using this stock as the base for reheating the instant noodles, it has changed the ground rules for the instant noodle market. As the largest brand in China’s instant noodle industry, Baixiang Pork-bone Instant Noodles won praise from over 70 international experts from the review committee, who thought that the nutrition

innovation concept in the noodles was expected to be the new direction for the development of instant noodles, especially as Chine4se product technology and process have reached an advanced international level. It has also been marketed as part of the traditional health culture in the East, satisfying customer demands for health and nutrition. By wider implication, the product demonstrates the continued rapid advance of Chinese food product technical innovation. China’s focus on an initiative can bring major results. Food technicians in China are developing the concepts behind the bone noodles to modernise the entire instant noodle industry in China.

BY USING STOCK AS THE BASE FOR REHEATING THE INSTANT NOODLES, IT HAS CHANGED THE GROUND RULES FOR THE INSTANT NOODLE MARKET. 4

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From the walk-in

Chains increase Gulf focus New research from Euromonitor International shows 2012 food service sales in the GCC topped $20b, with chains taking a larger proportion of the total.

large number of experienced and well funded local operators are looking for the right concept from anywhere in the world, based on potential of serving the highly diverse communities of the region. With 30% of GCC residents under the age of 14, they’re looking a major potential growth of the years to come - this figure is, for example, twice that of China or Russia. Population growth is also extraordinary, based largely on the use of expat labour and expertise - the population of the UAE, for instance, has doubled in the last six years. Add to that the growing number of tourists - 9.7m into the UAE last year alone - and you have a market with real potential for any number of new food service concepts. Of course, the combination of extreme summer temperatures and high disposal incomes means that much expat spare time is spent in malls, which are blossoming with food outlets. These are also a natural destination for many business meetings and social gatherings which, in other parts of the world, might well take place in bars. Since these are limited to hotels, food service investors see the major opportunity presented by alternatives to bars: cafes, specialist coffee shops, fast food outlets and, finally, full-service restaurants. The regional drive for chain restaurants to be more about socialising than grab-and-go again reinforces the investment opportunities, based on growth expectations across local markets of an average 6% per annum over the next five years. However, opportunity needs to be tempered by caution. With virtually every food service chain across the globe now looking closely at the region, operators are spolit for choice. And, given that large operations such as the Majid Al-Futtaim Group have a wide spread of capabilities, even small brands can enter the market and expand quickly, as we’ve seen with Paul from France or Burger Fuel from New Zealand. It’s no longer essential to enter the local market with a widely recognised brand; instead, the customer experience’ is more important. Look, for example, at the instant success of Canadian brand Tim Hortons which is building quickly on the real enthusiasm of Candian expats and has plans to open 120 outlets across the region.

THE REGIONAL DRIVE FOR CHAIN RESTAURANTS TO BE MORE ABOUT SOCIALISING THAN GRAB-AND-GO AGAIN REINFORCES THE INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES, WITH GROWTH EXPECTATIONS IN LOCAL MARKETS OF AN AVERAGE 6% PER ANNUM OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. 6

A taste of Turkey When chefs leave the kitchen at the end of service, whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s waiting for them in the fridge at home? Culunary secrets, cherished food memories, half-eaten takeaways? This issue Chef Kasim Senturk, the culinary director of Rixos The Palm Dubai, dares to open the door and look through the shelves at whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inside. 8

The eggs factor

hef Kasim has been active in the Rixos Group for a decade, such as the grand 770 room Rixos Premium Belek’s eight a la carte restaurants combining 38 private villas, three prime residences hosting league dignitaries from Presidents to Ministers of various countries and high proﬁle guests. Under the direction of this self-confessed perfectionist, the prestigious Rixos Culture Art & Gastronomy Festival was successfully implemented to reﬂect Turkish gastronomy and rich culture together with introducing regional tastes and traditions. Now he is the culinary director of Rixos The Palm Dubai, planning and opening several new F&B outlets for the new hotel. He’s also won a number of awards, such as the International Grand Prix/Best Chef Award in 2004 and the Best Chef of the Year/Tourism and Hospitality Awards in 2007. He was born in Samsun, a city in the north of Turkey. He believes that “cooking is not just a job, it’s a way of life” and is passionate about Turkish food and ingredients, so it’s not surprising that his fridge is heavily weighted towards Turkish produce. “Rixos The Palm Dubai does have the vast majority of my specially selected items from Turkey. Fortunately, the rest of these Turkish foods can be found locally, as well as in many other parts of the world.”

Sucuk before drying

Preserved sucuk

Olive oil - There’s half a bottle in the fridge. It’s always available in my house and kind of a must. Turkish traditional white cheese - I have this at all times because I have had this taste since I was a child and it seems imperative to my being at this point. Variations of it that are commonly found in my fridge include tulum cheese, kasar cheese, cerkez cheese. Van Otlu cheese - This is one of the unique cheeses of Turkey. It is produced in Van and its surrounding areas. It is made by mixing the cheese with local herbs. Except for the added herbs, texture, ingredients and the way it is consumed, it resembles white cheese. Simit - Similar to a sesame bagel, there are three piece of this in the fridge at present. In Turkey, this is a very popular snack and most people who go to work every morning will grab a simit on the way to work and eat it with hot tea for breakfast.

Yufka ready for a quick snack Pastrami - A kind of Turkish cured meat coated in spicy paste. Turkish pastrami is a staple in my fridge simply due to the fact that my mother used it consistently for many different types of dishes. Sucuk - A seasoned smoked sausage that I love to eat for breakfast. Yufka - A thin, ﬂat dough that can always be found in my fridge as well. It’s a rather useful item to concoct quick snacks out of when friends are over or when I am famished.

Helva - A type of sweet made from tahini (sesame paste) and sugar with pistachio or cacao ﬂavour. Grape molasses - A thick and sweet grape syrup that I love to mix with tahini. It’s a favourite of mine with hot bread. Pomegranate molasses - This looks like Balsamic vinegar, but it is made from the pomegranate. Decidedly more sour and sweeter than Balsamic, I use this to make my dressings for salads. Red chilli ﬂakes/powder, thyme, black pepper, fennel seed, ginger powder, dry basil, rosemary.

“RIXOS THE PALM DUBAI DOES HAVE THE VAST MAJORITY OF MY SPECIALLY SELECTED ITEMS FROM TURKEY. FORTUNATELY, THE REST OF THESE TURKISH FOODS CAN BE FOUND LOCALLY, AS WELL AS IN MANY OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.” 9

Sourcing

The heart of the issue Raised in Bavaria, longterm Dubai resident Elena Kinane grew frustrated at the difﬁculty of sourcing good quality vegetables when her daughter was born and turned instead to farming. Her second venture, Greenheart Organic Farms, recently gained a major contract with N_K_D Pizza. In the ﬁrst in a series on local producers, we discuss the issues surrounding organic farming in the UAE.

ndy Campbell is the former Head Chef of a number of leading restaurants in London who, for almost a year, has been a Chef for Hire in Dubai, catering and demonstrating. He is passionate about local sourcing and quality produce. Elena Kinane is a mother of two who, almost by accident, has become a farmer growing organic produce. After an initial partnership with an Emirati at Nazwa Organic Farm, she now manages four farms under the name Greenheart Organic Farms, has signed a major deal with N_K_D Pizza and is set to open up a retail arm this autumn. She is passionate about health and eco-friendly, sustainable living. Colin De Bruin is Director of Operations for N_K_D Pizza in the UAE, a recent entrant to the home delivery sector. From its inception in the United States, N_K_D Pizza has distanced itself from competitors through a healthy approach to its products, eschewing white flour for example. He is passionate about the opportunities that local organic food offers. The Pro Chef Middle East gathered the three of them together to talk about the challenges of sourcing good local organic produce, customer demand and the opportunities ahead. Elena, tell us how you started with this venture. Kinane: It all started with my family, with the basic need of wanting to be able to feed them fresh, organic food. and then it grew to providing food to friends and, today, I’m busy on the farms from 5am every day! I moved to Dubai over 15 years ago - I think people today would find it hard to believe what the city was like back then. There were no fancy restaurants. There was no healthy food. Everything was imported and produce was just so poor. It was dreadful. Campbell: Of course, you don’t have to be in Dubai for produce to be bad. As a chef back in the UK, we used to struggle to get quality produce 20 or 30 years ago. It wasn’t until we started to talk to farmers, discuss issues the trade and make demands that things changed and the market got to where it is today. I believe that the same thing can happen here. Kinane: When my first child was born, I was desperate to find the kind of fresh, healthy food that I had enjoyed as a child and so I started to

Colin De Bruin, Elena Kinane and Andy Campbell talk to farmers and other people to ﬁnd out what the problems are. It’s surprising - everybody thinks that the issue is the extreme temperature for three months of the year but more important is that there is no real soil. Because there’s no history of composting and using manure, farmers have had to resort to chemicals to get good crops. Of course, you can always grow vegetables with loads of chemicals, but the quality of the produce and any idea of sustainability just aren’t there. So how do you get good soil? You can hardly import ten of thousands of tons of it. Kinane: You make it! Look, what is soil? It’s just a combination of minerals, silt, clay and organic matter. The last we can add to the soil easily via composted vegetables and certain plant leftovers mixed with selected animal droppings. But people don’t compost and everything goes into landﬁll. What we need is a change of mindset that diverts human food waste and some horticultural waste into compost which we then use to enrich the soil

and so on. But it takes time. Campbell: You can also grow crops like alfalfa which then get folded back into the land to help improve the soil. Kinane: To give you an idea, with Greenheart Organic Farms, it took us six months of folding in manure and letting the soil improve before we could start growing. De Bruin: Everything helps, I think. Now we’re on-board with Greenheart, we’ve changed our internal kitchen processes and now all our food waste is recycled for composting. We’ll get to the relationship between N_K_D Pizza and Greenheart in a moment but, ﬁrst, can we just return to the soil? Kinane: Okay, so once you start the process beginning with sweet sand - that is, farmland that hasn’t had chemicals used on it, you start the improvement process by adding compost and manure which starts to make a good growing medium. Then every growing cycle adds to and

Sourcing

“WHEN MY FIRST CHILD WAS BORN, I WAS DESPERATE TO FIND THE KIND OF FRESH, HEALTHY FOOD THAT I HAD ENJOYED AS A CHILD AND SO I STARTED TO TALK TO FARMERS AND OTHER PEOPLE TO FIND OUT WHAT THE PROBLEMS ARE.” - Elena Kinane, MD, Greenheart Organic Farms

Sourcing

improves the soil making it more and more rich in nutrients, but you can’t change things overnight. It takes time. Another issue I imagine is water supply? Kinane: Of course. We look very carefully at the difference between what we could grow and what it makes sense for us to grow. For example, mangoes require a lot of water so we’re not growing them. Equally, there’s a good demand for parsnips but they need four months in the ground and that is not economic for us. So we’re taking decisions based on sustainability and that’s unusual here because most farmers are calculating their businesses on the cost of output per sq.m. Campbell: Unfortunately, people don’t seem to want to do things properly. As a chef, I hate to see waste when things could be done better. Look at the farms in Abu Dhabi that were devoted to a grape initiative. As you know from wine, grapes get their taste and character from the soil they grow in - if that soil is purely chemical-fed, how are the grapes going to have any taste? Do you see a possibility of change? Kinane: As Andy says, people aren’t willing to do things properly and invest for the future. I’ve spent the last two years collecting our own seeds so as to create a local heirloom seedbank - these are all varieties that have been acclimatised, are resilient, use less water and deliver more ﬂavour. It’s all a lifestyle choice. Campbell: I think it’s about taking a longterm view and being willing to pass on knowledge. I’m talking to a lot of local farmers trying to get them

to understand that could be making more money by devoting their energies into more specialist products that chefs are crying out for. But until you talk to them, they don’t know and don’t realise that they could make more money from micro herbs rather than courgettes, mushrooms rather than peppers. Kinane: The good news for us is that the deal with N_K_D Pizza gives us some security for the future. We’re doing this properly - as you know, there’s organic and then there’s ‘organic’. Consumers get confused and I think part of what we need to do is educate. We also, on both sides of the supply equation, need to adaptable - by the very nature of organic farming in this part of the world, there can be no solid guarantees about the availability of particular products on speciﬁc dates so chefs or partners like N_K_D Pizza need to be ﬂexibie in their expectations. Campbell: As a chef, that’s never a problem. We like to be creative! De Bruin: It’s the same with us. If, for example, we can’t get one vegetable topping this week, then it gives us a chance to play with our menu. Let’s talk about how N_K_D Pizza came on board with Greenheart. De Bruin: We recently got into a relationship with Greenheart so we can offer local organic salads to our customers, based on the variety of produce available. Since our company was founded back in the US, it has tried to be part of a global solution based on different food values. Okay, we supply pizzas, but we use an ancestral blend of grains and seeds to create our dough that’s based on

things like tapioca, spelt and barley instead of white flour. It’s probiotic and we’ve tried to stay away from processed ingredients. So why weren’t you sourcing organic produce from the start of the set-up here in the region? De Bruin: A good question and the simple answer is that it just hasn’t been available here at the right level of quality or in assured quantities. We’re expecting within a year or so to have 15 outlets across the UAE - with an operation of that size you have to be able to guarantee consistency, so supply has been an issue up till now. People talk about the higher prices of organic food, but for us it’s been much more about the consistency than the price. Campbell: Remember, a lot of farmers work on very low margins because they’re growing what are effectively commodity items - how much can they make on a lettuce, for example? But taking the example of what happened in the UK, once chefs and other customers start demanding better quality produce, then they’ll see the advantages of delivering higher ticket produce. It’s not always about heart and soul - sometimes it’s down to cash! But it’s people who care about quality, like N_K_D Pizza, who will start to turn the local market around. But, as Colin says, it’s all about consistency and the proper grading of produce. We’re seeing a lot of consumer interest at present in ‘organic’ or locally grown produce, when they are shopping for their families. However, that’s not necessarily translating into increased demand in restaurants. Your thoughts on that? De Bruin: I think it comes down to price for a lot of people. However, we’ve found that, from a cost perspective, there’s no need for us to increase prices. Even if we have to at some stage, I think the better flavour of food makes it worth it. Of course, we’re still at the start of this initiative. How does it work across your outlets? De Bruin: We currently have five outlets served by a central commissary. Pizza bases and basic prep is done centrally and then delivered out daily, with logistics handled by Chef Middle East. For us, a new menu isn’t that easy because we don’t have the benefit of trained chefs in each outlet, instead everyone has to follow a recipe. The feedback from customers so far has been very encouraging, but we won’t be stressing this in our marketing. It’s just part of our approach to good nutrition. Campbell: What I think is great is this concept of going from soil to fork in one day! What next? Kinane: We’re discussing setting up a joint garden so that N_K_D Pizza can grow its own produce. De Bruin: For the moment, it’s about keeping up with growth. We have designed two new pizzas using the Greenheart produce as well. And we have to get the forecasting right. Campbell: Everything is evolving. I think it’s great. From my side, I’m developing a recipe a week depending on what is available in the retail veg boxes from Greenheart.

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On the table

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anvas c e s a b e h t Serving as ra visual u v a r b â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s f e for a ch he right t , e c n a m r perfo ke all a m n a c e r tablewa to the e c n e r e f if the d re the a t a h W . h ďŹ nal dis market? is h t r o f s r drive trends? y e k e h t e r What a uppliers s e h t e r a t Wha k some s a e W ? g plannin players in g in d a le e h of t rket. a m l a c lo e th

On the table

ow often, typically, would you expect a fine dining restaurant to refresh or replace its tableware? Prakash Menon: This would depend upon the management of the hotel chain or the owners of freestanding restaurants. One would expect the operating equipment - basically items like chinaware, cutlery, glassware, table linen and so on - to be changed after three to four years. Normally, the operator or owner will consider that period as the ROI. Having said the above, however, a restaurant which has a very good turnover and is doing good business, due to the quality of food served, the location, Michelin chef, etc would consider making some cosmetic changes to the table top - like adding on a few accent pieces of chinaware, possibly introducing some new shapes of chinaware for their signature dishes, adding or replacing their show plates which then gives a new look to the guest. Lloyd Lamprecht: I would personally love it to be more often but I would say after about three ir four years it would be good for some change. But it is probably more like five to six years - tableware is usually the last thing to receive attention. However we often have new pieces in existing ranges that makes it possible to have a few changes in service without the investment of changing the entire setup. In a region that is drastically evolving with its F&B offerings it is becoming important not to fall behind the curve as a trendy hot spot can be a forgotten hero the next and with a few small improvements on regular basis it could make a big difference. Vaughan Sears: There are a few factors that will influence this decision. Most restaurants top up products due to breakage and so on and this will generally allow a restaurant to keep chinaware they have in service for around five years or more. In some cases, they will look for signs of age before they look to replace product as owners are often reluctant to agree to new product unless it is essential - however for fine dining there is generally more frequent change as the concept is changed or renovated. Renu Oommen: A fine dining restaurant contrary to regular restaurants is extremely careful on its selection of tableware quality and appearance. Most would consider replacing the tableware on a yearly basis to keep the interest and innovation in presentation to their valued regular patrons. The change could be in terms of designs or shapes that can present food in its various colour, textures and taste. However, periodically they will replace any pieces which get damaged or broken during operations.

“PRACTICALITY IS ALSO VERY MUCH CONSIDERED WHEN SELECTING NEW OR ADDITIONAL CHINAWARE. THEY HAVE TO BE ‘CHEF FRIENDLY’ - THAT IS, THE CHEFS HAVE ENOUGH SPACE TO PRESENT THEIR FOOD ON THE PLATE. I BELIEVE THAT FOOD LOOKS BEST ON A PLAIN WHITE SURFACE.” - Prakash Menon, Managing Director, Blue Ribbon Are demands for different types of tableware changing? For example, plainer, more decorated, more unusual shapes, etc. Menon: I would say that in the last ﬁve years or so, chefs and F&B professionals have become very selective. In ﬁne dining restaurants, clean looking, white chinaware is still in demand. Individualism is brought in with different forms and also more unusual but elegant designs. Practicality is also

very much considered when selecting either new or additional chinaware. They have to be ‘chef friendly’ - that is, the chefs have enough space to present their food on the plate. I believe that food looks best on a plain white surface - the colour and decoration of food by the chef stands out best on white china. At the same time a lot of our clients like a ‘clean and sleek’ look with the possibility of easy storage and stacking, keeping

TALKING HEADS - OUR INVITED PANEL OF LEADING INDUSTRY PLAYERS CONSISTS OF:

PRAKASH MENON Managing Director, Blue Ribbon

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RENU OOMMEN CMO, RAK Porcelain

On the table

in mind that the entire tabletop setup is a perfect match to create a perfect ambience for dining. Lamprecht: There has recently been a demand for bone china products - our core competence, so I would say this would deﬁne the type of porcelain in demand, then of course on the higher end, custom made designs are somewhat of a standard these days. By customise, we refer to the pattern or design applied on the body of porcelain, so a design that mirrors a certain theme or unique design concept on the porcelain in order to have a synergy between the interior and the table top. This in my opinion is not only a trend on the tabletop but it is becoming more relevant across all products and industries. As always new shapes and different decoration techniques come and go with time but these days I believe less is more when it comes to ﬁne dining. Sears: Yes there is. Clients are now starting to look for that unique shape or pattern that can set their presentation apart from other restaurants or a dish that can allow them to showcase a unique item on the menu. As part of the overall Steelite collection, we have launched Crucial Detail unique small pieces that help to inspire the chef. People are also looking for bespoke items, which could be cutlery, glassware and chinaware to have the logo of the hotel or restaurant. Oommen: In general, most chefs prefer exhibiting their presentations on our regular ivory coloured tableware as more prominence is provided for food presentations. But hotels can prefer to have branding but in the case of large hotels with many restaurants, they try to place elements that are part of the restaurant themes offering some differentiation of tableware. For example, an Arabic restaurant can feature gold designs or a pool side having blue rims. Our designers, based in France and Germany, have always been the

“CLIENTS ARE NOW STARTING TO LOOK FOR THAT UNIQUE SHAPE OR PATTERN THAT CAN SET THEIR PRESENTATION APART FROM OTHER RESTAURANTS.” - Vaughan Sears, Sales & Distribution Manager, Ronai industry leading tableware designers to provide customers with the best choice of exciting shapes and colours. What about demand for decorated plates? Menon: Besides the traditional round dinner plate, a lot of new shapes have been introduced like rectangles, ovals, etc. In the Middle East, decorated chinaware is very popular due to a lot of themed restaurants and concepts. But over the years the heavy decoration and the use of logos have decreased to a great extent. Designs now are more sleek and not over the top for standard restaurants, but when it comes to VVIP banquet

setups and hotels which do a lot of weddings, designs in even gold and platinum are also used. We at Blue Ribbon have expertise on decorated chinaware and 95% of the time we can create a special design for every outlet - the same is never repeated. We create full mood boards with various suggestions to our clients after having discussed with the chefs, F&B managers and in some cases even the designers. This helps clients to have a very good idea as to how the table top will look like. Finally, there is lot of chinaware used in a buffet setup. Most often they are plain white but in different shapes and sizes and also some coloured china. In the opening of a new restaurant, how early in the planning process would you expect suitable tableware to be discussed? Menon: Normally in this part of the world the planning process starts about six to nine months in advance. Once the F&B team and the chef are on board, the process starts. What is important is to have the restaurant concepts in place well in advance, which helps suppliers to give their best options in time. It is critical for us to understand what is on the menu and the kind of cuisine for suppliers to suggest the right product line, design and items. Lamprecht: This is a really contentious point. As a manufacturer, we would like to have more time in order to make the most of the selection process and really show our capabilities and services as industry experts. I feel sometimes the buyers see it the other way around where less time spent means less cost and hassle. We have to keep in mind that most goods are imported on demand or specially produced and customised so we always have to consider a certain time frame for production and delivery that the buyers do not always understand. I would suggest at least a six month turnaround from start to delivery would be a happy minimum. However, most projects are done in less than three to four months from start to ﬁnish, always leading to some compromises on selections, design and delivery. Either way Villeroy & Boch is willing to make the best of any opportunity and to do so we have introduced triple AAA programme (Always Available Articles) that guarantees delivery of our best sellers, we also have a strong network of distributors and partners across the region that keep stock and support any urgent or delayed openings. Sears: What we have noticed is that in numerous cases tabletop is left too late in the process which means there is no budget left for chinaware or time for custom decoration work to be done. It would be ideal if the selection of tabletop items were included with the interior ﬁt out to create synergy between the décor and the table top. If the concept will require decorated chinaware and they are looking to have non-standard items then we should be considered during the design phase because chinaware patterns and colours can be in harmony and allow us enough time to have sampling and production in time for opening. We often are not left with this luxury and then customers are forced to go for standard product

On the table

“THE KEY FOR US IS FROM THE ONSET OF A NEW DESIGN TO CONSIDER EVEN WITH THE ULTRA MODERN SHAPES THAT A TIMELESS DESIGN WOULD SERVE OUR INDUSTRY MUCH BETTER THAN A FLY BY NIGHT FASHION STATEMENT.” - Lloyd Lamprecht, Key Account Manager ME, Villeroy & Boch

or plain white due to time constraints or budget restrictions if things are not considered early enough in the process. Oommen: Nowadays hotels have the concepts of outlets ready even before the restaurants are built. So usually discussions start up to six months before the opening of the restaurant when custom design has to be done. But usually it is all ﬁnalised just 60 days before opening the outlets. This is to ensure timely supply. To make it convenient for all emergency requirements, RAK Porcelain always maintains ex-stock of its essential collection like Banquet and Classic to tide sudden spurts in demand or important occasions. Does tableware ‘date’? How important is the drive for this season’s products? Menon: Yes, chinaware does have its trends. But unlike fashion, for example, it does not really change every season. Lamprecht: Unfortunately, yes. Manufacturers these days have to consider a certain life time especially when it comes to unique shapes and designs. In today’s life, things move quicker than ever before so it is vital to be adaptable, in our case we have done so by separating the standard

and traditional series from the ‘fashion’ items, this allowing longevity and availability for our core series, some of which have been available for more than 15 years from our Presentation catalogue. At the same time we are starting new trends and leading the industry with unique shapes, designs and concepts as part of our Style catalogue. The key for us is from the onset of a new design is to to consider even with the ultra modern shapes that a timeless design would serve our industry much better than a ﬂy by night fashion statement. If we look at our award winning Newwave range as an example. When it arrived, it revolutionised the porcelain industry at the turn of the century. Today it’s an asymmetric design that has not dated and is one of the most recognisable shapes ever designed and continues to be a best seller. Sears: Coloured or decorated chinaware can date faster than white chinaware, however cutlery and glassware are less affected. Tabletop products for the hospitality are less seasonal than consumer products, however outlets are always looking for new products that help to set them apart from their competitors. We have some customers who come back after ﬁve or ten years to reorder a

pattern or decoration as they love the quality and durability of Steelite and want to top up. Oommen: It’s done to customer preference. However, we do believe that the demand for the classical shapes and series is highly stable and most decision makers give preference to that. Nonetheless, RAK Porcelain is always on the look for new designs and shapes especially with the creative touch of leading designers. What new technical developments are there? What more can we expect over the next couple of years? For example, chip proof, etc. Menon: There is a continuous developments in the chinaware industry. Chinaware today is much stronger and resistant to chipping compared to what was available couple of years ago. For example, Figgjo chinaware from Norway, which Blue Ribbon represents, gives a warranty for ﬁve years against rim damage for all ﬂat round plates. Lamprecht: These are highly guarded trade secrets and we are preparing to surprise the industry as we speak... However we are not trying to reinvent the wheel here, our goal is to provide a durable, high quality premium porcelain product that would allow industry professionals a pallete

On the table

to creatively enhance what they do best and that is to entertain, satisfy, nourish all who come to the their tables. Chipping, glaze guarantee, life time warranty, unbreakable porcelain etc are all common marketing tools and the basis for comparison between brands but it is not really developments, the industry is driven more by food trends and concepts so as chefs and artists of our industry evolve so will we. Sears: Steelite over the last few years has moved from a five year edge chip warranty to a lifetime chip warranty - this shows you just how confident we are in the durability of our product. There has been over the last few years been a lot of interest in different finishes and colours for cutlery and glasses. We also have a new range from Symbol called Pyro which consists of bakeware dishes with handles and swuth eparate lids that can be used for plates, liners, single portion dishes and sharing dishes. Oommen: RAK Porcelain is technically the most advanced porcelain factory as it is equipped with the latest technologies and machineries to offer a world class product to customers. Sophisticated production modes ensure that products meet and exceed all the stringent quality specifications worldwide. RAK Porcelain also offers customers a quality assurance and edge chip warranty of five years for ranges like Banquet, Ska and Pixel. In addition to that, all our products are scratch resistant and abrasion proof as well as certified to be lead and cadmium free as required by the US FDA California proposition 65 standards. Is cost a major driver in this market? Menon: Cost has always been a major factor immaterial of the market. Unfortunately in the Middle East hospitality industry, OS&E are always looked at the last minute and with any budget that is left. A lot of money may be spent on

“WE DO BELIEVE THAT THE DEMAND FOR THE CLASSICAL SHAPES AND SERIES IS HIGHLY STABLE AND MOST DECISION MAKERS GIVE PREFERENCE TO THAT.” - Renu Oommen, Chief Marketing Officer, RAK Porcelain the exteriors and interiors but when it comes to the OS&E, they cut corners. I personally am of a strong belief that when you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Good quality and branded equipment may cost one a little more, but in the long run the benefits are immense! Lamprecht: Yes it is and probably always will be in any market for a premium brand like Villeroy & Boch. It is not generally a major deterrent once the value of our brand is understood. Sears: Yes it is. As the selection for tabletop is left until the later stages of outlet development, there is often less budget available and this in some cases will affect the selection that they make. Also there is a lot of competition out on the market at the moment and this allows for restaurants and hotels to shop around for the best prices that they can find. With the brands that we carry we offer a wide array of alternatives from budget to high end product. Oommen: RAK Porcelain products have been equipping various hotels across UAE like the Burj Al Arab, Atlantis, Jumeirah, Marriott, Hilton, Shangri La and is now the preferred brand for international chains for worldwide requirements. RAK Porcelain has a global footprint of more than 130 countries and is set to reach many more due to pursuit of perfection combined with customer service ensuring satisfaction.Value for money is the major consideration when purchasing decisions are taken and plays a vital role when the shapes for outlets are chosen. All purchasing has to meet the hotel budget and usually for banqueting cost effective

tableware is chosen and for fine dining it is always the best of shapes which are expensive. It is also vital to choose a range that gives more value for money on a longer term than to look for the cheapest option when choosing tableware. RAK Porcelain products are produced from materials sourced from the best mines in Europe using the latest technology at a very reasonable cost to offer customers a value for money product which would last for a long time thereby saving OPEX. RAK also prides to have a varied range including a premium gold design like Golden or popularly known as the King & Queen range befitting royal or VIP occasions. Can you detail some of your key clients across the Emirates or region? Menon: We at Blue Ribbon have been fortunate. Although just two years in operation, we have some of the top names in the UAE as our clients, such as Burj Al Arab, Madinat Jumeirah, Armani Hotel, One & Only Royal Mirage, Grand Hyatt, Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi, Park Haytt Abu Dhabi, St Regis Abu Dhabi. We have also some of the new projects which have still to open - The Oberoi Dubai, Rosewood Hotel, Abu Dhabi, Fairmont Palm Island and the upcoming Conrad Hotel. Besides hotels, we also do a lot of work with standalone restaurants, clubs, yachts, hospitals and palaces. Lamprecht: It would be unjust for me to single out any one of our clients. We believe that any buyers no matter how small or large, important or not are part of the Villeroy & Boch family and my motto is that you will find Villeroy & Boch where it needs to be, with a buyer that cares about food, quality and service. All the usual suspects in the markets are part of the ever growing family, from the major hotel chains to niche restaurants, 6-star hotel to boutique style residence, palaces, airlines and private jets all enjoy our product. Sears: We have supplied chinaware, cutlery, glassware to numerous hotels across the UAE and Middle East. Some of our recent customers are Jebel Ali Hotels, Rotana and Centro Hotels.

Country focus

The heart of Europe Over the years, Austria has become a real haven for gourmets. Ambitious farmers, winegrowers and innkeepers have rediscovered the joys of fresh, seasonal, local produce, which are now being successfully exported.

Sourcing

Country focus

t the heart of Europe, Austria has had a troubled history - the fate of any nation at the crossroads between empires. Yet, despite an eventful past, the Austrian character has hardly changed over the centuries: the partiality for indulgence, beauty and cultivation have always been driving forces in the country’s past and present. To be frank, indulgence is a word that many might associate with Austrian cuisine, coupling a Germanic desire for major meat ﬁxes coupled with a tradition of Imperial and court excess. But although the almost ubiquitous cake and chocolate obsession of the people can lead to an over-indulgent and overdone cuisine, the more unexpected delight is that the modern Austrian cuisine is healthy and innovative. In fact, the historical desire for fresh, seasonal and local produce has allowed modern chefs

Quality fruit is on the way!

access to some of the best ingredients in Europe and the country has an enviable reputation as an organic producer and consumer. Austria is made up of two main areas - the fertile Danube Valley and the Alpine valleys. Vienna became the capital in the 12th century and a 100 years later the six century-long age of the Habsburgs began. The imperial court, at the heart of an empire, created a long tradition of elaborate food. But the Habsburgs weren’t just eaters - they were ﬁghters too. The empire expanded and the threat of Turkey expanded north and west was beaten at the very walls of Vienna, opening up the culture to inﬂuences from the Middle East. Austrian food and drinks manufacturers are now known in the European and international markets for their individuality and very high produce quality. Key factors for the success of the

GO ORGANIC

16.3% Total agricultural land is used for organic produce.

There are over 20,000 organic farms and operations with a turnover just short of a billion Euros a year. 7% of produce is exported

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Country focus

Farmers take pride in their produce industry are constant innovation in products and methods, well trained staff and professionally managed brands. The country has a reputation for food and drink from the best natural sources and for the highest quality control standards. Successful exports include environmentally friendly raw produce such as meat and fruit and products with a distinct character. Austrian food and drink producers do face stiff competition on the small domestic market, which makes them fit for the ever more competitive world of exports! For example, around 90 Austrian dairies and cheese factories bring years of competence to working to the highest quality standards. No expense is spared on either ingredients or new production techniques and the strategy has paid off - in this area a higher value of goods are exported than imported. Consumers have the highest confidence in beef and pork from Austria which is reflected by exports acrtoss the world. Cured meats are particularly popular on export markets, especially Austrian bacon. Austria has developed into a gourmet country over the past years. With quality and taste, its food and drinks industry has now managed to position itself not only on the domestic market, but also on more than 160 export markets. Ambitious farmers, vintners and chefs have perfected their wares. They develop produce of the highest quality for food lovers. The Austrian food and drinks manufacturers take the lead

AUSTRIA IS WORLD FAMOUS FOR ITS WIDE RANGE OF HIGH QUALITY REGIONAL DELICACIES AND IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE INTERNATIONAL TREND FOR ORGANIC PRODUCE WITH ITS EVER INCREASING ORGANIC SHARE. in quality standards on both the European and international markets. More and more high-price luxury products are being exported, with many consumers across the world ready to pay high prices for quality and exceptional taste. The largest share of agricultural exports are from the food and drinks industry - the Austrian food and drinks industry is responsible for 56.9% of total agriculture exports. Leading export areas are energy drinks, carbonated drinks and iced teas, along with pastries, cakes and other sweet Austrian delicacies. Austria is world famous for its wide range of high quality regional delicacies and is at the forefront of the international trend for organic produce with its ever increasing organic share. Every Austrian federal province has its own culinary identity - from specialist jams to Alpine salmon to exquisite wines. The most popular

organic products from Austria include meat, cured meats, cereals, pastries, milk and dairy products. Whether it’s Styrian pumpkin seed oil or apricots from the Wachau, all regional delicacies from Austria display the producers’ insistence on quality control and innovation. And it’s not only about continuing traditional recipes - new products are also constantly being developed. The structure of the agriculture industry is composed of small and medium enterprises, so the best raw produce and a wealth of experience go into all regional delicacies. The guiding principle of organic agriculture is to stay in step with nature and Austria is a world leader in the share of organic agriculture farms and numbers are constantly rising. Around 20,000 organic farmers manage almost 16% of Austria’s agricultural land. Around 10% of organic production is exported.

Just Bocuse A French national treasure and still involved in his restaurant in Lyon in his mid-80s, Chef Paul Bocuse has been named as chef of the century. With an incredible record of 43 consecutive years as a Michelin 3-star establishment, l’Auberge du Pont de Collonges, he is one of few chefs known equally for nouvelle cuisine as classical French cuisine. With news of Emirates’ impending new route to Lyon, who better to begin our new series on inﬂuential chefs.

Toque to me

t was perhaps inevitable that Paul Bocuse would become a chef - his family has chefs in every generation back to the late 1600s. Born and raised in France’s gastronomic heartland in Lyon, he has however achieved more than he might ever have dreamed. Apart from his main restaurant holding three Michelin stars - the longest period of consecutive years - he has effortlessly straddled the two key strands of French cuisine: classical and nouvelle. Interestingly, in an age of constant innovation, most of his menu has remained unchanged for years as he is content with reproducing classics with the same passion and desire for quality that has marked his career. In fact, the term ‘nouvelle cuisine’ was first used by food critic Henri Gault to describe the dishes prepared by Bocuse and other chefs for the maiden Concorde flight back in 1969. He has also been widely influential, not so much for his style but through years of teaching and mentoring. Austrian Eckart Witzigmann, for example, was named as one of four Chefs of the Century and was the first German-speaking and the third non-French-speaking chef to receive three Michelin stars. Since 1987, the Bocuse d’Or has been regarded as the most prestigious award for chefs in the world, even the unofficial world championship for chefs. Bocuse himself has received numerous awards, including the medal of Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur and, in 1961, with the title Meilleur Ouvrier de France. His greatest contribution is perhaps least well known: introducing the concept of putting sauces under meat or fish, which had not really been done before in a serious restaurant. Try to imagine today’s fine dining scene without that innovation!

CAREER HIGH Still on the restaurant menu is his famous Soupe aux truffes, created in 1975 for a presidential dinner at the Elysée Palace. Basically a beef soup with black truffles, each bowl is covered with a puff pastry crust, which is broken at the table, releasing the full aroma for the diner. The soup is served in Bocuse’s restaurant near Lyon as Soupe VGE - the initials of former President of France, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. BOCUSE’S TRUFFLE SOUP An educated guess at this classic recipe would be this. Ingredients: 2 chicken stock cubes salt and pepper 150g white chicken meat 100g celeriac 1 carrot 8 button mushrooms 1 fennel 80g black truffles 60g foie gras puff pastry 1 egg yolk Method: 1 Gently poach the seasoned chicken for six minutes in a preheated 200C oven, using stock cubes and water. Drain the chicken. 2 Dice the vegetables and cut the truffles into thin strip. Finely dice the fennel and

share between four bowls, adding beef stock to cover. Cube the foie gras and divide between the bowl and add the diced chicken. Fill the bowls with the stock. Cut disks of puff pastry and ﬁt them around the bowl’s brim giving an egg wash. Bake for 20 minutes. To serve, cut the pastry lid with a knife.

“WITHOUT BUTTER, WITHOUT EGGS, THERE IS NO REASON TO COME TO FRANCE.” - Paul Bocuse

l’Auberge du Pont de Collonges

Pimp my plate

From the delta to the pampas What reinvention challenge could we give a chef with a background in modern Italian cuisine who now heads up the team at Argentinian themed Gaucho? Something with beef at the heart of it perhaps? Throwing a curve ball, we invited Head Chef Jamie Robertson to tackle the Vietnamese beef and noodle soup, known as the national dish Pho.

amie began his career working part time at The Living Room in Edinburgh, where he met with Richard Drake, the current managing partner of Gaucho Dubai, who recognised his burgeoning talent and sent him to college to learn the trade. Jamie fell in love with food, becoming Head Chef at a young age

of Alma De Cuba, an independent restaurant in Liverpool. He quickly secured the Liverpool Best Restaurant Award, holding it for three years. Spotted by his namesake Jamie Oliver, he helped to develop the menu for their Dubai restaurant where he was later to work as Head Chef. Now he runs the largely Latino team at Gaucho,

STEP BY STEP COOKING GUIDE

Step 1: Slice the fennel thinly

Step 2: Chiffonade the herbs

Step 3: Mix the salad

Step 4: Marinade the beef

the Argentinian/South American restaurant in DIFC. Keen to tackle the challenge of ‘Pimp my plate’, did he have any worries about what we might throw at him. “No, choose whatevere you like. I’ll have a go.” And so we decided that the Vietnamese beef and noodle soup Pho would be suitable, given his current beef-focused menu and his past pasta experience. The dish originated in Hanoi as late as the 1920s and now is a popular street food. However, the origin and the name are the subject of much debate: the most popular version is that Vietnamese cooks combined local rice noodles with beef to please French colonials with the name deriving in some way from the French beef stew pot-au-feu. Although there are countless variations of pho, the concept is quite simple: cooked noodles are seasoned with ﬁsh sauce, garnished with bean sprouts and served with meatballs and sliced beef in a broth made from beef, marrow and onions. So how did Chef Jamie approach the challenge? “I started by realising I didn’t just want to make a soup, so what other direction could I go in given that we wanted something that wouldn’t be out of place on our menu? It’s not a dish I’d ever eaten before but the spicing in the versions I saw seemed pretty familiar and were clearly the way into the dish, especially if I substituted some that were more familiar from the South American repertoire. What I liked about the dish is the way that it can be customised and that the diner builds his or her own version.” One problem he faced early on was the quality of the beef. “Clearly, in Vietnam, a dish like this is a way of disguising the meat to some extent. However, I believe our beef is the best in Dubai, sourced from Argentina and slaughtered to my precise instructions. The solution was to use tail, which is often overlooked. It normally has very, very little fat but what we have has 2% marbling which gives it good taste.” Deconstructing the dish, he used the spices partly as a marinade for the beef and partly in a

“I COULD HAVE DONE A BEEF CONSOMME BUT I THINK THE SPICES WOULD HAVE BEEN TOO POWERFUL. THE NOODLES? I’M NOT SURE THEY ADD ANYTHING TO THE ORIGINAL DISH PART FROM GIVING IT SUBSTANCE CERTAINLY THEY’RE NOT ADDING ANY REAL FLAVOUR.”

Pimp my plate

dressing for the herb salad. “I played around quite a bit with the spices - I wanted to get taste but not overwhelm the meat which is ﬂash cooked and then sliced thin as a carpaccio.” His versions omits two key elements of the original: the noodles and the broth. “Sure, I could have done a beef consomme but I think the spices would have been too powerful. The noodles? I’m not sure they add anything to the original dish part from giving it substance - certainly they’re not adding any real ﬂavour - and the use of the fennel suggests noodle ribbons I think.” Was the experiment something he enjoyed? “Oh, it was great fun - I’ve never done anything like this before! However, my team in the kitchen

from Colombia, Argentina and Brazil all thought I was completely crazy. Loco! For them, you take the beef and put fire under it and here was I messing about with dainty salads and the like!” Is it something he’d put on the menu? “It’s a very light, delicate dish and it would be quite difficult to sell when our core business is large portions of beef as main courses. It might work as a special but our light starters are seafood not beef. We also have a high percentage of local diners around 40% - and although their taste is moving increasingly away from the basics, their culture is firmly one of well-cooked meat. Although the carpaccio is cooked, the perception amongst some diners might be different.”

Step 5: Flash sear the beef

Step 6: Slice the meet thinly

Step 7: Press out as a carpaccio

Step 8: Arrange the beef on the plate

Step 9: Adjust the presentation

Step 10: Serve the dish

Pho Serves 6 Ingredients: 5lbs beef knuckle, with meat 2lbs beef oxtail 1 white (daikon) radish, sliced 2 onions, chopped 2oz whole star anise pods 1/2 cinnamon stick 2 whole cloves 1 tsp black peppercorns 1 slice fresh ginger root 1 tbsp white sugar 1 tbsp salt 1 tbsp fish sauce 1.5lbs dried flat rice noodles 1/2lb frozen beef sirloin Method: 1 Boil beef knuckle in a large pan for two hours then skim off the fat and add oxtail, daikon and onions. Tie the star anise, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns and ginger in a muslim bag and add to the soup. 2 Add sugar, salt and fish sauce then simmer for at least four more hours, seasoning as necessary. Strain, discarding bones and spices but reserving meat from the knuckle. 3 Soak the rice noodles for about 20 minutes, then boil until soft (approximately five minutes). 4 Slice the frozen beef very thin, so it will cook instanrtly. 5 Place noodles into bowls and top with a few raw beef slices. Ladle over the boiling broth. Serve at once with a selection of sauces, sliced onions, coriander, bean sprouts, basil, spring onions and lime on the table.

Gaucho beef and fennel carpaccio Serves 4

1 bulb of fennel (shredded) 4

Ingredients: 300g Argentinean ﬁllet/tenderloin tail 1 tin of chipotle peppers 1 pinch of aji molido or chilli ﬂakes 1 tsp coriander seeds 1 star anise 1 clove 2 cardamom pods 1 tsp dried thyme 3 dssp Maldon sea salt 30ml olive oil 10g mint 5g basil Quarter of a lemon (juice)

Method: 1 Cover a chopping board with cling film and place the beef onto it. Take two dessert spoons of chipotle peppers and spread over the cling film, then roll onto the beef. Roll the cling film tightly to form a sausage shape and remove any air so the beef does not get oxidised. Chill in the fridge for 24 hours. 2 To prepare the seasoning, remove the cardamom seeds from the pod, toast in a saucepan over a high heat with the star anise, clove and coriander seeds for approximately 30 seconds to one minute to release the flavour. 3 Take off the heat and transfer to a pestle and mortar. Add in the dried thyme, Maldon sea

5 6

7 8

salt, aji molido and grind to a powder. Once the meat has marinated in the mix for 24 hours, remove from the cling ﬁlm and scrape off any excess liquid. In a hot sauté pan or griddle plate, add a splash of olive oil and heat until it begins to smoke. Seal the beef for 30 seconds on each side. Remove the beef and leave to one side to rest. To prepare the dressing, shred the mint and basil and combine with the olive oil and lemon. Spoon the dressing over the shredded fennel. Slice the beef as thinly as possible, pressing each slice with the back of a knife to compound. Arrange on a plate, sprinkle with the seasoning and drizzle with olive oil. Arrange the dressed fennel to one side of the beef. Serve immediately.

On the passe

Steak tartar presented in a clean, modern style at Fire & Ice

As part of the on-going revamp of F&B at Rafﬂes Dubai, German-born Chef de Cuisine Jan Scheu has refreshed the menu at the hotel’s iconic outlet, Fire & Ice. The aim? To change the perception of the restaurant as a high-end ‘special occasion’ place to a more price friendly regular spot, but without compromising on quality of ingredients.

hen did you ﬁrst become interested in food? I grew up in a very quiet part of southern Germany, where people didn’t eat out a great deal, so food was a focus of the family. We cooked and ate well and healthily, but I wasn’t that interested in food. To be honest, I got into the profession as an emergency solution to get out of school! I was much more interested in travel - I guess you could say I have a desert island fascination. After your apprenticeship, your ﬁrst position was as Commis at Al Mahara in the Burj al Arab. That’s an interesting start to a career.

A real shock! I was working with Robbie Stokes and that time shaped me more than any of my other jobs. It was a wake-up call and I suddenly fell in love with everything in the kitchen. Then, after more than a year, I got the travel bug again and headed for Australia, then London, then the Seychelles, the Maldives and Singapore! In there as well, I was back in Dubai as Sous Chef at Seaﬁre at Atlantis The Palm! Did that travelling inﬂuence your style? Absolutely yes. It’s grown over the years based on infuences from all those places and now, with Dubai as such a melting pot, my new menu is pretty wide ranging. You could call it Modern

European but I use ingredients from all over such as feta cheese from Australia or inﬂuences such as creole seasonings from the Seychelles. What was the overall plan for the new menu? The direction from (Executive Chef) Andrew (Whiffen) was simple: be exciting, use the best ingredients and focus on quality. It wasn’t that before? I didn’t know it before so I can’t comment on that. My understanding is that it had a great reputation when the hotel ﬁrst opened but, like many places, had problems when the recession came. Perhaps it seemed too much of a luxury restaurant rather

On the passe

than a place to visit on a regular basis and that’s one of the main things we intend to change with a new spirit. We’re only 80 covers so it’s quite an intimate space and we get a good proportion of GGC diners, who seem to be getting much more adventurous in their eating habits.

Whole Dover sole

How would you sum up your style? Simple and fresh, based on quality ingredients. You know, the best food for many of us is what we had as a child so I won’t be adding any crazy dishes, although I think we can surprise people a little. A wow effect but not a shock effect! Take the Australian feta as an example - we present it in a beautiful fresh way wrapped in aubergine and served on a carpaccio of watermelon. I see it as a great starter!

Do you source locally? We’re open to trying anything but quality is still an issue with a lot of local produce. Local spinach is good though. We’d like to be more sustainable but we have to face the reality that we’re sitting in the middle of a desert and running a modern European style restaurant. It’s difficult to reduce our carbon miles on ingredients especially when we want to serve the best. However, I think it’s important to think about these issues - all our fish, for example, is line caught because of the damage that dragnets do to the ocean floor.

What challenges do you face in sourcing produce? Frankly, none. If we know the products we want, then we can source them. I think the only thing I’ve wanted but just not been able to get are live

How will the restaurant develop? It’s early days for us, but we plan to follow the European seasons in terms of new menus. Watch out for monthly specials too!

“WE’D LIKE TO BE MORE SUSTAINABLE BUT WE HAVE TO FACE THE REALITY THAT WE’RE SITTING IN THE MIDDLE OF A DESERT AND RUNNING A MODERN EUROPEAN STYLE RESTAURANT. IT’S DIFFICULT TO REDUCE OUR CARBON MILES ON INGREDIENTS ESPECIALLY WHEN WE WANT TO SERVE THE BEST.”

Milk chocolate brulee bar

Peachwood smoked duck and black ﬁg salad

langoustines - they don’t travel and arrive dead. I’m quite ﬁrm about using quality - for instance, we had some frozen fois gras but I refused to use it as it was second grade.

Wild mushroom riso pasta

Poached lobster bright and clean

Australian feta wrapped in aubergine and served on a carpaccio of watermelon

“I USE INGREDIENTS FROM ALL OVER SUCH AS FETA CHEESE FROM AUSTRALIA OR INFLUENCES SUCH AS CREOLE SEASONINGS FROM THE SEYCHELLES.”

Apulian burrata

Under the Patronage of H. H. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority

26-28 November 2012 , ADNEC

Consider yourself a bit of a masterchef? Strategic partner

Compete alongside hundreds of other chefs across a range of disciplines at La Cuisine by SIAL For further information contact the Emirates Culinary Guild.

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Face to face

“MOST FOODS OFFERED AND CONSUMED TODAY ARE DEVITALISED BY PROCESSING AND COOKING. FOODS ARE SO HEAVILY PROCESSED THEY BECOME CONCENTRATED WITH HARMFUL COMPOUNDS.”

What a spa! Gabi Kurz is well underway as the Resort Wellbeing Chef at Madinat Jumeirah to bringing fresher, healthier options to all the restaurants in the resort. She deﬁnes wellbeing cuisine as both wholesome and nutritionally well-balanced. And, of course, using only organic and plant-based ingredients.

hef Gabi joined Madinat Jumeirah in 2007, as Chef de Cuisine to develop Magnolia, a ﬁne dining restaurant specialising in wellbeing. Last year, she became responsible to ensure that Madinat Jumeirah offers healthy dining alternatives and so is involved in menu development for restaurants and corporate events in the resort as well as being responsible for the entire menu at Talise Spa. She also runs cooking and educational classes, acts as a nutrition advisor plus offering diabetic and

obesity consultations as well. Her key message is this: forget boring steamed veggies and bland soups, eating light and healthy can be surprisingly delicious. “It is important to not just blanch vegetables in water and serve with some olive oil and salt on top - this is common, but is totally boring on the plate!” she explains. “Think how meat or ﬁsh is treated before it is cooked - it is marinated, seasoned or stuffed to enhance ﬂavour. This needs to be translated into a plant-based cuisine to make it delicious.”

She sees wellbeing cuisine as one nourishiing our cells that build a healthy and beautiful body,. She also believes it should not just be something you experiment with occasionally, but it is simple enough to be incorporated into everyday life too. “Most foods offered and consumed today are devitalised by processing and cooking. Foods are so heavily processed they become concentrated with harmful compounds. This kind of food is closer to nature and keeps natural products the way they are. The less food is cooked or processed with heat or too many steps of preparation, the more health benefits remain to be absorbed by our body.” The food she favours relies heavily on raw foods such as salads, fresh pressed juices and sprouts. “All this is not complicated to make but, of course, it is important to understand the cuisine, what combines well with each other and what are good preparation methods for each ingredient.” She also recommends eating more vegetarian food as part of a healthy eating plan. “Vegetarian food has several benefits. For example, it helps to reduce acidity in our body system, supports detoxification and slows down the ageing process through its richness in antioxidants,” she says. She also advocates a focus on live foods in order to maximise the nutritional benefits. “Live foods are foods which have been recently collected, grown in good soils, uncooked, sprouted and foods which have been naturally fermented like yoghurt and miso. They are not only extremely nutritious and easily digested, but live foods build life force giving us vitality and stamina.” Her cuisine is based on a few simple principles. A daily diet containing a colourful and fresh variety of fruits and vegetables; nuts, legumes and wholegrain products; a good selection of raw food; and minimal junk food, sugary soft drinks, white flour, white sugar and deep fried food.

Face to face

Food from the heart The Four Points Sheraton in Bur Dubai has not, to be frank, been a destination hotel for the city’s food lovers but expect that to change shortly when Dubai’s ‘ﬁrst authentic’ Portuguese restaurant, Piri Piri opens up. Chef de Cuisine Luis Salgueiro has ﬂown in from Portugal to ensure the food is traditional and high quality.

hef Salgueiro is passionate about the food of his country and has been cooking traditional dishes since he took over his father’s restaurant Brazao in the Algarve at the age of 18 and then studied the regional styles of the country. He spent some time back in 2004 as the consultant guest chef at the Grand Hyatt Dubai where the hotel was celebrating Portuguese gastronomy. He travelled to Finland where he was part of the judging panel at the World Skills Competition 2005 in the patisserie event and then went on to become Chairman of the panel in later years. Since then, he’s been back in Portugal where he spent three years as executive chef and F&B Manager for the Escola de Hotelaria e Turismo do Algarve - Nucleo de Portimao, a Professional Training School in Portugal. He was involved as a F&B consultant during the opening of new restaurant Copos & Campanhia and has since spent more than three years busy training up and coming young chefs at the INESP Hotelaria e Turismo. He was awarded the prestigious title Regional Excellence Chef by the city of Portimao in Portugal and he even appears in the Guinness World Book of Records, having worked on a project making the world’s largest Arjamolho soup! And now he intends to delivery some of his country’s most distinctive ﬂavours, based on a rich food culture. Why do you think it’s taken so long for authentic Portuguese food to arrive here? Well, as you know, I was here in 2004 working on a Portuguese food festival at the Grand Hyatt but I think the challenge has always been to get some of the authetic produce you really need to make proper dishes. Salada de Verão (Summer salad) - lettuces, melon, watermelon, apple, feta and an orange vinaigrette.

“IN PORTUGUESE CUISINE WE’D USE FOUR OR FIVE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CABBAGE TO GET THE RIGHT TASTE. IF I USE VEGETABLES FROM ANYWHERE ELSE, THEN THE TASTE WILL BE WRONG AND THE COLOUR WILL BE DIFFERENT.” 38

Face to face

How would you describe the cuisine? It’s simple food but it’s always from the heart. Our meals are home style - maybe a couple of hours over the meal with the real opportunity to talk. People often assume that the food must be like Spain but, no. Until fairly recently there were no good restaurants in Spain. The Portuguese have a very long tradition of exploration and trading. How many ingredients made it back into the cuisine? Some, but we’ve always kept the original flavour. We don’t use a great deal of seasoning except to complement. We certainly don’t cover dishes in seasoning. Some things change and evolve, of course - traditionally we ate a lot of salt cod, but that’s now harder to get because of over-fishing. And traditional food is still popular? Oh yes, it is still there. Despite being a small country, there’s a big regional difference between the food in the north and that in the south. And there’s a difference in weather as well. I’m from the Algarve in the south and we eat a lot more seafood down there. It is a small country but people still eat very regionally and the food can change from small town to the next. We only use olive oil, no other sort. Other oils give you a much denser flavour that drowns everything. And our presentation is very old fashioned.

PORTUGUESE CUISINE Spices: From its former colonies, Portugal uses a wide variety of spices, sparingly. These include piri piri (small chilli peppers) and black pepper, as well as cinnamon, vanilla and saffron. Olive oil, garlic, coriander and parsley: The bases of Portuguese cuisine used both for cooking and flavouring. Fish: Portugal has highest per capita fish consumption in Europe and is among the top four in the world. Most typical is salt cod (bacalhau), for which it is often claimed that there’s a different recipe for every day of the year. It’s traditional because the Portuguese fishing tradition in the North Atlantic developed before the invention of refrigeration. Also popular: fresh sardines, octopus, squid, cuttlefish, crabs, shrimps and prawns, lobster, spiny lobster, barnacles and goose barnacles. Meat: Popular are beef, pork, salt pork, chourizo, pig’s feet, cured ham, Vegetables: Popular are tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, rice and onions. Cheese: Typically made from goat’s or sheep’s milk, Portuguese cheeses are very strongly flavoured and fragrant. Not used in cooking traditionally.

Bacalhau à Braz (Cod Braz style) - olive oil, onion, cod, potato sticks, eggs and chopped parsley.

Face to face

What about modern Portuguese cuisine? It is starting. Some chefs are trying to change ideas and I think that there are two or maybe three restaurants that are moving to a kind of el Bulli style. What will Piri Piri be like? I want diners to feel that they are at home, so we’re having an open kitchen. The same dishes can taste different in diffferent kitchens. In mine? You’ll get the traditional Portuguese taste and quality, but the presentation is more modern. And sourcing ingredients? These have to come from Portugal. Everything is coming from Portugal. Say that you’re making something very simple like a vegetable soup. In Portuguese cuisine we’d use four or ﬁve different types of cabbage to get the right taste. If I use vegetables from anywhere else, then the taste will be wrong and the colour will be different. Yes, I have tried other sources, even vegetables from here in the Emirates but they don’t work for our cuisine. I know it is a long way to bring produce but if we want the real, the authentic taste then this is what we have to do.

PORTUGUESE INFLUENCES Communications between the far-ﬂung outposts of Portgual’s former large empire has seen a real inﬂuence in some other cuisines as well as bringing ingredients back to the mother country, such as spices and sweet oranges from India. Key global dishes originating in Portugal are: Feijoada (Brazil). Originally a one-pot meal, this became the meal of the slaves in Brazil as it allowed them to extract protein and taste from poor quality meats. It is now Brazil’s national dish. Vindaloo (Goa). The pairing of vinegar and garlic is typically Portuguese. Tempura (Japan). Introduced by early Portuguese missionaries.

Ameijoas à Bolhao Pato (Clams) - clams braised in olive oil with garlic, chopped coriander and lemon.

Orange and chocolate symphony - tart orange and orange granite with different textures and ﬂavours, plus a chocolate brownie with walnuts.

Everyone’s a Gourmet

that read: You couldn’t start many food magazines today with an editorial whole “Gourmet will speak that Esperanto of the palate that makes the the world kin...” However, the launch of Gourmet back in 1940 marked oritative, arrival of a new kind of food writing - intelligent, omnivorous, auth , in just 70 compelling. It hardly used any photographs of food either! So how years, did such an institution become an iPad app?

Book shelf

hen American publishing giant Condé Nast announced that it was to close Gourmet (and three other titles), you could hear the collected gasp of astonishment that ran through both the American and, to a lesser extent, global food establishment and community. The New York Times said, in its report of the closure, ‘Gourmet was to food what Vogue is to fashion’. Its unique mix of ‘sumptuous photography, test kitchens and exotic travel pieces’ resulted in ‘a beautifully produced magazine that lived, and sold, the high life’ had no place any more in Rachael Ray’s world. Ironically, just as cooking and celebration of food had never been as high in the USA, this artfully produced journal, directed by Condé Nast star editor Ruth Reichl, was pushed aside whilst the lower market, recipe-focused Bon Appétit survived the cut. Did this mean, many asked, that Gourmet’s traditional mix of tracking down real food, or discussing major food issues in political terms, or reviewing restaurants with real authority and driving forward that whole James Beard, slightly old-fashioned, rather opinionated style was no longer relevant? Food as exploration was the title’s underlying drive. Food as lifestyle choice

“NO MORE TIME FOR LEISURELY, SEMI SCHOLARLY PIECES ON THE HISTORIC INFLUENCE OF THE MAGHREB ON SOUTH ITALIAN PEASANT DISHES WHEN RACHAEL RAY AND FOOD NETWORK DELIVER SEMI INSTANT GRATIFICATION IN UNDER 30 MINUTES.”

A typical feature

Book shelf

seemed to be the new direction, reflecting Bon Appétit’s more middle class readership. The old order passes, yielding change to new - as Tennyson put it. No more time for leisurely, semi scholarly pieces on the historic influence of the Maghreb on south Italian peasant dishes when Rachael Ray and the Food Network deliver semi instant gratification in under 30 minutes. At the end, declining ad budgets meant that Gourmet’s circulation of 980,000 was just not enough. In Berkeley, the influential Alice Waters reportedly nearly cried when she heard the news. All a long, downhill slide from its 1941 launch as the first US magazine devoted to food and wine. It was founded by Earle MacAusland, who edited it until 1980 before being followed by only three other editors: Jane Montant (1980–1991), Gail Zweigenthal (1991-8) and Ruth Reichl (1999-2009). An enviable record for any magazine. When the closure was announced, the word was that Gourmet would survive as a brand in other media - books, Web, broadcasts. And now it’s Gourmet Live, a free iPad app, which combines archival content and some new material. Gourmet traditionally cannibalised its own content, with recipes repeated over the years, but there’s a curious logic in thinking that the way forward for a magazine not appealing to a young, in-a-hurry demographic is to repurpose old content in a dramatic new format that will probably not carry the old readership forward with it. In a world with ten of thousands of recipe Web sites, you have to be pretty special to stand

out and Condé Nast was already using Gourmet content, of course, on Epicurious.com! The answer was to pull in Activate, a New York consulting ﬁrm led by the media and technology veterans Anil Dash and Michael Wolf, to develop Gourmet Live. “It’s not a magazine and it’s not a digital version of a magazine,” according to Condé Nast’s CEO Chuck Townsend. “It’s a whole

new way to engage with consumers.” Which means? Primarily democratising what used to be a very authoritative magazine. Users can now share content such as articles to Twitter and Facebook, tag articles and, using a real-time game engine, unlock new content (free and paid for). Building out from that in future, we can expect major reader input. What a change!

“MY IDEA OF GOOD LIVING IS NOT ABOUT EATING HIGH ON THE HOG. RATHER, TO ME GOOD LIVING MEANS UNDERSTANDING HOW FOOD CONNECTS US TO THE EARTH.” - Ruth Reichl, former editor, Gourmet

Travel

On the dock of the Bay… From centre of the counter culture to the lantern bearer for organic and local sourcing, San Francisco has always been home to pioneers and visionaries. It doesn’t hurt that it’s drop dead gorgeous and the centre of the US dotcom industry with all the spare change that leaves in the pockets of the young and trendy. Throw into the mix large communities of Hispanics, Japanese and Chinese - together with local farms, ﬁsheries and vineyards - and you have a food lover’s paradise. Dave Reeder heads off with notebook and camera in hand.

Travel

ix together scenic beauty, cultural attractions, diverse communities and world-class cuisine - that’s San Francisco. Its globally famous landmarks include the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz, Chinatown, Union Square, North Beach, the Castro district and Mission Dolores, all against a background of fog which creates a romantic mood in this most European of American cities. Measuring less than 50 square miles, this is a very walkable city packed with lots of distinct neighbourhoods, each offering a different kind of food, from the Mexican street food of the Mission to the stylish bars of the Castro, the fine style of Nob Hill to the tourist fast food of Fisherman’s Wharf, the old school Italian of North Beach to the ingredient focused Ferry Building market, the small Japanese restaurants in Japantown to the bustling canteens of Chinatown - you’re never short of anywhere to eat in this city. San Francisco has a colourful past. It grew from a small village to a major city nearly overnight as a result of the 1849 Gold Rush. The writers of the ‘beat’ generation, the hippies of the Summer of Love in the late 1960s and today’s large gay/ lesbian population have all contributed to making San Francisco the fascinating place it is today. It is home to world-class theatre, opera, symphony and ballet companies and often boasts premieres of Broadway-bound plays and culture-changing performing arts. San Francisco is also one of America’s greatest dining cities. The diverse cultural influences, proximity of the freshest ingredients and competitive creativity of the chefs result in amazing dining experiences throughout San Francisco. Remember, please, that it is alway San Francisco - calling it San Fran marks you out as a tourist at once. The trouble is, despite its reputation as a haven for tourists, the best parts of the city are off the tourist route, part of the daily life of this magical eclectic city. And, best of all for food lovers, this is a city that knows how to eat - from Michelinstarred restaurants to ethnic snack bars, fresh seafood to organic produce, native cuisine to a mad fusion of flavours and ingredients. San Francisco, in short, is like no other city in North America. Do what we did and have a single tourist day - one of the many bus tours round the city that will take in the Golden Gate Bridge (check!), views over the Bay to Alcatraz Island (check!), Fisherman’s Wharf (check!), the Pacific beachfront and the semi-suburban housing tracts called the Avenues (check!), the five minute drive through Golden Gate Park (check!) edging into one-time hippie heaven Haight-Ashbury (check!), Twin Peaks for views over the city (check!), the Hispanic Mission and gay Castro neighbourhoods (check! check!) and downtown theatreland (check!), financial district (!) and shopping magnet Union Square (check!). Now get off the bus and discover the real city. The first thing to understand is that like the most interesting cities, this one consists of a series of neighbourhoods. With 43 hills breaking through

Travel

the city’s pretty regular street layout, it’s also a surprisingly easy city to navigate which you can do with a combination of feet, cable car, trolley car, bus and metro (the last four most usefully covered in the bargain seven-day Muni passport). Hopping on and off transport and walking between lines soon becomes second nature and only some parts of the city, notably the too steep Russian and Nob Hills, are likely to tire you overly. Despite a small population, the compact city doesn’t have a lot of space to spare - nobody’s building on the numerous parks and open areas here! A lack of shopping malls and supermarkets mean that residents combine an amazing choice of restaurants with superbly stocked corner groceries. Take just one neighbourhood as an example - arty, intellectual North Beach with an Italian heritage that takes in coffee bars, Italian delis and Francis Ford Coppola’s own restaurant. Food quality here is high, stunningly high. That’s partly a result of location, partly of history and partly of population. Start with the location - both vegetables and fruit thrive in the climate, vines grow exceptionally well and the cold seas around the city provide wonderful seafood. History has brought a number of food loving cultures to the city, initially the Spanish moving north from the Central American colonies but later large numbers of Chinese to build railroads, emigrant Sicilian ﬁshermen, Japanese and, since gold rush times into the dotcom era, a host of adventurers, free thinkers and the different. In a country where the westward trail has always pointed to a better future, San Francisco is where that trail meets the sea and life here in the city and in the surrounding counties is seen, without a trace of hesitation, as the best possible life in the best possible place. It’s this mix of the artisan and the farmer, the poet and the dreamer, the speculator and the immigrant that has given San Francisco its edible place in the sun. Known globally as the heart of the American food revolution, it was in the Chinatown street markets that Alice Waters and her chefs found the ingredients that created the modern Californian style that her Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley made famous. It was from the neighbouring farms and smallholdings that Thomas Keller found the suppliers that made his French Laundry the most sought after table. Food movement after food movement started here - artisan bakers and cheesemakers, farmers of heirloom vegetables, traceability, sustainability, slow food, fusion, organics. On and on, from the noir crime writers of the 1930s to the beat poets of the 1950s to the hippies and free thinkers of the 1960s, San Francisco has been a city that ‘got’ intellectual movements almost instinctively. It ‘gets’ food in the same way and it’s a delight. I heard one telling comment on the trip from someone whose more usual American vacation spot has been Miami and Florida: “Where have all the fat people gone?” San Francisco is not like other American cities and, for a food lover, it’s paradise. Good weather, stunning scenery, a city with a human scale, great food - what’s not to like?

TRENDING Indulgence - Whether crafstman chocolates or triple-cream cheese, San Franciscan food lovers have adopted the Parisian motto: make treats small and high-quality. Grazing - Think of it as served tapas. Mix parts of a meal with shared plates and then move on to the next hot spot. All the style of a sit down meal with all the excitement of the unknown. Quality - Traceability, sustainability and as near organic as you can get are taken for granted. Conscience - You want salmon but the stocks are low? Hey, eat for tomorrow as well as today. Think of the planet, man. Mix it up - Fusion is so yesterday, now it’s about ﬂavour and technique. French classical cuisine with Japanese style - just suppose!

Travel

DON’T MISS!

“I MAKE IT A POINT EACH DAY TO ENSURE THAT THE MENU IS A REFLECTION OF THE FINEST PRODUCE PREPARED IN A UNIQUE, DELICIOUS AND ARTISTIC WAY.”

Everywhere you look, you’ll see opportunities, but one unmissable spot is the Ferry Building. Once the heart of San Francisco’s trading port, it still houses piers for ferries across the Bay but also has been reborn as a celebration of the city’s artisan food culture and cuisine. Some 50 shops and small restaurants fill the building but it’s on Saturdays that the place really comes alive, when a farmers’ market brings in produce from the surrounding area as well as open air cooking to the plaza between the building and the water’s edge. It’s a feast of colour and flavour, excitement and taste. Although a tourist stop, the market is a key part of the week for many of the city’s top chefs and food lovers. You’ll see families filling baskets with organic produce, young lovers sharing an open-air breakfast, chefs talking to farmers, all under the Californian sun and all with a friendly, laid-back ambience that highlights the obvious links between good food and good living. Highlights of the market (both open air and inside) are the artisan breads from the Acme Bread Company, local and European artisan cheeses from the Cowgirl Creamery, Far West Fungi for organic mushrooms, Hog Island Oysters (retail and bar), Slanted Door (acclaimed Vietnamese spot using ingredients from the market), Recchiuti handmade chocolates and the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, a combination shop and bar where, in an inspired move, you can match food bought elsewhere with their extensive and excellent wine list. My advice is to sign up with the delightful food writer Lisa Rogovin (twitter.com/ediblexcursions) who runs small tours round the market and whose enthusiasm, links with the producers and keen eye for what’s fresh really bring the market alive. She also runs more extensive tours out into the nearby wine country. Next, although you may feel compelled almost against your will to see the tourist trap that is Fisherman’s Wharf, it’s comforting to know that it is also still a place of work for fishermen, as it has been since the gold rush. However, most of the area feels cheap and trashy and, despite a large quantity of fish restaurants

and snack bars, only Scoma’s, a little off the main drag at Pier 47, catches its own fish these days. Based on Sicilian home cooking, the food is long on portions if short on dainty presentation - these are solid plates of tradition and your waiter is as likely to let you have your own way about your menu choices as he is to steer you wrong. The Cioppino is a classic. A classy neighbourhood restaurant on tree-lined and cable-cared Hyde Street, luella pulls off the trick of being a great destination restaurant with some stunning food and delivering neighbourhood ambience and a quiet spot for friends to share a drink. With maybe the friendliest staff in the city, luella is a platform for chef Ben de Vries to bring Italian home cooking up to date. Just the kind of restaurant you want in your neighbourhood. Within sight of the Ferry Building and its amazing produce, One Market chef Mark Dommen has not let his one Michelin star stop what he’s always been doing - delivering great regional dishes with superb regional ingredients. If you want an insight into what modern Bay cooking is like, this is the spot, especially when you can also enjoy access to what’s been called America’s best wine list. Lunchtime you may feel squeezed by the Financial District crowd, but the evening has a more eclectic audience eager to try excellent cooking at reasonable prices. The Palace Hotel is a monument to post-gold rush grandeur and this Financial District landmark was once the largest and most lavish hotel in the world. It boasts a stunning lobby and Garden Court (modern Californian food with 80,000 panes of stained glass!) and the famed Maxfield’s bar which hass Maxfield Parrish’s amazing nine foot mural of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Finally, the Bay is massive (you’ll wonder how wonder navigator Sir Francis Drake managed to miss it and the mile-wide opening into the Pacific!) and is ringed with a number of satellite towns. Oakland is workaday. Berkeley is interesting. But the more arty Sausalitio is well worth a ferry ride. Good galleries, quirky shops, a Mediterranean vibe and several choice spots for lunch make it a local favourite spot, as does its proximity to the stunning Muir Woods National Park.

- Mark Dommen Executive Chef, One Market.

Travel

A taste of San Francisco Scoma’s Lazy man’s cioppino

One Market’s Beet carpaccio with rock shrimp Serves 6 Ingredients: 3 large red beets or 4 medium red beets 1 gallon water 2 cups red wine vinegar 1 cup ﬁne sea salt 1 cup sugar 3” piece of ginger 1 shallot 1 cup grapeseed oil 2 tbsp mirin 1 tbsp champagne vinegar 1/2 tsp sea salt 1/4 tsp sugar 8 oz rock shrimp fresh ground pepper 3 French breakfast radishes 4oz daikon sprouts

Method: 1 Wash the beets and place then in a pot large enough to fit the water, red wine vinegar, 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of sugar. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer, cooking until the beets are soft - about 6090 minutes depending on size. Make sure the beets stay covered with water. When cooked remove from the water and allow to cool. 2 Peel the ginger and, using a mandoline, slice 18 very thin pieces, slicing the ginger lengthwise. There should be a small piece of ginger left which should be set aside for later use. 3 In a small pot, heat the grapeseed oil to 250 degrees and add the ginger, fry until golden. 4 Place the peeled shallot and left over ginger into a blender with the mirin, champagne vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the 1/4 teaspoon sugar. While blending, slowly add a 1/4 cup of the reserved ginger flavoured grapeseed oil. When the oil is incorporated, check the seasoning, adjust as necessary and strain through a fine mesh strainer. Set aside. 5 Heat 1/4 cup of the ginger flavoured grapeseed oil in a medium sauté pan over moderate heat. Season the rock shrimp with salt and freshly ground pepper and add to the hot sauté pan. Cook the rock shrimp until just barely opaque in the centre. Remove to a bowl and allow to cool. Once cool, marinate the rock shrimp with half the ginger vinaigrette. Set aside until ready to use. 6 Peel the beets and use a mandoline to slice into paper thin pieces. Arrange them directly onto the serving plates in an even layer. Brush the top of the beets with the remaining vinaigrette, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Divide the rock shrimp among the six plates and place them in a scattered manner on the beets. 7 Thinly slice the radishes using a mandoline and divide them among the six plates and arrange them in a scattered look. Finish by scattering the daikon sprouts on top of the beets

Serves 4-6 Ingredients: 1/4 cup olive oil 1 tablespoon garlic 1 large white or yellow onion, chopped 1/2 cup dry white wine 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped 2 cups fish stock or clam juice 6 cups of your favourite tomato sauce 1lb rock cod cut into one inch cubes 1.5lbs Manila clams 12oz prawns (deveined and peeled) 1lb cooked crab meat 8oz bay shrimp 12oz scallops salt and pepper Method: 1 Cook garlic for one minute, then add the onions and let them sweat for two or three minutes. 2 Deglaze. Cook until reduced by half then reduce heat to medium. Add fresh oregano and basil, then the tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Slowly add fish, shellfish and shrimp meat, then bring back to a boil and simmer till cooked. 3 Add the cooked crab meat, then thin the cioppino to your liking with fish stock or clam juice. Adjust the seasoning. 4 Serve in a large bowl with fresh sourdough bread.

“THERE’S A LOT OF DEMAND ON FARMERS WHO ARE NOW IN THE LIMELIGHT. BUT THEY’RE THE SAME GUYS WHO DID THE SAME JOB 30 YEARS AGO - ONLY DIFFERENCE, BACK THEN THEY MAYBE DIDN’T MAKE MONEY SOME MONTHS. WHO KNOWS? IT’S JUST THE WORLD, MAN.” - Chef Ron Siegel, The Dining Room, The Ritz-Carlton

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Travel

Puerto Rico on a plate Photography by Christopher Howlett and Yi-Hwa B Hanna Shrimp Mofongo

Rabbit empanadas pper

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Pina colad

The last word

Cool - way cool! Sometimes a product seems so obvious that it’s a wonder that nobody thought of it earlier. Take the Anti-Griddle as an example. It’s like Bizarro world - imagine a hot plate that, instead, is a cold plate. Brilliant!

ooking for a new toy? Then consider the Anti-Griddle, by PolyScience. The size of a small microwave, it’s effectively a blast freezer working through a foot square griddle top that maintains a -30C temperature. That means you can freeze sauces, purees or any liquid quickly - imagine a squirt of chocolate sauce that becomes an instant dessert item with a hard crunchy outside and a soft creamy centre. The possibilities are endless! The cold plate can be used as a tool in the kitchen or as a real attraction as a live station. Experimenting with the ultra cold surface means you can combine a number of techniques freezing the bottom surface of an item and then leaving the top cool or freezing both sides or freezing everything. This allows you to layer different techniques and bring a new kind of presentation to dishes, combining textures and temperatures. Suggested items to begin with include yoghurt canapés, semi frozen vinaigrettes and instant granitas - it’s up to you how far you want to go along the route of chefs like Charlie Trotter, Wylie Dufresne or Jean-George Vongerichten. Of course, you could save yourself the $1,200 cost and simply rest a stainless steel surface on top of dry ice and start playing - this, after all, is how the concept was initially developed. But dry ice in a busy kitchen is not always sensible!

TYPICAL TECHNIQUES 1 - Freeze just the bottom surface of the item, leaving the top cool or at room temperature. 2 - Flip the item over and freeze both the top and bottom, creating crunchy surfaces with a creamy centre. 3 - Freeze everything solid. 4 - Combine the basic techniques to create layered dishes consisting of different foods, ﬂavours and textures. 5 - Create free form shapes, such as initials, by piping thick liquids onto its surface as you would decorate a cake.

IT’S UP TO YOU HOW FAR YOU WANT TO GO ALONG THE ROUTE OF CHEFS LIKE CHARLIE TROTTER, WYLIE DUFRESNE OR JEANGEORGE VONGERICHTEN. 56

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

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The perfect recipe for success from our chefs

At Unilever Food Solutions, we constantly dish out new ingredients, new recipes and new ideas to serve every need of the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading professionals. Solutions that save your prep time, keep your menu fresh and exciting as well as help you grow your business, naturally healthy. 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

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