The Pro Chef, 2013 June by The Pro Chef Middle East

MIDDLE EAST ISSUE 16 JUNE 2013

BACK TO BASICS - The Ramadan effect

BACK TO STYLE - The designer effect

BACK TO QUALITY - The cheese effect

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ, DUBAI TECHNOLOGY AND MEDIA FREE ZONE AUTHORITY

ISSUE 16 JUNE 2013

EDITORIAL Surveys show that diners are put off by lack of cleanliness. If your food is hot but your restaurant is not, then start making changes now.

OUT AND ABOUT Report from the ﬁrst Hospitality Hygiene Summit, brought to Dubai by The Pro Chef ME and sister magazine Hospitality Business ME.

THE HOTEL SHOW Two of the judges from this years’ Middle East Hotel Awards discuss the current state of hotel-based dining in the region..

THE EGGS FACTOR Gaucho’s Mike Reid may spend his work focused on steaks but, surprisingly, at home his fridge is ﬁlled with cheese!

ROUND TABLE What is the current state of restaurant design? How much does design affect the success of a restaurant? Our experts discuss the issues.

INGREDIENT Widely eaten in Japan and also popular in China, Korea, Vietnam and India, the large Asian radish known as daikon can be used in many ways. Go mooli mad!

MARKET FOCUS The importance of Ramadan to the F&B sector cannot be over-emphasized, with the need to balance tradition with innovation across the two special meals of the day.

MARKET FOCUS Per capita consumption of sugar-laden drinks may be dangerously high in the UAE, but a range of healthy and delicious alternatives are gaining traction locally.

TOQUE TO ME The father of today’s kitchen: Escofﬁer.

BEING CHEFFY The rise of the celebrity chef brings about some very strange product endorsements.

PIMP MY PLATE The Meat Co’s Prabakaran Manickuam has to put away his steak knives and tackle a Norweigan ﬁsh soup.

ON THE PASSE Salvatore Barcellona, Chef de Cuisine at L’Olivo at Rixos, presents modern interpretations of traditional dishes, especially those of his Sicilian heritage.

FACE TO FACE Scott Price of table 9 recalls his pre-Ramsay days; Phil Wood from Rockpool on George talks modern Australian cuisine; and Patricia Michelson sets the perfect cheese board.

TRAVEL Go taste crazy in Hong Kong!

THE LAST WORD Can a drink make you more beautiful?

Editors comment

Get the mop out! We’re so used to judging restaurants by their menus and food, design and service, that it’s easy to miss the obvious. According to a recent survey by P&G Professional, 61% of customers in Europe expect restaurants to maintain a ‘Spring clean’ standard of cleanliness all year round. Is it part of your daily checklist, or do you just assume that local and stunning dishes will do all your work for you? Hygiene in the restaurant is about more than food storage and preparation. At the lower end of the market, we think nothing of F&B staff in malls and fast food joints wearing their uniforms to travel to and from work, or during break periods or even when using the washrooms. But we should - chefs, after all, wear whites because the colour helps identify potential contamination and is a visual reminder to diners that the kitchen is clean and tidy. How often have you been to a restaurant other than your own and noticed the lack of high standards of cleanliness? Not just crumbs on the ﬂoor under the table, but the engrained dirt in the grouting in the washroom stall, the traces of dust along corridors, the ﬁngerprints on tableware? Just a cleanliness is rated as the number one most critical factor for whether somebidy will rebook into a hotel, increasingly it’s seen as a ‘game over’ sign for a badly maintained outlet. The study uncovered how cleanliness can prove to be a critical competitive differentiator for hospitality operators. A staggering 97% of guests agreed that cleanliness is the most important factor when choosing a restaurant, café or bar more important than cost, service, location and extras. Simply put, there are no shortcuts when it comes to cleanliness, no real savings to be made on inferior products. If your diners are unhappy with your standards of cleanliness, then how do you expect them to give you their repeat business? The reality is that many will not complain in person, but will just cross your restaurant off their option list - in fact, a quarter of the French respondents to the survey said they would simply walk out of an unclean outlet. So what are the priorities? Firstly, be proactive not reactive. Deep cleaning shouldn’t be a once a year activity, but a general mind-set. Remember, 90% of respondents think cleanliness is so important that it’s a key deciding factor when deciding whether or not to leave a tip. Cleanliness really does pay!

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Out and about

Addressing hygiene management in the hospitality sector

Hygiene in focus Organised by The Pro Chef ME and sister magazine Hospitality Business ME, with the support of Dubai Government and Dubai Municipality, the recent Hospitality Hygiene Summit brought together F&B and hospitality professionals to discuss issues of hygiene across all departments.

he industry gathered to share best practice tips and tricks at the ﬁrst Hospitality Hygiene Summit, with the day split between F&B and other hospitality departments. From staff training to the regulation of chemicals and equipment, hygiene issues were up for debate in panels and informal networking. The summit began with a keynote presentation from Bobby Krishna (Principal Food Studies and Surveys Ofﬁcer, Food Control Department, Dubai

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

Municipality) speaking in a personal capacity about the concept of crosscultural hygiene. He began asking the audience if they would eat insects, the explained that in many cultures they are a normal food source - 1,900 edible insects for part of the daily diet for 500,000 people across the globe. “we eat lots of insects every day,” he said, “but they’re tiny and hidden in fruit or vegetables or rice. Why shouldn’t full-grown insects also be edible? Perhaps they’re the future of food?”

His point was that what some people see as hygiene or safety dangers are not perceived the same way by other people. “What is safe or unsafe depends on what you usually see and safety positions are not always logical. Back home in India, for example, I don’t think about my children playing under coconut trees although a falling coconut can kill. However, here you can’t even walk onto a construction site without a safety helmet.” There are different perspectives on food hygiene

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Out and about

“HYGIENE IS BASICALLY COMMON SENSE BUT EVENTS LIKE THIS HELP TO FOCUS THE MARKET ON NEW SOLUTIONS AND PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THOSE WHO DEAL WITH HYGIENE ISSUES ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS TO REFRESH THEIR THINKING AND CONSIDER ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS. WE SEE GREAT OPPORTUNITY IN THE HOSPITALITY SECTOR FOR OUR INNOVATIVE TISSUE PRODUCTS.” - Chandan Singh, Deputy General Manager, Dhofar Global With the support of:

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Out and about

in the kitchen, he said, depending on different cultures. “There are clearly different levels of understanding of these issues. What we need to do is involve a cultural component and make unsafe practices culturally unacceptable.” This keynote was followed by two panels on hygiene in guest areas of hotels and lunch, then Chandan Singh, Deputy GM of Dhofar Global, gave the second keynote on the progression of cleaning technologies, in which he predicted electric hand

dryers could soon become a thing of the past as more people learn about US-conducted research that claims bacteria is only removed when hands are wiped on tissue. Two panels then discussed best hygiene practice in the kitchen and the future for hygiene, with panellists Chef Uwe Micheel (Director of Kitchens, Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek and President of Emirates culinary Guild), Muhammad Qamar (Director of Environmental Health and Safety,

Al Bustan Rotana), Judy Sebastian (Consultant, Apex Food Consultants), Mohammad Khalid (Food Inspector - Food Control Department, Dubai Municipality), Sascha Triemer (Executive Chef Atlantis, The Palm), Jamie Ferguson (Regional Manager MENA, M&LA), Francisco Araya (Head Chef and Programme Director, SCAFA), Tahmeera Baig (Healthy Workplace Consultant, KimberlyClark) and Chandan Singh (Deputy GM, Dhofar Global).

“HYGIENE HAS BECOME IMPORTANT IN THE UAE WITH OUR GREAT MIX OF CULTURES EACH WITH ITS OWN CUSTOMS AND PRACTICES. IT'S IMPORTANT TO ENSURE THE SAME HYGIENE HABITS ARE SHARED AND PRACTICED BY ALL.” - Jordi Perpiñá, Healthy WorkPlace Consultant Manager, Kimberly-Clark Professional

“THE SUMMIT PROVIDED A TIMELY PLATFORM FOR INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS TO NETWORK AND GATHER INFORMATION AND TECHNIQUES THAT WILL BENEFIT THEIR BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND BOOST THEIR BUSINESSES’ PERFORMANCE.” - Jamie Ferguson, Regional Manager - MENA, MLA

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Out and about

Sascha Triemer began by stressing that “regulation is a starting point and that chefs should have their own standards”. Mohammed Khalid believed that problems began with hotels sourcing cheap labour - “They need to devote more resources to staff and train them into a food safety culture.” Uwe Micheel agreed: “International chain hotels have much stricter rules than those of the Municipality - those are a minimum for us. Language is a big problem with staff." Overall, the panel agreed that common sense was essential. “A food safety culture trickles down

from management,” added Judy Sebastian. “It needs to go all the way down to ground zero and commitment is required from the whole team.” Muhammad Qamar stressed “the need to quantify the size of the challenge and then train better”. Jamie Ferguson agreed but added that “HACCP is a guideline but management really has to buy in”. Uwe Micheel believed that the best thing we could all do for food hygiene was to ring a bell every tem minutes for compulsory hand washing! “When I see some kitchens, I have to be very hungry indeed to eat there.”

Francisco Araya summed up the discussion for many of the chefs at the summit. “At school, I had book-based training ll about theory. Now it’s on a practical basis. Hygiene is something we have to address on a daily basiss. It’s all about training."

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And the winner is? This year’s Middle East Hotel Awards, presented at a gala dinner held at Jumeirah Creekside Hotel on May 22nd, saw regional hotels honoured in a variety of categories, from Best Lobby Reception to Best Outdoor Area, Best Hotel Suite to Best Hotel. We focus on the Best Restaurant/F&B award.

he Middle East Hotel Awards, presented in the past at The Hotel Show but this year preceeding it, are well known in the industry as setting the standard for recognising the regional hospitality sector. Award criteria focus heavily on design and operational criteria but, for this year’s Best Restaurant/F&B award, two of the judges looked at the finalists purely in terms of their F&B delivery - from menu clarity to technical skills, food knowledge to quality of service. This, combined with other judges’ view of the more traditional MEHA criteria, produced a balanced view of the award and delivered a more complex final shortlist. The two F&B focused judges - Dave Reeder, editor of The Pro Chef ME, and Chef Uwe Micheel, Director of Kitchens, Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek and President of the Emirates Culinary Guild - discuss the state of the regional hotel-based F&B scene. Dave Reeder: Let’s start with what we perhaps found the hardest part. How do you compare restaurants catering to very different audiences fine dining against casual dining, say? Uwe Micheel: It’s always a problem with awards and it’s very, very difficult. Where I think these awards differ is that emphasis is also put on non-food elements such as design, uniforms, ambience and so on. That makes the judging more holistic. It’s always a hard process. Reeder: But on the specific point of fine dining against casual? I believe the organisers are discussing ways of changing this category but I know it was tough for us, when considering the menu, quality of food, etc. Micheel: It’s hard when there’s only one F&B category as the restaurant choice in the region is so very diverse. we have everything here! Just to show the problem, let’s take two restaurants: Zuma and table 9. Now, i’ve often had to judge one against the other in various awards and obviously they’re very different in terms of food, style and so on. So the final choice can come

WINNER Deserved winner of the Best Restaurant/F&B award 2013 was Ossiano at Atlantis The Palm. Judges praised the menu, service, wine list, design and ambience when singling out the restaurant for praise. Congratulations to the whole Ossiano team! Full details of other award winners and the ﬁnal shortlisted hotels in each award category can be found here: www.thehotelshow.com/MEHAwinners

Chef Uwe Micheel

Editor Dave Reeder

down to just one dish, as all the other criteria will be so close in execution even though the styles are different. Reeder: As in, great service is a given? Food knowledge is a given? And so on? No compromises? Micheel: Exactly. You expect the atmosphere and so on. Here’s another example - friends are having a 20th anniversary special meal and decide to go to the Marriott Marquis, but haven’t decided on an outlet. How do they choose? If my wife and I have a special occasion, I’d choose table 9 but she’d choose Zuma! Reeder: Do you think that hotel-based F&B is improving in quality at present? Micheel: We had a time when things were improving, but I feel that over the last 18 months quite a few restaurants are declining in quality.

Reeder: Why is that? Micheel: Clearly, the main reason is too many openings which mean that staff get pinched and many places are struggling without properly trained staff. And just look at how many more hotels are coming up! Of course, the market has become tougher too. Reeder: I think standards drop whenever there is pressure on costs, as there clearly has been over the last few years. Micheel: Absolutely. In a restaurant, your two biggests expenses are payroll and F&B. Sure, you can change uniforms less frequently or introduce more energy saving schemes, but the money involved is small. So people are forced to put pressure on food suppliers and on staff costs. Nobody can afford to bring in top quality staff from Europe. Reeder: This isn’t just a problem in hospitality, but generally in the region there’s a reluctance to spend on training, through a fear that staff will then move. Micheel: But we need training. A lot of the guys in the kitchen are good but they have limited skills and it’s hard to get them to take responsibility, which has an affect on standards. The biggest problem is not tasting food as they prepare it. The argument is that it’s not their type of food and that they don’t like it, but you can’t cook well without tasting. Too many people just go for the look of a plate. Reeder: One thing that surprised me is the number of great restaurants that didn’t enter. Micheel: No, that’s not unusual. You might think it’s because they don’t want to be seen to lose but there’s a whole ﬁnancial aspect of wasting money and time on applications if they’re not going to lead anywhere. Personally, I think competitions are great for chefs, especially the younger ones, as it’s good training and helps keep them keen. A win in any award scheme is great motivation for the team and great motivation for guests to return.

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The eggs factor

Meat and greet With more than 15 outlets in its international chain, Argentinian-themed Gaucho is a favourite for steak lovers. But what does Mike Reid, Executive Chef for the brand as a whole, keep in his fridge at home? Is there anything non-carnivorous in there?

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The eggs factor

ike Reid oversees all food aspects of the Gaucho business, from menu development, training and recruitment to overseeing the menus for all of Gaucho's events. He spends most of his time in the kitchens working with his team of chefs both in the UK and Dubai. He joined the company in 2007 as Sous Chef, opening Gaucho Richmond, before moving to Head Chef just four months later, before moving to Gaucho 02 in charge of up to 1,000 covers a day. In 2011, he became Executive Chef for the Gaucho group. He had a passion for food from his youth and started his career in 2001 while at the University of Portsmouth studying Business and Marketing as well as working in brassiere-style restaurant Trufﬂes. On graduation, he decided he wanted to work in a London kitchen, taking on a modern day apprentice at the In and Out club in St James,

before moving onto another private members’ club. Before joining Gaucho, he worked under Michael Roux Jr at Le Gavroche and Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road. A typical day consists of meeting suppliers and researching new produce and equipment. Lunch in the restaurant is usually ceviche and baby gem salad, followed by visits to one or two of the Gaucho restaurants in the UK (12 in London, plus Gaucho Leeds and Gaucho Manchester). On these visits, he works Head Chefs or Sous Chefs on the new dishes created in the development kitchen in Gaucho O2. Most evenings, he again eats in the restaurant - always steak or pork matambre. So, what does he keep in his fridge? Illy fresh coffee: This is essential for me when I work 80 hours a week or more! Pork cutlets: These are very versatile for cooking and my second favourite type of meat.

Duck confit: This homemade treat is for my fiancée as it's her favourite. Chilli and basil oil: This is great way of adding taste to any dinner. Skimmed milk: On orders from my fiancée! Eggs: High in protein and a staple part of my diet. GFM organic honey: I like to have this over yoghurt and fruit for breakfast in the morning. Onken natural yoghurt: A nutritious option for breakfast. Pickled onions: They are tasty and great with cheese. Apple chutney: Perfect with cheese. Fig chutney: Another favourite with cheese! Cheese: I love all varieties with a real strong flavour and bite. My current favourites are Montgomery: Cheddar, Coolea cheeseand Stinking Bishop. Wine and champagne: Including White Argentine Torrontes and Veuve Clicquot.

SHOPPING PLACES I am spoilt for choice as there are so many great food markets in London so I try to shop at local markets when I can but, as you can imagine, working 80 hours a week can make that tricky at times. There‚Äôs a small place called Green Village near Marble Arch which is a fantastic market and serves fresh, crisp vegetables. Also Neal's Yard in Borough Market is my ultimate onestop-shop for cheese. I also nip into my local Marks & Spencer for basics and essentials as it’s good quality and right around the corner.

“RIB EYE IS THE MEAT LOVER'S STEAK AS IT'S THE MOST FLAVOURSOME - DELICIOUSLY JUICY AND TENDER. I COOK IT MEDIUM RARE WITH A SMOKED GARLIC RUB OR SERVED WITH A SMOKED GARLIC HOLLANDAISE SAUCE.” - Mike Reid

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Round table

Setting the scene What makes a memorable dining experience? well, the food, of course - that should be exceptional. And great service is also an essential part of any good meal. The third element? That oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a bit more intangible, but the restaurant ambience and design needs to be sympathetic and in keeping with the food. We chatted to three industry veterans to get their views on trends in restaurant design and how the eating out scene is changing.

Willi Eisener, MD of Bespoke Conceptsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Food & Beverage Division

Michael Kitts, Director of Culinary Arts, The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management

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Round table

et a small handful of industry experts round a table and sit back to watch - that’s what we achieved this month when we discussed the restaurant scene with Willi Eisener, MD of Bespoke Concepts’ Food & Beverage Division; Deff Haupt, Culinary Director of Kempinski Hotel & Residences, Palm Jumeirah; and Michael Kitts, Director of Culinary Arts, The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management. A good place to start, perhaps, is the new trend for open kitchens which seems to be changing the dynamics of eating out as well forcing changes in restaurant design. What are your feelings? Willi Eisener: Of course, this is not a new thing. Open kitchens have been around for a long time, especially in the Far East - look at places like Mezzanine in Singapore. However, I think the

concept continues to evolve and the whole dining experience is changing. Dubai in a sense is quite unique and interior design is certainly playing a larger part than it used to.

Eisener: I do think there’s a difference between dining concepts in hotels and standalone restaurants. An Italian restaurant can be anything really.

Is good design essential to a good meal? Eisener: Food and service are always a must, but I believe that the new differentiation is to ensure that the room is comfortable. But good service is so important. Michael Kitts: What’s important, I think, is what happens when you walk in the door - that wow factor. Of course, if the food is not there to the right level then the design’s just a waste of money. Eisener: You can have fantastic design, but often the lighting is the critical element. Deff Haupt: The risk being taken is that you end up going anywhere and you keep seeing the same concepts. Look at all day dining - everything’s the same and you don’t feel any individual ﬂare. We do what guests want and they are used to certain things so you go Italian - it’s a very safe choice so it’s available anywhere in the world. Pasta and pizza - all the same food.

What do you look for in a restaurant? Eisener: The food, but if the experience is bad I don’t give a place another chance. That said, I used to go quite often to somewhere not very special but where there was a buzz and I knew the staff. Yet here’s an example of how even the smallest things can change your mind: I like a glass of wine and this restaurant suddenly changed the glasses to a much bigger size, though the portion was the same. It’s a small thing, a psychological thing but it spoilt the experience. Kitts: In Dubai, we’re very spoilt for choice and frankly restaurants get one bite of the cherry. If they don’t get it right, then... Eisener: If a restaurant charges me more for a glass of wine than a main course, then I won’t support it. Haupt: It’s often the simplest things You can go to a place and have the most incredible salad dressing but the next time you go back it’s only good. Consistency is so important. Kitts: One thing I like is how Okku changes in the evening from dining to a more clubby feel, It’s very slick. Haupt: I know this comes up in every discussion but you need an owner with a dream. In Berlin, I’ve seen the best chefs open places and then not survive the ﬁrst year because diners want fun. Eisener: It’s the same in the UK - how many places close down? It’s scary. The big change here will be if standalone restaurants are able to serve alchohol and that will be a major wake up call for hotels. Already, the number of bargain offers shows how ﬁerce the competition is.

So for you design is less important? Haupt: I think food and design have to work together to deliver something amazing. Look at La Petite Maison - I don’t see it as really having been designed. It’s just a small Nice bistro. There’s a restaurant where you don’t need amazing design - just good food, an efﬁcient kitchen and good service.

Deff Haupt, Culinary Director of Kempinski Hotel & Residences, Palm Jumeirah

It’s certainly true that some places are horribly overdesigned... Haupt: In Berlin now there’s a trend towards trash, but places only stay popular for a short time. Nobody wants to sit in an empty restaurant. I think there a real difference between different age groups. Over 45 perhaps, people are looking for great service and a chance to relax; under that, they want a more ﬂashy experience.

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How likely is a change in the alcohol policy? Eisener: I have no inside information but the success of restaurants in DIFC shows a way forward maybe.

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Round table

Kitts: I’d say that, for 2020, people will need that choice. They don’t always want to eat in a hotel. Haupt: If there is a change, I personally doubt that hotels would suffer too much. Eisener: It’s more than a tourist market, of course, Expats are increasingly conscious of their spending and would often rather go to a reasonable restaurant. Which brings us to another major change - the rise of casual dining. Are the days of ﬁne dining numbered? Eisener: It’s all to do with a shift of generations - younger people have different demands and socalising is important. Trendy places in the UK have shown us the way with basic design, communal tables and so on. It’s a different dining experience. Fine dining will not, I think, continue as it used to be. We have to redeﬁne it as that 3-star experience is not the exception. Haupt: Yes, it’s all about the socialising and, in

Dubai, there are a lot of people on their own and they want to be with other people. Fine dining is now for special occasions nd I feel it’s sad that it’s changing. But even chefs meet up for lunch evening meals are just too long! Eisener: Fine dining will always be there, but things change. Kitts: I think you’ll see celebrations at the top end and most restaurants will become places for social networking. Eisener: Yes, a different experience. We’re of a generation who liked to dine out but we need to forget our emotions here. Variety is nice. Haupt: When people decide to go out and there’s no special occasion, then they like plces where they’re known. If the food and experience is consistent, then they’ll go back. Let me tell you of this place in Berlin which has become an institution, Cookies. The German dining experience used to be very, well, proper and correct. Cookies is a bar, a club and a restaurant and the owner could

“WHAT’S IMPORTANT, I THINK, IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU WALK IN THE DOOR - THAT WOW FACTOR. OF COURSE, IF THE FOOD IS NOT THERE TO THE RIGHT LEVEL THEN THE DESIGN’S JUST A WASTE OF MONEY.” - Michael Kitts, Director of Culinary Arts, The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management

Round table sponsored by: The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

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Round table

then customers will come. Haupt: There’s one common problem in hotels. You need space for breakfast but then there’s not much doing over lunch, so it’s only really then evening when you can do real dining. Eisener: So many things are happening in the global food market, but the dynamics are different here. Kitts: I think Japanese cuisine will keep getting better. Everyone seems to love sharing. Eisener: If we’re talking trends then we need to define them. Both Japanese and Indian are very sustainable as business models. Other trends will stay with us but change - sustainability evolves into organic and artisan and so on. Generations will make the changes. Haupt: The worst thing I see all the time are fixed stations for all-day dining. If diners are not using all of them, then you’re losing money - they don’t look nice when they’re empty. You need flexibiliy. Kitts: If you want to share plates then you don’t mind being quite cozy but, personally, I dislike it when restaurants put in too many seats and it feels so over-crowded.

have done anything with the space but he went for trashy. Nothing is beautiful but you go there and you’ll see an ambassador next to a punk next to an actress. Why does it work? Because the food and price are correct. Eisener: Socialising needs the right infrastructure to make it work. You see it in places like the traditional souk in Doha with little coffee shops where people meet or work or just watch life. What major changes do you see? Haupt: I don’t think people realise how tough it is to create a ﬁne dining menu. How do you grow a restaurant here? Hotels are too demanding. Standalone restaurants are impossible because of the alcohol restrictions. Kitts: In the past in London it was killer to a great restaurant in a hotel if there wasn’t a seperate entrance. Haupt: I do think we have a problem. Where can a young chef grow here? It takes time to get a name, but then where does he go. Look at the number of chefs behind a restaurant with a named chef - who knows them. So is the lack of Michelin in the region distorting

the market? Haupt: Becoming a great chef is the same here as anywhere. You can make your name in two to three years if you consistently deliver great food, but where then? Back to trends... Haupt: I’m very afraid about one thing: consulting companies with experience in the US and UK markets who come up with amazing concepts. But the food is too similar and so everything becomes the same. The same menus. Eisener: Cosmopolitan. Kitts: Global. Eisener: The thing is that hotels put a lot of efforts into rooms and they have amazing market research but they don’t use for the restaurants. So much is based on emotional decisions - The GM will decide something based on what his wife says. Haupt: So who’s the next big group of customers? Russians or Chinese? Eisener: There’s nothing wrong in targeting groups as long as you do your market research. So many people in hospitality say they know Dubai - no, they don’t unless they do in-depth market studies. If you do that and if you develop the right concept,

What is the biggest problem that ‘design’ brings? Eisener: The main one is when the basic design of a building is not efficient. A project will be driven by the design of a conceptual architect but the result can be a nightmare. Kitts: In some hotels, finding the washroom turns into a real expedition. You end up having to walk so far that you might as well strap on a backpack! Eisener: Owners and operators sometimes just don’t see the loss of efficiency Haupt: An owner needs to be fully aware of what he wants to do with a property to maximise his return. It may be that it makes more sense to make a hotel a 3-star rather than a 5-star in order to reduce operational costs and make more money. Eisener: Of course, the owner wants his return. Hotels are very good at providing what guests want in a room, now they need to put that effort in other areas. A good first step might be making lobby areas into places more suitable for business and socialising.

THANKS Our thanks to The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management for kindly hosting this discussion.

“IT’S OFTEN THE SIMPLEST THINGS YOU CAN GO TO A PLACE AND HAVE THE MOST INCREDIBLE SALAD DRESSING BUT THE NEXT TIME YOU GO BACK IT’S ONLY GOOD. CONSISTENCY IS SO IMPORTANT. “ - Deff Haupt, Culinary Director of Kempinski Hotel & Residences, Palm Jumeirah

Round table sponsored by: The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

In association with: www.cpimediagroup.com

Ingredient

King of radishes Widely eaten in Japan and also popular in China, Korea, Vietnam and India, the large Asian radish known as daikon can be used raw in salads, as a garnish and in dipping sauces, cooked in soups, stews, stir fries and curries and the leaves can even be eaten as a leaf vegetable.

aikon also known as mooli or white radish, is a mild-ﬂavoured, very large, white East Asian radish with a wide variety of culinary uses. Often associated with Japan, it was originally cultivated in continental Asia. Although there are many varieties of daikon, the most common in Japan, the aokubi-daikon, has the shape of a giant carrot. One of the most unusually shaped varieties of daikon is the turnip-shaped sakurajima daikon, which often weighs as much as 45 kg though the ﬂavour is generally rather mild compared to smaller radishes. Korean varieties are larger and rounder than the long, thin Japanese types and are often spicier. In Japanese cuisine, many types of pickles are made with daikon. Daikon is also frequently used grated and mixed into ponzu, a soy sauce and citrus juice condiment. Simmered dishes are also popular such as oden. Daikon that has been shredded and dried (a common method of

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

preserving food in Japan) is called kiriboshi-daikon (literally ‘cut-dried daikon’). Sprouts (kaiwaredaikon) are used for salad or garnishing sashimi. In Chinese cuisine, turnip cake and chai tow kway are made with daikon. The variety called mooli has a high water content and some cooks recommend salting and draining it before it is cooked. In Korean cuisine, a variety is used to make kkakdugi, nabak kimchi and muguk soup. The younger version of the radish is used with the leaves in chonggak kimchi. In Philippine cuisine, a soupy dish called sinigang is optionally cooked with daikon, known locally as labanos. In Pakistani cuisine, the young leaves of the daikon plant are boiled and flash fried with a mixture of heated oil, garlic, ginger, red chili and a variety of spices. The radish is eaten as a fresh salad often seasoned with either salt and pepper or chaat masala. In Bangladesh, fresh daikon is often finely grated and mixed with fresh chilli, coriander, flaked steamed fish, lime juice and salt. This light,

TRY IT THESE WAYS Enjoy shredded radish instead of cabbage in your next coleslaw. Add a cubed daikon to your next pot roast or pan of roasted vegetables. Place daikon in a baking pan with carrots, onions, garlic, seasoning, vegetable broth, lean meat and a selection of vegetables, then cook slowly. Mix a cup of fresh or frozen mango with 1/2 cup carrot juice and 1/2 cup of daikon plus a handful of ice cubes. Use daikon in any recipe that calls for radishes. Use daikon any way you would use a carrot - baked or boiled in stews and soups or in a stir fry. Or try them lightly steamed with olive oil, salt or lemon juice. Slice daikon radishes and add to salads. A traditional Japanese cake, also known as Daikon mochi, is made by combining shredded daikon, rice ﬂour, various shredded or chopped vegetables and dried shrimp. Combine sliced daikon, brown rice, one egg, a selection of vegetables and stir fry.

refreshing preparation is served alongside meals and is known as mulo bhorta. In South India, daikon is the principal ingredient in a variety of sambar, in which roundels of the radish are boiled with onions, tamarind pulp, lentils and a special spice powder. And in Vietnamese cuisine, both sweet and sour pickled daikon and carrots are a common condiment

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HAMPSTEAD TEA LONDON

Market focus

Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. During the whole month, faithful observers of Islam fast from sunrise (Sahour) to sunset (Iftar). During the fast, no food or drink is consumed and thoughts must be kept pure. The reason? Islam teaches that fasting helps the Muslim learn patience, modesty and spirituality.

he holy month is Ramadan presents F&B professionals with both an opportunity and a challenge. Despite the paradox of it being a month of fasting, in fact food revenues peak as Muslims gather for communal meals, providing hotels with the opportunity to provide lavish spreads. The challenge? The tradition of lavish spreads pushes capability and increases food costs due to the amount of uneaten food. During Ramadan, two main meals are served; the suhoor, which is served before dawn, and the iftar, which is served after sunset. Since the suhoor is intended to last one throughout the day, it tends to be a heavy and hearty meal. Suhoor ends when the sun rises and the fajr, or morning prayer, begins. At the end of the day, when the sun sets, the maghrib prayer starts and the day’s fast is broken with the iftar meal. Many Muslims break their fast by eating dates before beginning the iftar meal. Muslims can continue eating and

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

drinking through the night until the next suhoor. Both the suhoor and iftar meals contain fresh fruit, vegetables, halal meats, breads, cheeses and sweets. Remember that the Muslim world is large and is not only in the Middle East- there are Muslims worldwide in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The types of food served vary by region. The meals are served either at home with family, or in the community mosques, or other designated places within the Muslim community. To provide healthy Ramadan meals, it’s important to remember that you need to put extra effort into including foods from all five food groups to ensure variety and a well-balanced diet. On other words, for example: breads, cereals and other grain products; fruit and vegetables; meat, fish and poultry; milk, cheese and yoghurt; and limited fats and sugars (these contain very little nutrients and are high in calories and therefore their intake should be limited). The most commonly consumed foods by the Prophet were milk, dates, lamb/mutton and oats, while healthy foods mentioned in the Holy Quran are fruit and vegetables, such as olives, onions, cucumber, figs, dates, grapes as well as pulses such as lentils. Good for fasters are foods containng complex carbohydrates that will help release energy slowly - grains and seeds like barley, wheat, oats, millets, semolina, beans, lentils, wholemeal flour and basmati rice. Fibre-rich foods are also digested slowly and include bran, cereals, whole wheat, grains and seeds, potatoes with skin, vegetables such as green beans and almost all fruit, including apricots, prunes and figs. Foods to avoid are heavily processed and fast-burning ones that contain refined carbohydrates such as sugar and white flour or fatty food like cakes, biscuits, chocolates and sweets. We spoke to three high-profile chefs about Ramadan planning: Uwe Micheel, Director of Kitchens, Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek and President, Emirates Culinary Guild; Mark Patten, Vice President, Culinary, Atlantis, The Palm Dubai; and Thomas Pendarovski, Executive Chef, Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach.

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Market focus

At what point in the year do you start planning your F&B offering for Ramadan? Uwe Micheel: Usually, you start six months before, working on menus, opening hours and so on. Mark Patten: We start work almost immediately after the Ramadan ďŹ nishes. We have a lot to do and need time to get all our next year's ideas into action. It is a very special time of the year and a lot of effort goes into ensuring a very successful Ramadan. Thomas Pendarovski: I like to have everything in place one month prior to the start of Ramadan. We usually do a practice run, just to make sure that we have all what is needed. How do you balance respect for tradition with a desire for innovation? Micheel: Most menus are traditional but, when it comes to presentation and set up, innovation plays a big role. Patten: We ensure our food product and variety is always evolving with some innovations each year, however we never lose site of the importance that food has during the period of Ramadan so certain items will never change. Pendarovski: Personally, I love the tradition. As chefs we try too hard to impress and this is where we make mistakes. I really believe that we shouldn't reinvent the wheel.

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June 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

Market focus

How do you make your Ramadan meals appealing to both Muslim and non-Muslim diners? Do you see differences in taste that you have to cater for? Micheel: The key meal is the iftar, when more and more non-Muslims join the colleagues or friends and mostly want to experience the real thing. Patten: Arabic cuisine has a fabulous depth in tradition and variety - just look at the wide selection of just vegetarian cold mezzah there is so we would never need to alter the authenticity of the product. It must to true to flavour and also tradition. So we don't need to change appearance or taste for any of our guests. Pendarovski: I think that the best way is to balance all the flavours. I love to see colours and flavours come out. In our kitchen, we try not to mask the food too much, my personal rule is let the dish speak for itself. Do you consciously try to make Ramadan food as healthy as possible? Do you see part of your role as helping people understand the need to eat sensibly during this period? Micheel: The traditional iftar buffet offers a lot of healthy dishes. The key is the right balance and, in general, the majority of guests do not want to be educated but instead enjoy the meal. Patten: In general, Arabic cuisine has many healthy options to select from the wide range of dishes. There’s a lot based on salads and vegetables to balance with the grilled items. This gives a chance to choose also the amount of food consumed as this is more important for a balanced diet. Pendarovski: I think that in this day in age, we all have an obligation in making sure that the food we prepare has a healthy appeal; I always love talking to the guests about the food we have prepared for them. It is important as a chef to try and educate the guest. How do you cope with the extra demands on your kitchen and service staff? Micheel: There is not really a lot of extra demand, but the timing is shifted. In general, we have a

+HDOWK\ IDVWLQJ After eating, the human gut takes around eight hours to absorb all nutrients, storing glucose in the liver and muscles for energy. What follows is a fasting state until the next food, in which the body uses that glucose ﬁrst followed by fat. It can take days or even weeks for a fast to result in the breaking down of protein for energy - technically starvation. As the Ramadan fast only extends from dawn until dusk, there is ample opportunity to replenish energy stores at iftar and suhour. However, balanced food and ﬂuid intake are both key between fasts and, to prevent muscle breakdown, meals should contain adequate levels of carbohydrates and fat for energy.

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

small team working during fasting hours and majority of the team working evening shift. Patten: For our Ramadan Asateer Tent, we catered for 45,000 guest throughout Ramadan last year! We are organised and the team know what to expect. We grow each year and are all geared up and ready for the challenges throughout the month. Pendarovski: Prior to the month of Ramadan, all my Sous Chefs and I look at the schedule and make sure that we are all covered in every area possible. During Ramadan, I have maybe one or two chefs who are on vacation. The rest of us are here to make sure that everything is running smoothly. How aware are you of what other hotels are offering? Do you see trends appearing? Micheel: There is a need to know what your competitors are doing. The two main things I saw last year are that more non-Muslim people are enjoying iftar events and that the presentation of buffet is getting more modern. Patten: We have seen since we started a few years back speciﬁc cooking stations and bringing of more live cooking elements into the buffets and deﬁnitely innovating ways of serving selected food items from the kunafa warming brass tray to the wooden stackable sarj boards each year. We bring new elements into both the meals in regards to the food product like the whole roasted steamship (Entire beef hindquarter 20KG a piece).

We also turned the chocolate fountain into a Tahini fountain which was fun - guests loved it. Pendarovski: I try and go out and see as many hotels as I can. I think that we all see this as an advantage. With respect to trends, I really don't see anything out there new. I love sticking with tradition. There was comment in the press last Ramadan about the excessive supply of food and consequent wastage. Have you modiﬁed your plans this year in light of that? Micheel: I’m not sure what the press is referring to, but I believe that hotels and restaurants in general have controls in place to produce the correct quantities, but then there will always be some wastage as we know some people take more food on the plate than they can actually consume. In addition, some food from the buffet has to be discarded for food safety reason. Patten: We must offer variety and quality within our buffets and also be very careful and mindful of the amount of waste. However, with the numbers we cater for, our waste is kept lower by cooking smaller amounts of food at a time and looking at the size of the serving platters we use. Pendarovski: For me, I always look at our occupancy and any groups that are in the hotel. My biggest pet peeve is wasting food, so all my chefs are very conscious about what we prepare and how much we prepare.

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Your guests deserve the best.

Product focus

Cool and healthy The arrival of summer brings a double need: everybody wants to cool down and they want to try and be healthier, to offset the hostile weather. A range of new drinks on the local market can only help.

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

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Product focus

e’re used to breaking world records in the Emirates. There’s a culture of striving to be number one. However, one ‘achievement’ is not one that we should take pride in: residents are currently drinking three times more carbonated drinks than the global average, a staggering 103 litres per person a year. That was the key result of the world’s largest survey of soft drink consumption, released earlier this year and carried out with the support of the World Health Organisation. The result is as one might expect - rapidly growing waistlines and a diabetes explosion. The top four soft drink consuming countries were Mexico, the USA, Argentina, Chile and then the UAE. Average annual global consumption of soft drinks is 43 litres per head. According to the World Health Organisation, every gallon increase in sugary soft drink consumption pushes 5% of consumers into overweight status, 1% into obesity and one in 300 adults contracting diabetes. The four year study, however, did not look at fruit juices and sports drinks. However there are positive signs in the local market of more sophisticated change, according to Jeremy Coulbeck, General Manager of Monin ME, A French company best known for its quality syrups and related products. “We see the market for premium syrups growing. It is very positive and fast growing, with Monin experiencing double digit growth in all markets despite our competition showing more interest in this area.” Ashkan Ashrafi, Head of Sales – Retail Division, MSI agrees. "The market for premium soft drinks is growing because consumers are demanding better quality, healthier ingredients with no artificial additives and a clean fresh taste. Assurance about the provenance of ingredients is becoming more important to consumers and ethical considerations such as purchasing from a socially aware brand is a growing trend. Of course, consumers also like to be seen with a premium drink that looks good, and it must have appealing flavours. Our range of organic drinks from BerryWhite has all these credentials - it tastes good, is good for you and is also good for others! With the need especially in

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"DUBAI’S WARM WEATHER, CAFÉ AND COFFEE SHOP CULTURE, PLUS ALCOHOL FREE DINING CREATES A PREMIUM SOFT DRINK MARKET POTENTIAL THAT IS NOWHERE NEAR ACHIEVED AS YET." - Ashkan Ashrafi, Head of Sales – Retail Division, MSI agrees. summer months for a large daily liquid intake and rising perceptions of the need for healthier lifestyles, consumers with more disposable income are looking for more ways to add variety to their daily drinks portfolio, from premium bottled waters to quality fresh juice, health drinks to syrup-enhanced concoctions. We can expect the shift towards more premium products too in the light of recent revelations from Dubai Municipality that some cafeterias are supplying fresh juice made from rotten fruit, which contain illness-causing toxins and bacteria. According to Bashir Yousef, Food Safety Expert at the Municipality’s Food Control Department, "People should not use spoilt food for any kind of sale”. Coulbeck says that consumers are becoming more adventurous with flavours. “On the cocktail side, strawberry is still the top selling flavour but passion fruit is growing fast and there is big

interest for new exotic products as long as they have a real fruit taste proﬁle like our fruit mixes or the recently launched kiwi and green apple purees.” 60% of Monin’s regional business comes from syrups. “People are getting more educated as travelling extensively exposes them to different trends and tastes from all over the world." Ashraﬁ is seeing the same trend. "We’re proving that consumers are willing to be adventurous and try new ingredients such as superfruits - that they have probably never heard of before - if they’re mixed with other fruits known to them. So popular at present are Goji berries with peaches, white tea and echinacea or Cranberry, guava and elderberry with white tea and guarana. Another emerging trend we see is for drinks that taste great on their own but can be drunk alongside a meal without overpowering the food."

June 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

Toque to me

The great moderniser Georges Auguste Escoffier was the French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularised and updated traditional French cooking methods. He is a legendary figure in the industry, much of his technique was based on that of Marie-Antoine Carème, one of the codifiers of French haute cuisine. Escoffier’s achievement was to simplify and modernise Carème’s elaborate and ornate style.

scoffier was France’s preeminent chef in the early part of the 20th century. He raised cooking to the status of a respected profession by introducing organised discipline to his kitchens. His Le Guide Culinaire is which is still used as a major reference work and his recipes, techniques and approaches to kitchen management remain highly influential today, adopted by chefs and restaurants not only in France, but also throughout the world. Birn near Nice, he apprenticed aged 13 to his uncle’s Le Restaurant Français, in the city, before moving to Le Petit Moulin Rouge in Paris. In the 1870s, he opened his own restaurant, Le Faisan d’Or in Cannes before taking control in 1884 of the kitchen at the Grand Hotel in Monaco. Every summer, he ran the kitchen of the Hotel National in Lucerne, where he met Cèsar Ritz. They formed a partnership and in 1890 accepted an invitation from Richard D’Oyly Carte to transfer to his new Savoy Hotel in London. It was an instant success and Escoffier created many famous dishes there, including Peach Melba, Melba toast, Bombe Néro, Fraises à la Sarah Bernhardt, Baisers de Vierge and Suprèmes de volailles Jeannette. After suspicion of theft of wine and spirits, the two men set up the Ritz Hotel Development Company and Escoffier set up kitchens and recruited chefs for the Paris Ritz and the new Carlton Hotel in London, which soon drew much of the high-society clientele away from the Savoy. Ritz moved into retirement after opening The Ritz London Hotel in 1906 and Escoffier in 1920. His obituary in The Times read in part, ‘Colour meant so much to Escoffier and a memory arises of a feast at the Carlton for which the table decorations were white and pink roses, with silvery leaves - the background for a dinner all white and pink, Borscht striking the deepest note, Filets de poulet à la Paprika coming next and the Agneau de lait forming the high note.’

“LA BONNE CUISINE EST LA BASE DU VÉRITABLE BONHEUR [‘GOOD FOOD IS THE FOUNDATION OF GENUINE HAPPINESS']." - Escofﬁer

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

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Being cheffy

Why would you do that,chef? Very few chefs make a decent living just from running a restaurant - that’s why they extend their brand into catering or retail goods, cookbooks to TV. But some seem to take it just a bit too far, endorsing products that seem, at best, counter-intuitive to their reputation. TOM COLICCHIO

RACHAEL RAY

With restaurants like Craft and Colicchio & Sons, this James Beard Award winner has a wildly successful career as a chef and restaurateur. However, he may be better known as the head judge and executive producer of the reality TV series Top Chef, offering trenchant criticisms of contestants' dishes. So why would he want to endorse Diet Coke?

She has a wildly successful career as a syndicated television star, an iconic Food Network television personality, bestselling cookbook author, Founder and Editorial Director of her own lifestyle magazine and Founder of the Yum-o! organisation - all based on delivering quick, no nonsense recipes. So why would she attach her ‘brand’ to a range of dog food?

"Eating well and living well doesn't mean you have to sacriﬁce great taste."

“There’s no junk in them, no by-products, no ﬁllers. Your pooch will ﬁnd a delicious

MICHAEL SYMON A James Beard Award winner and an Iron Chef since 2008, Symon’s success as a restauranteur and his infectious TV personality make him a popular ﬁgure, delivering gutsy food that draws on his Greek and Sicilian heritage. So why would he want to endorse Lay’s potato chips?

FERRAN ADRI One of the world's most creative chefs, Ferran Adrià's constant passion for creating new concepts, techniques and ﬂavours won his now closed elBullirestaurante three Michellin stars and a reputation for several year’s as the world’s absolute best restaurant. He continues to inspire. So why would he endorse Star EVOO? “This olive oil enhances salads, vegetables and all foods when a rich olive ﬂavour is preferred.”

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

“My Dad is the biggest snacker of all time. So as a kid - and because of him still to this day - Salt & Vinegar chips and French Onion dip are my guilty pleasure, for lack of other terms. I blame it all on my father; or, thank my father, however you want to look at that. As a chef, nothing is really too crazy. When you eat around the world you eat some weird stuff. What is perfectly normal to one person is very different to somebody else, so I never really get too weirded out by a ﬂavour idea.”

MARCO PIERRE WHITE From humble beginnings to Leeds to three Michelin stars and then an ascent to serial entrepreneur and restauranteur, White’s career arc is well know. His ‘White Heat’ cookbook is widely seen as one of the most inﬂuential of the last 25 years and he inspired a generation of British chefs with his dedication, passion for ingredients and sheer hard work. So why would he want to endorse Knorr stock cubes? “By working with companies like Knorr it allows me to stand onto a bigger stage and enrich people’s lives. Michelin stars, they’re my past.”

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Pimp my plate

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

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Pimp my plate

Taking stock Growing up in Tamil Nadu, Prabakaran Manickuam became Regional Head Chef for The Meat Co last year, working with chefs across the South African chain's ﬁve locations across Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE. Rising to the challenge, he put away his steak knives and tackled a Norwegian ﬁsh soup.

hef Praba graduated from Bharath University in Tamil Nadu with a degree in Hotel Management in 2005. He started his career at Centre Point: the ﬁve star hotel in Nagpur, specialising in continental as well as traditional Indian cuisine.

Despite the reputation for southern India as a cornucopia of vegetarian dishes, his parents “cooked lots of meat and that I think is why I love it,” he explained. With experience of cooking steaks and other western meat dishes in Tamil Nadu, he relocated to Dubai in 2007 to join The

Meat Co. He quickly added expertise in South African cuisine to his repetoire and became a 'meatologist'. Promoted last year to Regional Head Chef of The Meat Co, he spends a lot of time developing new meat dishes. So was he disappointed to be given a seafood challenge? “If I’d had the choice I would have chosen meat, but seafood was more of a challenge for me and I welcome the pressure.” That’s the attitude that made him switch early in his career from hotel to restaurant - “Most chefs want to move the other way but I think more pressure makes you learn. In a restaurant, I have the freedom to work my own ideas and do more what I want.” Had he eaten much Scandinavian food before taking up the challenge? “No, not really except for some salmon dishes but when I saw the recipe, I thought at once of my Executive Chef’s clam chowder and the flavour profile of that. One thing I was sure about - it would need lots of seafood.” Would he cook it again and would it find a place on The Meat Co’s menu? “It was a great challenge and I really enjoyed it, but I don’t think it really fits what our guests want. It’s a good dish, though!”

Norwegian ﬁskesuppe Ingredients: 6 tbps unsalted butter 4 garlic cloves, chopped 2 stalks celery, chopped 1 small onion, chopped 1 green pepper, seeded and chopped 1 small leek, sliced 1/4 inch thick salt and black pepper, to taste 2 medium carrots, sliced 1/4 inch thick 1 large parsnip, peeled and chopped 1 small celeriac, peeled and chopped 4 medium new potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

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3 cups fish stock 2 cups milk 1 cup heavy/double cream 1.5 tbps Worcestershire sauce 1 kg boneless and skinless white fish fillets, cut into /2-inch pieces 1/3 cup dill, chopped, plus more for garnish 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped juice of one lemon crusty bread, for serving Method: 1 Heat butter in a large saucepan over medium-

high heat. Add garlic, celery, onions, pepper and leeks. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until soft (eight to ten minutes), then add carrots, parsnips, celeriac, potatoes, stock, milk, cream and Worcestershire. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Add ﬁsh and continue to cook, stirring gently, until ﬁsh is cooked through (six to eight minutes), then stir in dill, parsley, lemon juice and season. Serve with bread.

June 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

Pimp my plate

Seafood chowder Ingredients: 50g plain flour 80g butter 150 ml cream 1 lt fish stock 50g onions, in 2 cm slices 20g fennel, finely diced 30g celery, finely diced 30g leeks, in 2 cm slices 150g potatoes, medium diced 10g garlic, finely chopped 50g baby octopus, diced 100g calamari, diced 100g clam meat 50g salmon, diced 100g small prawns 100g black cod, diced 2g dill, finely chopped 2g chives, finely chopped 5g parsley, finely chopped black and white pepper, to taste salt, to taste 100g bacon, sliced and cooked 100g croutons, diced

Method: 1 Put fish stock into a pot and bring to a simmer. 2 Melt butter in a large pot and add onions, half cooking them before adding the garlic. Cook for another five minutes then add flour, cooking out for about ten minutes.

Add the chopped herbs and then slowly add the fish stock 500 ml at a time, mixing in thoroughly. Continue to add fish stock and milk this way until half the liquid is left. Add the rest 500 ml at a time until all liquid is used. Add the bacon, fennel, celery, leeks, calamari, octopus, clam meat, salmon, cod, prawns and potatoes and bring to boil. Then turn down and simmer for about ten minutess or until the flour taste is gone. Add black and white pepper and salt

and remove from heat. Pour into two litre containers and cool down immediately in ice water baths. Stir every ten minutes to speed up the cooling process. If you'd like to store some, you can put in refrigerator, only once it has cooled down.

NOTE: The cooling down process is extremely important, if this is NOT done correctly, the chances of the chowder spoiling overnight is very likely.

STEP BY STEP COOKING GUIDE:

Step 1: Mise en place

Step 2: Softening onions

Step 3: Adding the bacon

Step 4: Adding the stock

Step 5: Seasoning

Step 6: Adding the proteins

Step 7: Stirring in the herbs

Step 8: Finishing the chowder

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

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On the passe

Back to his roots With Italian restaurants so ubiquitous in the local F&B scene, it rakes some doing to stand out from the crowd. Salvatore Barcellona, Chef de Cuisine at L'Olivo at Rixos The Palm Dubai, just may be doing that with modern interpretations of traditional dishes, especially those of his Sicilian heritage.

n place at L’Olivio for just a couple of months, Chef Barcellona is alredsy full of plans. As well as executing on a range of refreshed traditional dishes, he’s working out details for special weeks focusing on Italian regional cuisine. Barcellona was born in Palermo, Sicity and earned his degree in Culinary in Palermo, Italy at IPSSAR - P Borsellino (Professional Hotel and Catering School). He’s worked in Italy, Germany and the US before moving to the UAE. Now, he says, his cooking “is not the cooking of my grandmother, but it’s my own style. I think Italian food is the

best in the world and all regions are special with their own style. However, it’s the combination of them coming together that makes it so special.” He uses Sicilian ingredients throughout his cuisine from oranges to Pecorino, oilve oil to seafood (“Especially tuna and swordfish!”), seeing a strong infuence of Arabs in the traditional cuisine of the island. “North African influences mean we love couscous with even an annual festival in its honour though, unlike the Arabs, we love fish couscous.’ Before joining the Rixos teamn, he was at Radisson Blu Yas Island but has worked extensively

in America from Washington DC to Phoenix and New York City. ‘American-Italian food is very different but I was lucky that my family had three restaurants in New York that used a lot of old recipes and so we were pretty authentic. Travel is something I love - I may be an Italian but I really enjoy tasting different things.” Where did his love of cooking come from? “My mother was also a chef in fact there are probably too many chefs in our family! I see my job as to make my mother’s style more modern. Whatever I cook, I have a folder of her recipes in my heart.”

Cannoli Siciliani Ingredients: 250g plain flour 1 tsp cocoa powder 1 tsp coffee, freshly ground 30g butter, softened 25g sugar 60ml white wine 1 egg, beaten olive oil, for deep-frying icing sugar, to decorate For the filling: 600g ricotta cheese 150g icing sugar 25g chocolate chips 50g candied fruits, Method: 1 First make the filling. Place ricotta and icing sugar in a large bowl and whisk until creamy. Fold in the chocolate chips and candied fruits. Set aside. 2 To make the pastry, place the flour, cocoa powder, coffee, butter and sugar in a large bowl and mix well together. Gradually add the wine and mix well until the mixture forms pastry dough. Form the pastry into a ball and wrap in cling film. Leave to rest for an hour. 3 - Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the pastry to about 3mm. Cut circles of about 7.5 cm and wrap around tubular moulds, securing with the beaten egg. Heat the olive oil to 180C. Fry the cannoli until golden-brown. Drain, remove the moulds, eave to cool and then fill them with the ricotta mixture. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

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On the passe

“MY MOTHER WAS ALSO A CHEF. IN FACT THERE ARE PROBABLY TOO MANY CHEFS IN OUR FAMILY! I SEE MY JOB AS TO MAKE MY MOTHER’S STYLE MORE MODERN. WHATEVER I COOK, I HAVE A FOLDER OF HER RECIPES IN MY HEART.”

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June 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

On the passe

Aubergine Parmagina Ingredients: 1 small onion, peeled and ﬁnely chopped 1 cinnamon stick 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 2 handfuls fresh basil leaves 400g small aubergines, 300g Roma tomatoes, skinned and cut into rounds 400g tinned chopped tomatoes 2 balls mozzarella, sliced salt and freshly ground black pepper 30ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling a handful grated Parmesan Method: 1 Heat the oven to 180C. Heat 2 tbsp, add the garlic and gently sizzle for two minutes. Add the tinned tomatoes and cinnamon and simmer for 15 minutes until thickened. Stir in the basil and season. 2 Slice the aubergines lengthways about 1/2cm thick. Brush both sides with oil, season and chargrill, turning a few times until completely tender. 3 Remove the cinnamon and put a few spoonfuls of the sauce in the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Cover with the aubergine and mozzarella and a layer of tomatoes, then repeat, ending with a thin layer of sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 30-40 minutes until bubbling and golden.

Butternut squash ravioli with sage butter Ingredients: For the pasta: 200g ‘00’ pasta ﬂour, plus extra for rolling 1 large free-range eggs +2 large free-range yolks olive oil salt

For the ﬁlling: 225g butternut squash, seeded and segmented salt and freshly ground black pepper olive oil few leaves of thyme 1 garlic clove, crushed 115g walnuts, ﬁnely chopped handful dry breadcrumbs 50g freshly grated Parmesan 2 large free-range eggs, beaten in separate bowls

5 2

For the sage butter: 75g butter bunch of fresh sage seasoning Method: 1 For the pasta, place all the pasta ingredients in a food processor and pulse until well mixed. Pull together into a ball of dough, then wrap in cling ﬁlm and transfer to

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

the fridge to chill for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200C. For the ﬁlling, season the squash with plenty of salt and black pepper, place onto a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Scatter with thyme leaves and roast in the oven for about 20 minutes, until tender and beginning to caramelise in places. Remove from the oven and cool. Place the roasted squash and the garilc clove into a clean food processor and blend to a smooth paste. Transfer to a bowl, add the walnuts, breadcrumbs, Parmesan and one of the beaten eggs and mix well. Using a pasta machine, roll

out the pasta several times to make manageable lengths the width of the machine. The ideal thickness should be two on the machine or thin enough to see newspaper writing through but thick enough that you cannot read it! Place each length onto a floured surface and place heaped teaspoons of the filling onto half of the sheets at around 10cm intervals down the middle of each sheet. Lightly moisten along the outer edges of the pasta and between each mound with a pastry brush dipped in the second beaten egg. Place the remaining pasta sheets over the sheets with the filling and gently press around each mound with your fingertips. Cut out the individual ravioli pieces with a pasta wheel or a scone cutter. Lay out on a floured tray to dry a little. For the sage butter, gently melt a little of the butter in a saucepan, add the sage leaves and fry until almost crisp. Remove the leaves and drain on kitchen paper. Discard the butter and wipe out the pan. Gently melt the remaining butter and mix in the sage leaves. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add a generous pinch of salt. Cook the ravioli in the simmering water, in batches if necessary, for around three minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and carefully drain on a clean tea towel. To serve, place the ravioli onto warmed plates with the sage butter and a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan.

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Face to face

Success with the chefs’ table When Scott Price took over Gordon Ramsay’s Verre in Hilton Dubai Creek a few years back, it was partly a chance to catch his breath after injury and the high-pressure opening of Petrus. Little did he realise he was instead on the fast track to opening and running, with Nick Alvis, one of the region’s restaurant treasures.

t’s all too easy to forget that Scott Price has a double job, such is his high profile as ChefProprietor of table 9 by nick and scott. In fact, being Executuve Chef of Hilton Dubai Creek was probably the hardest stretch for him when he moved to Dubai just three years ago, with no experience of providing room service or the more casual dining style of Glasshouse. However, let’s get the subject of the elephant in the room out of the way first. “People have the wrong idea about Gordon. Yes, he’s passionate about quality and getting things right and he could be really hard on you in the kitchen but there was always a reason. The side you see on TV is partly an act - it’s what the viewers want - but partly just frustration about being in a kitchen full of talentless American ‘chefs’ who think they’re better than him. Working for him was tough but an amazing experience.” I decide not to relate the story of my interview with his ex-boss in a suite halfway up the hotel where I made the mistake of asking Ramsay if he missed being a chef as he was now a marketeer and was subjected to a good five minutes of full-on rant and physical intimidation that left me, even at six foot one, more than a little worried! Instead I asked Price about his childhood.

And food? I was very picky as a kid. My Gran lived just over the road from primary school and instead, of taking a packed lunch to school, I’d go and eat with her. Honestly, food was never something to think about but I do remember picking brambles for jelly or jam, cooking drop scones and so on. It’s funny, ten years or so ago, I discovered that my grandfather had been a chef on HMS Belfast and my uncle was also a chef - I’d never really made the connection with my career before that. Anway, Chef Steve left and his replacement, Mike Orvin, was also a lecturer at Carlisle College. So you started to think of cooking as a career? Yes, the buzz of the kitchen was great. It felt natural to be there. I told my Dad and he said I

I got into an apprenticeship scheme at the Crown Hotel, Wetheral with just day at college a week. It was the only one rosette place within 15 miles of Carlisle and it gave me a chance to live in. Really, it was all I wanted - to leave home, move on and do things. One of the lecturers was my chef and I quickly learned to be methodical. I could do the work - no problem. What sort of food was it? Pretty classic. Things like chargrilled salmon with a beurre blanc and French beans. The hotel was just the right place for me at the time and, by the time I reached 19, I was Sous Chef handling 70-90 covers and 200 cover weddings. However, I soon realised that, although I could do it all, I wasn’t learning any more. It wasn’t what I wanted, not technical enough. And then I saw ‘Boiling Point’ on TV.

“THE BUZZ OF THE KITCHEN WAS GREAT. IT FELT NATURAL TO BE THERE. I TOLD MY DAD AND HE SAID I SHOULD BE A GAS MAN INSTEAD, AS THE CALL-OUT MONEY WAS BETTER!”

Was food important to you as a child? I was born in Shropshire and then moved north when I was two to Gretna Green, where my mother worked as a kind of restaurant manager in a small hotel. So I always seemed to be around F&B and when I was eleven or so starting washing dishes. There was a real old school Irish chef called Steve there, always smoking and drinking even though he’d spent some time working at patisserie for the Queen. Frankly, he was a bit mad! One day he let me do some kitchen work - eight hours in a metal shed peeling potatoes! Next day, I expected to be let into the kitchen but it was back to the shed again. Just when I was about to give up, he let me into the kitchen and it was ‘Wow!’.

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

should be a gas man instead, as the call-out money was better! By now I was 13 and had knife skills, doing prep work, ﬁnishing salads, preparing dishes like Prawn cocktail. I just loved putting things onto a plate - that whole creative process. The good thing for me is that I was taught the right way so that, by 16, I was doing buffets, old school carvery and things like that. Some of Mike’s fellow lecturers came to work with him and they all told me - at my six stone, four foot best - to go off to college and study. Did you have a different view of food by now? My taste was developing and, as I said, I was really getting into the creative process. I told my parents I wanted to go to college and they were like, ‘Why? You never eat anything!’ So I began going to college ﬁve days and week and washing dishes at the weekend but I was my own worst enemy - if I was bored, I’d just go and sit in the park. Luckily,

A turning point? Absolutely, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. What Gordon was doing was amazing to me. Then a job came up in the Lake District where a mate from college worked - the Rampsbeck - and I took it. this was a three rosette country house hotel doing all the right things - a place I could really learn. The Head Chef was tough and really put me through the mill. I began with starters - new canapes every day! It was so hard and I hated him for a long time! Then, the March after I joined, Foot & Mouth decimated the business. We had giant ﬁres of burning cattle for two weeks - the smell and the loss was heartbreaking. It was a really bad time but we all pitched in and I acted as Commis and pot washer. After about two months, things started to pick up again but it took some time to get used to being busy again. But your career was moving in the right direction by now? Yes. The next year, I entered both the North-West Chef of the Year and the Gordon Ramsay annual chef‚Äôs scholarship. The prize for the ﬁrst one

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Face to face

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June 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

Face to face

was a week in Turin and my chef told me he’d kill me if I didn’t win! I remember there were six chefs and four students and we had to do a three-course local and seasonal menu. A week later, the Ramsay challenge which was a real turning point in my life - you had to create a menu from a written list of ingredients and cook for four people in two and a half hours. Everywhere there were real chefs and I was just 21 years old. I remember Gordon telling us: “Flavour, flavour, flavour - just make sure it tastes of what it is!” Then the judging finished and they called my name out and I was like, ‘Really?’ What happened next? That was the Scottish heat and I got invited to the grand final at Royal Hospital Road. I mean, I knew I wouldn’t win but was determined to enjoy it. The judges? The cream of London chefs with 13 stars between them - all with their clipboards watching me! It was a great experience, followed by dinner at Claridge’s. And then came the question: ‘Do you want to come and work for Gordon?’ Frankly, I wasn’t sure - I was at the stage of my career where I wanted to do sauces as my head chef always did them. I wanted to leave as Sous Chef - cooking meat, fish and being on the passe. So you turned down a great opportunity? Yes, but it was the right decision for me at the time. During the next year, I got promoted and then I felt I was ready to see if I could cut it in London, so I entered the scholarship again, just to meet the Ramsay team again and say that I now wanted to join. So I ended up at Claridge’s under Mark Sargent and the work was at another level completely with incredibly high standards and constant checking. It was hard - the first day I was peeling langoustines for five hours with bleeding hands! And it was exhausting - I was staying with a friend outside London and was spending about four hours a day travelling, plus all the time in the kitchen. I did a five-day trial, was exhausted but I thought I could do it. It was exciting with such a high quality of chefs to learn from. At first, I thought maybe I’d be there for 18 months but ended up staying for six years.

Were you eating out in London? No, not at all. One my days off, I was just so exhausted. I had no friends and really just read a lot of books. Things changed a bit after I got an invite to a staff rate day at Nobu and thought ‘I must get out more!’ Most of the time, though, I was shopping at Iceland from frozen pizza - I had no money! But the career was going well. As I said, this was the stage that Gordon’s visibility was really taking off with his books and things and he’d do a lot of recipe development at Claridge’s before photography at his home in Wandsworth. Mark was helping him off course and I got involved taking all the mise en place and ingredients down to Gordon’s on the back of a scooter. Of course, everything had to be perfect!Then I was helping him at demos, where you have one shot at getting things right. I remember once, in Bristol, he walked off the stage and told me to do the demo. I was like a rabbit in the headlights but he took over after a couple of minutes - it was all showmanship and he’s great at carrying a crowd. The thing with Gordon is that once he trusts you then you get to do everything.

Gordon, especially helpong to develop recipes for Petrus with Gordon and Mark Askew. One day we had to cook the entire menu for all of the Ramsay head chefs and that really was one of the best days of my life with full critical feedback from all these great chefs. Then, one day, I sat with Gordon in the window at Royal Hospital Road and I said I didn’t want to let him down, I didn’t want to waste money on treatment and then be back to square one just a few months later. He said: 'Go to Dubai. The heat will help - just sort yourself out.' Of course, I thought I was going to get the sack! And now? I’d always wanted to be Head Chef at 28. Did you know much about Dubai before moving? No, not really but I talked it over with my girlfriend (now wife) and she said ‘Yes, let’s go!’ It was an amazing opportunity but it was hard at ﬁrst having to deal with managing staff and learning about the hotel. I needed someone I could trust absolutely and, of course, I’d been good mates with Nick for a couple of years. We’d just clicked. The job made me grow a lot. Frankly, I didn’t really like being made up to Exec Chef - I’d expected Head Chef and felt massively out of my comfort zone.

And you were still hard at it in the kitchen?

“I’M NOT A HUGE FAN OF MOLECULAR CUISINE - I TRAINED IN ‘PROPER COOKING’. THAT SAID, THE BEST PRACTITIONERS ARE VERY TALENTED IT’S NOT A STYLE YOU CAN JUST PICK UP FROM A BOOK.”

What was your interaction at that stage with Gordon Ramsay? At the time, he was just breaking big and so he was at Claridge’s every day, as was Mar - checking on everything. He could be scary - he’s a big fellow and up to three chefs a week just couldn’t take it and left. They just couldn’t handle it. But people need to understand your standards if your name is above the door. Sure, he’d have a go at people but he’d also explain things to you. Most of the time it was just a case of keeping your head down.

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

Yes, by now after three and a half years I was Senior Sous Chef - that’s number two in the kitchen. That was great, but I had one real problem that I finally had to deal with: I just couldn’t delegate. I remember one day, Mark let me slowly drown for four hours as I tried to do everything. After that, I learned to delegate! Then I shifted to Royal Hospital Road as Junior Sous Chef - the standard there was incredibly high with everything focused on perfection. However, after six months, i hurt my knee really badly. Gordon was great - he sent me to his own physio for some time but it was impossible to combine the job, daily physio and four hours a day in the gym. And work at Royal Hospital Road was incredibly difficult - everything is done fresh every day. I remember we had three Michelin inspectors in once and the Head Chef and I did the whole meal. I loved it, loved the excitement and the pressure. And your leg? It was a horrible realisation that, mentally, I could do the job but my body was letting me down. I mean, I could hardly walk up a flight of steps! So I went back to Claridge’s and did a lot of work with

We know the story with Verre closing and you two going it alone, Where does table 9 go now? We can do a lot more. We’re growing to match what people want. What we do isn’t difﬁcult: good food, good service, value for money. We’ll stay and develop is that we passionately believe that people want the same things we want.

Why do you think Dubai hasn’t really risen to the challenge of the home-grown restaurant? Well, you’ve got to be willing to take a risk. We saw what was needed. We’d done Michelin and so a more relaxed style that represented who we are was the answer. Certainly, we’ve grown up a lot over the last two years and table 9 now represents our style and it’s different from Gordon’s Verre style, of course. We’ve had time to develop which is great. Now, after 18 months, we’ve created over 100 new dishes - I’m saying they’ve all been great, but that was a great experience. And the future for the Dubai food scene? Dubai is ahead on architecture and it needs to apply the same strategy to the food scene in order to compete with Singapore. Lots of our friends from the UK would kill for the chance to start something here without the presssure of Michelin. We need to move dining out to a new level and let people develop something new that has a Dubai identity. Now, it seems as if just about everything has been done before. People need to take a risk.

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Face to face

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

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Face to face

Philling the ‘pool again When the father of modern Australian cookery calls you one of the country' best chefs and puts you in charge of his group’s ﬂagship restaurant, Rockpool on George, you must be doing something right. After spells in Thomas Keller's The French Laundry and Tetsuya's, New Zealand chef Phil Wood is now propelling the outlet back to the stellar heights of its heyday. And most food enthusiasts in Australia can’t wait to see how much further he can push the quality and the innovation.

fter a long absence, Rockpool on George regained its coveted three hat status in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide, thanks to Head Chef Phil Wood. That’s quite an achievement but even more so is that he did it under the very long shadow of Neil Perry who, for almost a quarter of a century, has been the poster boy of modern Australian cuisine, building the original Rockpool into a gastro empire that now spans the country. Wood was just seven years old when Perry began rewriting the rules. A former Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year winner, he’s deceptively casual with an abiding and deep interest in Asian herbs and medicines, so much so that it’s impossible not to be drawn by the aroma of his food almost as much as the light plating and delicate ﬂavour combinations. Which is the starting point for the new Rockpool on George, with Wood building on the restaurant’s traditional Australian-Asian cooking style. Typical is his siganture chicken dish which, he explains, is built on the traditional Chinese medicinal elements relating to woman's health - a terrine of chicken mousse and conﬁt leg is topped

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with layers of breast and skin, steamed then crisped, before sitting on a pool of light, fragrant custard surrounded by eight ‘precious herbs’, such as lotus seeds, goji berries, dried yam, lily bulbs and ginseng, garnished with pickled silver pine mushrooms. Growing up in New Zealand, what did food mean to you and your family? Was it a passion for anyone? Did your family grow food, visit markets, eat out? What dishes were typical? My mum was a busy working woman on a farm with four boys so food for me growing up was simple really and things that could be done easily for a large family. Lots of steamed veggies and mince, but every Sunday we would have a family roast sit around a table and have a small glass of wine - these were some of my favourite moments. Then on Sunday night we would all make our own dinner and this I guess is where my desire to cook was fostered. And I loved to watch Jamie Oliver! You began your career in a pub, which probably suggests that ﬁne dining wasn’t really part of your life style! The pub was really just a stop gap, whilst looking

for work on the Gold Coast. I would have worked anywhere at this point. What made you shift to Australia? To explain, when I finished school, student debt was ballooning in New Zealand. My brothers had all gone through University and come out with degrees, massive debt burden and no solid job prospects. I just decided that I would travel first to see where life would take me and a good friend of mine from school was on the Gold Coast so I moved over. What was it about the kitchen that appealed to you and made you decide that being a chef was what you wanted to do? My first trial in a real kitchen was at a place called the Salty Plum. I was swept up by it instantly. I just found it magical. There was this energy and life and beauty, contained in this mad house of a room. I knew that this was it for me from that very first night. How important to you was winning the Josephine Pignolet Award? Was that a career changer? The Josephine Pignolet Award is massive - without

June 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

Face to face

it I probably would never have been able to travel and live comfortably in another country to finish off my training and it was also where I first meet Neil, as he was one of the judges that conducted my interview. Obviously working for Thomas Keller would be a dream for many young chefs - what was it about his style and approach to cooking that attracted you? Do you see similarities between new Australian and Californian cuisine? What are they? The Thomas Keller group has an amazing holistic approach to hospitality that really would attract anyone to work there, and I think the French Laundry book was a landmark publication for its time, it would have to be a favourite amongst many chefs my age - I can't count the amount of times I have flicked through its pages. I don‚Äôt think there are many similarities between Australian and Californian, apart from the fact that we both do new world cooking. Also similar to both countries approach to wine production if that makes any sense. Before returning to work at Rockpool, how well did you know Neil Perry’s history and his pivotal role in developing a new style of cuisine in Australia? Neil Perry is a figure that looms large over our industry here and like Tetsuya, you really have to credit these two with bringing international attention to our region. How hard has continuing innovation been inside the Rockpool family, given its current size? Is complacency a danger? Complacency is always a danger in any industry, but our industry is always in evolution as we change things constantly. It is that search for that forever unattainable perfection - you know you will never get there but we are constantly going to try and, as long as we are happy with what we are producing I don't think we will ever grow complacent. How would you describe the differences between your approach and Neil’s to tastes, flavour combinations and styles of cooking? I think Neil and I have quite similar approaches to be honest. He will hate me for this but where we differentiate is he is a little older and knows what to leave off a plate and I'm a little younger and always want to put more on.

QUICK QUESTIONS Kitchen heroes? “Thomas Keller, Neil Perry and Tetsuya Wakuda.” Best meal? “Urasawa in Los Angeles.” Your inspiration? “All the chefs I work with.” Hot produce? “Hand dived sea urchin and local abalone.”

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

“SOME OF MY BIGGEST INSPIRATIONS FOR FLAVOURS COME FROM WANDERING AROUND CHINESE SUPERMARKETS TO BE HONEST. WHAT I LOOK FOR IS A UNIQUENESS IN AN INGREDIENT WHICH IS LIKE NO OTHER AND HAS ITS OWN CLEAR IDENTITY.” You’ve gained a lot of press as the chef who returned Rockpool on George to its previous heights. How do you see future change and development? I want to continue to preserve the reputation of Rockpool on George as an innovative restaurant and a champion of the Sydney and Australian dining scene. I'm not sure how we will change and develop but I know we will, as there are too many young gifted cooks employed in our group for us not to. Is Australian cuisine as a whole changing, or is the new Asian/Australian style limited to major centres likes Sydney and Melbourne? Australian cuisine I think is constantly changing. This is the beauty of not being tied to speciﬁc traditions, so we really have a dynamic food industry. The biggest change though lately has been the massive improvement in the average quality of our produce and massive surge in more approachable and cheaper dining options. What characteristics of new ingredients inspire you to add them to your larder? Some of my biggest inspirations for ﬂavours come from wandering around Chinese supermarkets to

be honest. What I look for is a uniqueness in an ingredient which is like no other and has its own clear identity. Is teaching and mentoring a pleasure or just a necessary part of the job? Teaching and mentoring is not only a pleasure but it is a necessity. I know I just repeated your question but it is true! It's one of the most rewarding parts of my job. Outside work, what would be your go-to meals? I will have this go-to meal at least once during my weekend at home for either Sunday or Monday lunch: pan fried ﬁsh, usually snapper, blue cod or bar cod, or if Im lucky striped trumpeter and some seasonal vegetables - salads in summer and a little bit more hearty root vegetables in winter. And a good amount of wine to go with it! Fish cooked well with a simple vegetable side and some lemon juice and a glass of great wine is my happy place. What one thing would you change about your job? I'm not sure. For now, nothing, but who knows what is around the corner.

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Sascha Triemer Executive Chef Atlantis, The Palm

Oliver Biles Reﬂects Par Pierre Gagnaire Intercontinental, Dubai Festival City

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MIDDLE EAST

Face to face

ccording to Patricia Michelson, cheese is always about taste and tradition. Her latest book on cheese captures the world of small-scale cheese production with a focus on more than 450 signature cheeses and their producers. Michelson is passionate about the cultural, migratory and geographical inﬂuences that have determined styles of cheese production. Amongst her other achievements, she’s also been at the forefront of cheese experts recognising and celebrating the major shift in North American cheese production and a good third of her book is devoted to the interplay between individual styles and traditional roots in the region. She stocks up to 200 varieties in her Londonbased La Fromagerie's temperature-and humiditycontrolled cheese room, but is wary and diplomatic when asked to pick a favourite. “Every country has something to offer,” she says. “In England, there's nothing to beat the Cheddar and Stilton; in Italy, Gorgonzola from Piedmont and Lombardy is incredible.” The story is quite well known of your business starting selling cheese from a shed in your garden. Do you think success came because you started at a turning point in uk attitude to food? It was a combination of things. My own personal change of attitude towards being able to run a business that specialised in something niche and something to do with food. The moment in my own life that was the turning point where I knew I wanted to do something in the food business that changed people's minds about a simple food like cheese. It was also 1990, which was the start of the food explosion in Britain. How do you view the renaissance of British cheeses? Will artisan cheeses always be at the mercy of the industrialised market or do you see hope in networks fo food lovers, farmers markets, specialist shops and so on? The renaissance really started when the Specialist Cheese Association was formed to protect artisan cheesemaking in the UK following the Stilton producers being forced to pasteurise their milk following a listeria outbreak that was badly handled by the government. By positioning hand made raw milk cheeses as something to be cherished, nurtured and championed, it brought into focus those farms and dairies interested in starting cheesemaking and to create regional cheeses again in Britain. We are seeing more hand made cheeses being made in Britain by young entrepreneurs than ever before and that is because there is a market for these cheeses, there are specialist cheese shops wanting to have these cheeses and there is good communication and information about the cheeses. So it’s a perfect storm of focused supply and a change in food culture generally? We are wanting to know provenance and locality, as well as the story about the cheese and where it is made and who made it. The milk coming

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

The homage to fromage On a skiing holiday, Patricia Michelson was hungry and went into a local cheese shop. She fell in love with a local cheese, Beaufort Chalet d’Alpage, and brought a wheel back to London and sold it from her shed, and then a market stall. Two decades on, she has two cheese shops (both called La Fromagerie) and is recognised as a world cheese authority. We spoke to her on a recent trip to the UAE to launch the jones the grocer Cheese Club.

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Face to face

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June 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

Face to face

from the herd on the farm or locally bought. We want to know how the food chain works and with industrial cheeses the milk comes from dozens and dozens of farms and therefore traceability is more difficult, whereas single farm cheeses have a clear progress from pasture to table. What we now need is an alliance of sorts between industrial or commercially made cheese and farmhouse small scale. It should not be about us and them and the David and Goliath approach. It should be about respect and working alongside each other so that we can have access to both. With the large amount of European immigration, why do you think that American cheese production has never really developed the breadth, complexity and quirkiness of its roots in the old world? Well, I'm going to knock that one on the head! The American Cheese Society was formed some ten years ago to dispel the myth that there were no artisan cheesemakers in the USA. There are literally hundreds of cheesemakers making regional farmstead cheeses and now some are even heading into Europe with the help of the Artisan Cheese Exchange programme. We are getting raw milk cheeses from the USA that are both quirky and traditional, but most of all take their style from the influences of the settlers who made each state their home. In my book Cheese there is a whole section on American and Canadian cheeses with explanations of cheese styles associated with each state. If the American government has been resistant in letting the rest of the world know about the cheesemaking going on in their country, it is now about to stop and people will learn very quickly that their mass produced cheeses are just a small part of what is traditionally a farming nation filled with small independent farmers! Any particular favourites from there? We are in awe, us cheesey people, of what's going on in the States because they have absolutely got it right. Artisan cheese has always been there but it‚Äôs grown like crazy over the past five years. The American Cheese Society has a yearly competition - five years ago there might have been 100 cheeses, now there’s 700! I’d point to Californian goat's cheese, clothbound artisan Cheddar from Wisconsin, lovely sheep's cheese in Vermont and

the French Pyrenees-style cheeses are absolutely incredible. Where do you feel the most interesting cheeses are being made these days? I am ﬁnding amazing cheeses in Germany and Austria from Alpine farms who have never thought about sending their cheeses outside their immediate locality. This is because they were sure that the big industrial cheesemaking businesses were cornering the market and they would not get a look-in. But with the help of a small independent business specialising in ﬁnding artisan cheeses, I am getting amazing Bergkase (farmhouse) cheeses both hard, soft, washed and blue. Also Sweden

“GOOD CHEESE IS EXPENSIVE BECAUSE OF THE TIME IT TAKES TO MAKE IT. YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR QUALITY. SOME FINE WINES ARE EXPENSIVE AND CHEESES ARE THE SAME. BUT YOU BUY A LITTLE AND GET THREE OR FOUR TIMES THE PLEASURE - YOU DON'T NEED TO EAT A LOT.” 48

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

and Norway as well as Denmark are making a path out of the industrial production that monopolised exports and showcasing farm made cheeses both hard, soft, goat and even the famous caramel style Geitost which we are showcasing in our shops. It is very exciting since Scandinavian food and cooking is so popular now, and to enjoy farm cheeses made with the same care and consideration is a joy. Do you think the UK cheese market will develop to the same level as france, with specialist shops in most towns, cheese advice given as standard, affinage etc. Yes, up to a point. There is more information, more knowledge available through the Specialist Cheesemakers Association and a willingness to be part of the European cheesemaking fraternity. In France they are finding it more and more difficult to get young people involved in the business of selling, making and ripening of cheeses. Yet here in England we want to know more and more and also have businesses dedicated to farmhouse cheeses. I started my business 23 years ago as a niche business where I was almost a lone voice. Maybe over the years I have shown that it is possible to do what I do and to be accepted not only in Britain but also in France, Italy, Spain and everywhere in Europe - I work with some of the greatest affineurs in the world and they have a respect for what I have achieved here in the UK.

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Face to face

food substitutes or antibiotics, etc. What we want is to maintain the respect for the land, the animals, the recipe for cheesemaking and the storage/ ripening. Once you try and move the goalposts like they did with Camembert and the big commercial businesses wanting to change the recipe in order to make a farmhouse artisan cheese with a different style of milk not from the region, then you are playing with ďŹ re and allowing sweeping changes and alterations. Climate change affects us all, but with animals it is their cycle of life that is important and how we manage that safely and with care.

We're seeing gradual changes in the southern European wine appelations thanks to climate change. Will we see similar changes with cheese production? Yes, I expect we will! However, animals have cycles

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for producing offspring and we can control that and change their timings in order to keep a farm going with milk all the year round. As long as it does not affect the animals then that's ďŹ ne, but what is more important is pasture and how to maintain the pasture and also not use chemicals or

Are you constantly surprised by new varieties? What was the last real discovery you made? Yes - sometimes horriďŹ ed and sometimes pleasantly surprised! My last real discovery was with a soft rind washed cheese that had been washed in sake! There is a big cheese making community in Japan believe it or not and I am fascinated by it. I really want to visit them! But what was so delicious about this cheese (and I have now started washing cheeses in the same way myself) is that the sweet bitter almond taste of the sake was really complementing the cheese! I use a Soumaintrain which is similar in style to an Epoisses without any initial rind washing. This is what I want to highlight - that countries where there were no dairy history are now making cheese and using something of their own culture to make them interesting.

June 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

Face to face

retention of the whey in the cheese. The wine choice would probably be a 1998 Cote Rotie.

Your best recipe using cheese? In the foreword to my first book, The Cheese Room, I explain about fast food and my favourite recipe which we serve on our outside table every Sunday, is this: take two slices of sourdough bread and brush over with white wine - don't soak just brush until well covered - then on one slice add a little grain mustard and pile on top of the mustard slice slivers of Comte or Gruyere cheese (be generous), and on the other slice thin slivers of goat cheese piled on top. Now place under a hot grill and let the cheese melt and toast lightly. Serve the slices alongside a salad of bitter green leaves or slices of tomato dressed lightly with a walnut oil and vinegar dressing. Simple but really stylish! Your final meal What’s your cheeseboard? I like to serve a cheeseboard before dessert, although if I am using just British cheeses I usually serve them after dessert with a fortified wine such as Port or Madeira. I also love serving just a perfect slice of Roquefort right at the end of a meal with a glass of sweet dessert wine too. But for a cheeseboard of six cheeses I would start with a goat cheese as the acidity in goat milk is a good palate cleanser and neutraliser - so for me either a matured Crottin de Chavignol or Charolais. To follow I would have a lighter style like a young Richard III Wensleydale with its gorgeous fudgy clotted cream taste and fresh hazelnut milkiness. Then I would have a Camembert - beautifully ripened to be almost melting when cut but with the heart still holding. Now I want a hard cheese and I'd plump for a fully aged Beaufort Chalet

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

Your nightmare cheese? Cheeses with strange things inside like Marmite or lemon curd, or cranberries or coffee. I know there is a lovely cheese from the USA called Vella Dry Jack that has coffee grounds rubbed on the outside of the rind to stop moulds forming and that is acceptable, but when I saw coffee inside a blue cheese I really could not understand that combination at all!

d'Alpage aged at least two years with its ﬂoral fruity taste not too overpowering, but with such a long and lingering aftertaste of alpine sweetness. Now I want something stronger and for me I can't wait to get the Alpe Loch Bachensteiner washed rind cheese from the summer chalets high up in Bavaria - Norbert who is my cheese-ﬁnder in Germany literally hikes up to the chalet in the summer to get them (he really does love hiking!). For my blue cheese, I am going with a new cheese we have started getting from Haute Garonne in the Midi Pyrenees - a ewe's milk called Regalis; spicy and strong but with a sweetness from the

Have you ever eaten Casu Marzu? Yes! It was in a Sardinian restaurant in London, just off Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. I had gone to see them in the hope of supplying them with cheese. I sat down at a table with the owner and we were tasting the cheeses, when suddenly he asked whether I would like to try Casu Marzu from his friend's farm which he had brought home with him. He opened a Tupperware box and these fat, white larvae wriggled around the creamy curds. I asked for a glass of Grappa, took a swig and then ate a spoonful of the cheese. Surprisingly it was quite interesting - very strong but once you got round the squishy larvae and their creamy liquid centre as you bit into them, it was not that bad - although the Grappa did help anaesthetise the whole experience! I think the owner was impressed and we did work together for quite a while until he retired. Whenever I visited the restaurant as a customer I was always greeted as one of the family - maybe they thought I must have a bit of Sardinian blood in my veins!

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Travel

As friends who grew up in Hong Kong keep reminding me, China is a country where people eat anything with legs - except the table. They certainly eat constantly - the never-sleeping city of Hong Kong is also a constant invitation to eat, from high-ďŹ&#x201A;ying restaurants with views over the harbour to street-level stalls selling every food imaginable. And quite a few outside your experience.

or the ďŹ rst time visitor, Hong Kong is overwhelming. The density of the buildings, the large population, the numerous islands and communities, the constant movement all combine to disorient. What better reason to stop and eat, watch the world go by and realise that this ex-outpost of the British Empire now offers you the best of China's many regional cuisines. The city, reached in half an hour or so from the stunning new international airport, hits you like a blow between the eyes - high-rise blocks are everywhere and from the mid-distance the city looks clinical and sterile, like any glass-fronted collection of skyscrapers. Up close, the view is completely different. Unlike any other city perhaps, the street and the skyscraper combine. Walkways and pedestrian access weave in a multi-level chase through the glossy lobbies of glassy buildings. Entrances to metro stations pass through shopping malls. Small parks enliven the routes, which often drop down again to street level where life is split between manic congestion on the main driving routes and small town or neighbourhood backwaters in the alleys and side roads.

And everywhere, there is food! There are four main parts to the city - Hong Kong Island (the historical part and new driving force of the economy), Lantau Island (semi-suburban home to many Hong Kongers and also the site of Hong Kong Disneyland and the new airport), Kowloon (the other side of the main harbour) and the New Territories which stretch back into the mountains and the border into the People's Republic of China. As a special administrative area, Hong Kong may belong to the new China, but it acts very much like

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

the old city. Commerce is king and the building boom which makes the city so exciting has all happened since the Brits packed up and left. Now, especially at night when a dazzling light show makes the harbour a must-see free attraction, the city is a metaphor for capitalism - workers striving to rise higher and higher in the new blocks as the service economy slaves away with old ways and old style wages at the ground level. It's a city of must-see sights and shopping opportunities. It's also a place to eat till you drop! As well as the best international cuisine, it offers the opportunity for a crash course in the best of Chinese cooking - one of the world's great cuisines, of course. Dishes may be peasant simple or gourmet complex, but all will excite your palate. Most popular styles of Chinese cooking in Hong Kong are Cantonese, Chiu Chow and Shanghainese - Cantonese and Chiu Chow both originate from the same province of Guangdong but are vastly different in style and ďŹ&#x201A;avour. Many restaurants also specialise in vegetarian fare, famous Peking dishes

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and the hotter ﬂavours of Hunan and Szechuan. But perhaps most exciting are the opportunities to snack in different kinds of ways. Take the teahouses, for example. Here you can sample snack s such as noodles, cakes and desserts - try yuen yeung, a 50:50 mixture of tea and coffee; bor law yau, a steaming hot sweet bun stuffed with melted butter; or daan tart, a tasty baked egg custard. Maybe even try freshly cooked sliced ﬁsh or sliced beef congee, yau char gwai (a deepfried dough) and wonton noodles - all equally affordable local favourites. Suggesting restaurants or dishes makes no sense - the best way to discover your Hong Kong is to explore and make your own discoveries. The Hong Kong Tourism Board, however, produces excellent guides for food tourists, including details of winners of the annual Best Culinary awards, a great showcase of local chefs and dishes. We think, however, that you most fun you can have in Hong Kong is to sample the amazing range of dim sum wonderful snacks. Some stalls serve street dim sum which usually

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consists of dumplings or meatballs steamed in a large container, but served on a bamboo skewer. You can dip the whole skewer into a sauce bowl and eat while standing or walking. In restauranmts, dim sum are usually served with tea any time from the morning to early afternoon. There' a real mix of options: combinations of meat, seafood and vegetables, as well as desserts and fruit. The various items are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate. In contemporary Cantonese, a dim sum meal is usually not referred to as dim sum chan, but as yum cha (literally ‘tea drinking’), consisting of traditional Cantonese-style dim sum snacks. What is referred to as dim sum chan is rather a cross between Western-style high tea and fast food, consisting of Hong Kong adaptation of Western pastries and appetisers. Dim sum is a Cantonese phrase, literally translated as ‘touch the heart’. It may be derived from yat dim sum yi, meaning ‘a little token’. Although dim sum normally refers to the Cantonese variety, the idea of a wide variety of small dishes for lunch also holds for

June 2013 / The Pro Chef Middle East

Travel

other regions of China. Traditional dim sum includes various types of steamed buns such as cha siu baau, dumplings and rice rolls (cheong fun), which contain a range of ingredients, including beef, chicken, pork, prawns and vegetarian options. Many dim sum restaurants also offer plates of steamed green vegetables, roasted meats, congee porridge and other soups. Dim sum can be cooked by steaming and frying, among other methods. The serving sizes are usually small and normally served as three or four pieces in one dish. It's customary to order family style, sharing dishes among all members of the dining party because of the small portions, people can thus try a wide variety of food. Dim sum dishes can be ordered from a menu or sometimes the food is wheeled around on a trolley by servers. Traditionally, the cost of the meal is calculated based on the number, size and sometimes colour of the dishes left on the patron's table. In Hong Kong, many restaurants start serving as early as five in the morning. It is a tradition for the elderly to gather to eat dim sum after morning exercises, often enjoying the morning newspapers. For many southerners in China, yum cha is treated as a weekend family day. Consistent with this tradition, dim sum restaurants typically only serve dim sum until the afternoon; other kinds of Cantonese cuisine are served in the evening. Nowadays, various dim sum items are sold as takeaway for students and office workers on the go. While dim sum remains a staple of Chinese culinary culture, especially in Hong Kong, health officials have criticised the high amount of saturated fat and sodium in some dim sum dishes, warning that steamed dim sum shouldn't automatically be assumed to be healthy. The drinking of tea is as important to dim sum as the food. A popular tea which is said to aid in digestion is bolay (pu erh), which is a strong, fermented tea. Chrysanthemum, oolong and green tea can be served as well. It is customary to pour tea for others during dim sum before filling ones own cup. A custom unique to the Cantonese is to thank the person pouring the tea by tapping the bent index and middle fingers together on the table. This is said to resemble the ritual of bowing to someone.

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

ONE OF THOSE... Dim sum restaurants have a wide variety of dishes, usually several dozen. Among the standard are: Gow Dumpling. A standard in most teahouses. They are made of ingredients wrapped in a translucent rice flour or wheat starch skin. Shrimp Dumpling. A delicate steamed dumpling with whole or choppedup shrimp filling and thin (almost translucent) wheat starch skin. Chiu-chao style dumplings. A dumpling said to have originated from the Chaozhou prefecture of Guangdong province, it contains peanuts, garlic chives, pork, dried shrimp, Chinese mushrooms in a thick dumpling wrapper made from glutinous rice flour or Tang flour. It is usually served with a small dish of chili oil. Potsticker. Northern Chinese style of dumpling (steamed and then pan-fried jiaozi), usually with meat and cabbage filling. Note that although potstickers are sometimes served in dim sum restaurants, they're not considered traditional Cantonese dim sum. Siu Maai. Small steamed dumplings with pork inside a thin wheat flour wrapper. Usually topped off with crab roe and mushrooms. Bau. Baked or steamed, these fluffy buns are filled with different meats and vegetables. The most popular type is cha siu, a bun with Cantonese barbecue-flavoured pork and onions inside. It can be either steamed to be fluffy and white or baked with a light sugar glaze to produce a smooth golden-brown crust. Sweet cream buns. Steamed buns with milk custard filling. Shanghai steamed buns. These dumplings are filled with meat or seafood and are famous for their flavour and rich broth inside. These dumplings are originally Shanghainese so theyr'e not considered traditional Cantonese dim sum. Rice noodle rolls. These are wild rice noodles that are steamed and then rolled. They are often

filled with different types of meats or vegetables inside but can be served without any filling. Rice noodle rolls are fried after they're steamed and then sprinkled with sesame seeds. Popular fillings include beef, dough fritter, shrimp, and barbecued pork. Often topped with a sweetened soy sauce. Turnip or Daikon radish cakes. These savory cakes are made from mashed daikon radish mixed with bits of dried shrimp and pork sausage that are steamed and then sliced and pan-fried. Phoenix talons. These are actually chicken feet that are deep fried, boiled, marinated in a black bean sauce and then steamed. Steamed meatballs. Finely-ground beef is shaped into balls and then steamed. Often topped with Worcestershire sauce. Steamed spare ribs. Pork spare ribs are chopped into bite-sized pieces and then steamed with black bean sauce. Lotus leaf rice. Glutinous rice is wrapped in a lotus leaf into a triangular or rectangular shape. It contains egg yolk, dried scallop, mushroom, water chestnut and meat (usually pork and chicken). These ingredients are steamed with the rice and, although the leaf isn‚Äôt eaten, its flavour is infused during the steaming. Lo mai gai is a kind of rice dumpling. A similar but lighter variant is known as Pearl Chicken. Congee. Rice porridge served with different savoury items. Chien chang go. Thousand-layer cake, a dim sum dessert made up of many layers of sweet egg dough. Sesame seed balls. Especially popular at Chinese New Year, a chewy dough filled with red bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds, and deep fried. Spring rolls. These consist of various types of vegetables - sliced carrot, cabbage, mushroom and wood ear fungus - and sometimes meat are rolled inside a thin flour skin and deep fried.

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Last word

Object of beauty A new beauty drink - Ocoo - is a German invention produced in Hamburg and distributed by the OBS Group Dubai. Touted as the world's ﬁrst fruity beauty drink, it has already been awarded the World's Best Functional Drink. Some will choose it because its mix of active ingredients gives the deepest layers of skin a complete daily dose of nutrients; others, because it makes a great mixer. Beauty and taste? Result!

an you really ‘drink yourself beautiful’? The claim seems fanciful, especially when it comes from a youthful 26-year-old German entrepreneur, Martin Speers. How did it come about? "It started with this one simple question I asked my friend and co-founder: 'Why can't beauty be drinkable?'" Speers explains. "There are pills and injections on the market but, as we all know, nutrition has such a big impact on the body. We created a think-tank with experts from universities and labs to come up with this unique drink. It took two years of intensive research and development to make it perfect." Speers shorthands the drink as “a skin and body quencher” but for bar staff and chefs, interest in likely to be in the mix of berries (cranberries, pomegranates, red grapes, aronias, blackcurrants and acai berries) rather than the ingredients such as zinc and selenium, which reputedly protect cells from oxidative damage. "We really don't perceive this as a drink, but as a drinkable lifestyle," Speers insists. "We're hoping to create a holistic world around this brand, that may include places or venues where you could go and drink Ocoo." Ocoo’s health claims have been permitted by the European Union Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and it is currently served in Zuma and retails in Galleries Lafayette and other major department stores.

BEAUTY BENEFITS Anti-aging - Zinc and Selenium contribute to the protection of cells from oxidative damage. Skin care - Vitamin B3, Iodine and Biotin contribute to the maintenance of normal skin. Collagen - Vitamin C contributes to its generation. Hair - Copper contributes to normal hair pigmentation and Biotin to the maintenance of normal hair.

The Pro Chef Middle East / June 2013

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