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rowing up in the Isle of Man was the ideal breeding ground for the beginning of Colin Clague’s culinary journey. It was here that he was strongly influenced by his mother who was a passionate food lover and cook in her own right—and the sheer freshness of all of the local ingredients used in food preparation was largely responsible for developing his love of the craft. As a boy, this provided Colin a significant distraction to his studies, as his dreams was to travel the world in search of culinary wisdom. At sixteen he applied to join the Royal Navy as a chef but was turned down. It was at this time that he decided to move to London as a jumping-off point for his career in the world of food. Colin was fortunate to work and gain valuable experience with some well-known chefs such as Anton Mosimann, Peter Langan, Gary Hollihead, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Sir Terence Conran. “Anton was an impeccable chef, very military-like where everything is ticked off. On the other hand, Jean-Georges is the other way. You get more of the French passion with Jean-Georges and obviously, he is packed with a catalogue of amazing recipes which just fly out over the shelf. Working with Jean-Georges—he is very humble. He comes in and says “let’s do lunch, or let’s do dinner.” You can see even now that Jean-Georges is as passionate today as he was probably 30 or 40 years ago.” In 1999 Colin was part of the pre-opening team of the “seven-star hotel” Burj Al Arab in Dubai, and then went on to become the executive chef of the award-winning Zuma. Colin then moved on to Caprice Holdings where he took charge of all of the restaurants and handled the opening of The Ivy at the Emirates Towers in Dubai. Later he was the Head Chef with Jean-Georges Dubai and the Middle Eastern restaurant, Q’bara. After a well-deserved one-year break in Singapore, Colin took the position as executive chef at the Pollen with a dear friend and Michelin star chef Jason Atherton. A nominee for the World’s Best Chef Awards, Colin Clague joins the likes of Grant Achatz, Sat Baines, Bjorn Frantzen, Pierre Gagniere, Philip Howard, and Jean George Vongerichten. His cuisine is firmly planted within his passion for the use of quality ingredients and it is with these perfect vehicles that he creates a composition of flavours which is executed with masterful simplicity and finesse. Colin modestly notes “I always say, 70% is the farmer and everything else we just titillate the bit of what we like.” Whether it be Japanese cuisine at Zuma, Middle Eastern at Q’bara, or riffs on 3000 years of Anatolian culinary tradition at Rüya, Colin Clague’s award-winning philosophy is based on his dedicated love of historical cuisine.
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COLIN CLAGUE RÜYA DUBAI, U.A.E.