catering news me - june 2016

Vikas Khanna on faith and food

The imminent return of Mango Tree

American cuisine: the myths debunked

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June 2016 Catering neWS Me 3

Contents

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26

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8 | WHAT’S COOKING?Melbourne seafood restaurant The At-lantic confirmed for Souk Al Bahar site; Jones the Grocer Middle East master franchisee acquires global brand rights; ICCA Dubai honours graduates of chef scholarship

14 | NEW PLACESThe hottest new restaurant openings in the Middle East

20 | COVER STORY: THE COST OF RAMADANWhy the holy month puts a strain on F&B operations

26 | THE RETURN OF MANGO TREETrevor Mackenzie of Mango Tree Worldwide reveals the Thai restaurant brand will be back in Dubai by the end of 2016

30 | OUT TO LUNCH: IZU ANIChef Izu Ani says goodbye to Emaar Hospitality’s La Serre and opens the door to an exciting new adventure

Catering neWS Me June 20164

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S U B S C R I B E

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PhotographersAudrey HastingsNeville Hopwood

Abhi Shek Photography

34 | THE BIG CHEESE: VIKAS KHANNAThis holy month of Ramadan, ce-lebrity chef Vikas Khanna explains why food is key to breaking down barriers across all faiths

38 | THE FULL MEASURE: VESNAAfter six months of operations, the team at Vesna explain how they have put fine-dining Slavic cuisine on the UAE map

42 | OUT OF THIS WORLD: AMERICANGreasy burgers and fries are the archetypes of US cuisine, but chefs from the region’s best American restaurants are changing this

50 | PRODUCTSCatering News uncovers the best-selling coffee machines and products on the market

Double FermentationWhen the first fermentation period is complete and the initial aromas unveiled, a new ingredient is introduced into the boxes of cocoa beans to initiate a second phase of fermentation.

Valrhona experts came up with the idea of adding fruit pulp, naturally high in sugar, which triggers a second fermentation phase that imparts new distinctive aromatic qualities to the chocolate created.

More than ten years of research have gone into the development of this new aromatic universe, with Valrhona and partner growers working hand-in-hand.

In September 2015, Valrhona will be unveiling 2 new products: Mananka 62% (Orange) and Itakuja 55% (Passion fruit). Mananka immediately appeals thanks to the harmony between the orange notes and the aromatic character of Madagascan cocoa whilst Itakuja, with its intense passion fruit flavour brings a freshness and exotic character to this pure Brazilian dark chocolate.

Valrhona once again redraws the boundaries of chocolate with an innovative process of double fermentation, which paves the way for a new generation of aromatic profiles.More than ten years of research have gone into the development of thisexclusive new range of naturally fruity chocolates with Valrhona and partner growers working hand-in-hand.

Valrhona yet again adds a new twist to the sensory universe of chocolate...

Drying

Fermentation

Harvest

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An exclusive process

Itakuja 55% pure Brazil, Passion fruit

& chocolate intensity

Mananka 62% pure Madagascar, Orange & tangy freshness

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F E R M E N T A T I ON

DOUBLE

Double_fermentation_GB_203x273.indd 1 19/05/2016 10:59


Editor's Letter

This is my third year of Ramadan, and I’m looking forward to nice clear roads, quieter weekends and fewer emails – and hopefully get-ting to spend some more time with my friends and family. Just like any big city around the world, Dubai can be a stressful place to live, and sometimes a little down-time is just what we need to get back on track.

For restaurant businesses, Ra-madan can however be a some-what daunting period, since day-time dining volumes reduce as people stay indoors and fast, and evening operations stretch be-yond normal working hours. That said, as I discovered this month while researching our cover story, many F&B businesses are now very sophisticated when it comes to planning budgets and staffing for Ramadan.

By allocating the most efficient manpower to the busiest areas of the operation, and creating

realistic budgets, while focus-ing on live cooking stations and à la carte menus to reduce waste, many restaurants have sussed out how to make the most of the holy month. And they often relish the extra time during the day for con-ducting staff training, reflecting on strategy, testing out new menu items and sharpening up market-ing efforts.

Ramadan Kareem to all of our readers, and good luck for the year ahead!

Ramadan KaReem

CRystal ChesteRsEditor

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braNds

Melbourne seafood restaurant The Atlantic is set to open its doors in Souk Al Bahar in the space that has been occupied by Thai restaurant brand Mango Tree for the past nine years.

The concept is to be fran-chised to Solutions Leisure, the company behind Dubai home-grown venues Q43 in Media One Hotel and Lock, Stock & Barrel in Grand Millennium Tecom, and the franchisee of Asia Asia in Pier 7 and Karma Kafé, also in Souk Al Bahar.

Set to open by the end of September, the restaurant will seat 200 inside and on its ter-race overlooking The Dubai Fountain.

Melbourne seAfood brAnd The ATlAnTic confirMs souK Al bAhAr siTe

P10: 1762 Smoked food truck //P11: Invest Northern Ireland // P13: Jones the Grocer //

What's cooking?

Commenting on how the new venture came about, Freek Teusink director of Solutions Leisure told Catering News: “We had seen The Atlantic before and we thought it was a great brand. We spoke with the owner and the click was there; they saw what we do, so we already had this [relationship].

“When we looked at real es-tate we always thought it needs water at least, it needs a ter-race and then we knew Mango Tree was going out. Of course we already rent Karma Kafé in Souk Al Bahar and Asia Asia in Pier 7 from Emaar Hospitality so we had that relationship too

and they were very happy for us to take [the space].”

Designed by Amsterdam-based Eleven, the upscale venue will have “slightly indus-trial” interiors.

The menu will be a reduced version of the original in Mel-bourne, and will be developed over time to reflect local tastes.

With 70% fish and seafood, and 30% meat and vegetarian, items will include langous-tines, fish and chips, and a se-lection of oysters at a dedicated oyster bar within the venue.

Yorkshire-born celebrity chef Donovan Cooke, who is at the helm of the Melbourne kitchen, will be in charge of menu cre-

ation for the Dubai venue.An on-premises chef is cur-

rently being sought to head up culinary operations in Dubai, and Solutions Leisure’s execu-tive chef will also be involved.

Solutions leisure continues to grow its presence in Dubai through homegrown concepts and franchise agreements, and Teusink reveals the target is to expand by two to three venues per year.

“We really like what we’re doing; we’ve got a great team and we’re expanding it on a daily basis and it’s our vision to grow by two to three venues a year if the right real estate comes up,” he said.


What's cooking?

eVeNts educatioN

The 40th edition of biennial in-ternational hospitality exhibi-tion, Host Milan, is set to take place from 20 – 24 October 2017, with opportunities for buyers and exhibitors to get on board.

Already 800 companies have confirmed their participation, and 1,500 buyers are being tar-geted from every continent.

Taking place in Milan convention centre, Fiera Milano, companies from 38 countries will attend, with 16 pavilions available for show use, which is two more than the previous edition.

Corrado Peraboni, CEO of Fiera Milano commented: “Host is the jewel in the crown in our portfolio of events. It reflects the tradition and the highest level of professional hospitality in Italy, with these characteristics being made the most of for a global audience. Italian and foreign companies that exhibit at the show find that the buyers and visitors to the event are continuously in-creasing and come from hun-dreds of countries.”

Suppliers of food service equipment, such as bread, pizza and pasta, coffee, tea, gelato, pastries, coffee machines and vending as well as furniture

The International Centre for Culinary Arts Dubai (ICCA Dubai) held a graduation cer-emony on 12 May to celebrate the 24 chefs who successfully completed its Culinary Schol-arship Programme.

The students completed the ICCA Dubai — International Chef Training Program, a City & Guilds London accredited IVQ level 2 qualification, along with other industry skills profi-ciency training over a 52-week day release programme.

The scholarship, offered as part of a AED 1 million con-tinuing education award, was launched by ICCA Dubai in 2014 and is run in collaboration with Emirates Culinary Guild (ECG), Worldchefs and the City & Guilds London.

Sunjeh Raja, director and CEO, ICCA Dubai, said: “The AED 1 million dirham continuing edu-cation award was set up with an aim of providing everyone with an equal opportunity to achieve their dreams and not to be limit-ed by their means, while boosting the industry with fresh, skilled resources taking the industry de-velopment to the next level ahead of the Dubai Expo 2020.”

During the 52-week pro-gramme, prominent chefs and industry experts regularly con-

hosT MilAn seeKs buyers And exhibiTors for 40Th ediTion

iccA dubAi honours 24 grAduATes of chef scholArshiP ProgrAMMe

and tableware will exhibit at the show.

Forty percent of registered companies are from outside of Italy, with 15% from Germany, 14% from Spain, 7% from the US and France, and 6% from the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The area dedicated to equip-ment for bars and the world of coffee is already 65% occupied, while food service equipment is 63% reserved, and 51% of the tableware area is sold out.

Host expects to see an in-crease in exhibitors from the US, Canada and the Middle East during the 2017 show, with numbers of exhibitors and visitors from these areas having increased significantly during the last editions.

At Host, meetings and par-ticipation in international and promotional events will take place, as will a number of dem-onstrations from baristas, piz-zaioli, gelato makers and choc-olate makers.

Events will include the Cake Designers World Champion-ship and the World Trophy of Pastry, Ice Cream and Choco-late in collaboration with Federazione Internazionale Pasticceria Gelateria Cioccola-teria (FIPGC).

ducted training sessions, im-parting skills and knowledge aligned to industry needs.

The graduates are eligible for WACS Certified Professional Cook, under the Worldchefs Global Certification Scheme.

Dr. Abdullah Al Karam, chair-man, Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) presented the qualification cer-tificates to the chefs.

He was accompanied on stage by Dr. Naji Almahdi, chief, quali-fications and awards, Dubai and Mohammed Abdullah, manag-ing director, Dubai Knowledge Park, chef Uwe Micheel, chair-man ECG and Young Chefs De-velopment Team for WorldChefs and Chef Andy Cuthbert, presi-dent of Emirates Culinary Guild.

The graduates included chefs from Marriott International, Ritz-Carlton Hotels & Resorts, Shakespeare & Co, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, Emirates Flight Catering, The Address Hotels & Resorts, Jumeirah Group, Fairmont Hotels & Re-sorts, Atlantis The Palm, JA Re-sorts, The Rezidor Hotel Group, Media One Hotel, and Unilever, among others.

ICCA Dubai has trained over 6,000 student chefs and main-tains a record of 100% work placement for its students.


What's cooking?

WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF CUPNCAKES?We create bespoke cakes and sweet tables based on certain themes and provide ca-tering for parties. Our live stations feature things like fajitas, pasta and shawarmas.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN OPERAT-ING IN DUBAI? We have been in Dubai for six years now and recently rebranded the company.

HOW MANY CAKES DO YOU PRODUCE IN A WEEK? We produce around 50 cakes and six sweet tables per week. We don’t like to do mass orders because we want to en-sure that each cake is uniquely designed and tailored to the particular requests of the clients.

1762 Deli is launching a new food truck using an old-fashioned London bus and a Meadow Creek Smoker to create charred items. The 1966 London Routemaster double-decker bus, named ‘Monty’ after the Earl of Sandwich John Montague, has been refurbished and transported to the Middle East and will be available for private hire, special events or urban markets. 1762 Smoked will feature items such as smoky chargrilled corn with jalapeno lime butter, parmesan truffle fries, 1762 pommes frites with salted caramel sauce and 1762 churro s’mores.

Nicole Mrad, founder of Dubai cakes and catering company, CupNCakes reveals plans to open her very own coffee shop and kiosk next year

Picture Perfect

in a nutshell: cuPncakes

DO YOU WORK ALONE OR AS PART OF A TEAM?We are a team and we have chefs special-ised in different areas. For example, one team will do the baking, while another

will do cake drawings and design for cus-tomer approval. Another team will do the sugar flowers for wedding cakes, and then we have specialists in cake finishing and touch-ups.

WHY DID YOU LAUNCH CUPNCAKES?It started as a passion and a hobby, and then it became a business. Friends loved the taste and design of the cakes so I took additional courses in the US to improve my skills. It was easy for me since I come from a hospitality management back-ground, and F&B in particular. I love the quote, "choose a job that you love and you will never have to work a day in your life".

WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS?We are opening a coffee shop and kiosk next year.


What's cooking?

trade

educatioN

Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) brought 23 companies from a wide range of sectors to the UAE and Saudi Arabia in May to explore investment opportunities.

The companies, from sec-tors including food and bever-age, hotel supply chain, animal nutrition, security and special-ist construction, were in the region from May 9 – 13.

While some of the compa-nies already have an estab-lished presence in the Middle East, others are entering the region for the first time.

One of the F&B companies involved in the trade mis-

Hilton Worldwide has part-nered with Hotelschool The Hague Hospitality Consultancy and Lobster Ink to develop mo-bile enabled learning.

The four-week online foun-dation courses in Kitchen Management and F&B Service Management, commencing in May 2016, have been developed specifically for entry level team members interested in building a career in food and beverage.

Simon Lazarus, vice presi-dent food & beverage Europe, Middle East & Africa, Hilton Worldwide, said: “The most important driver of our suc-cess is our people. We strive to create world-class learning and development programmes to enable our team members to reach their goals.

inVesT norThern irelAnd brings new f&b coMPAnies To Middle eAsT

hilTon inTroduces Mobile TrAining for f&b sTAff

in some specialist stores in Dubai.Another company looking

for opportunities in the region is Kitchenmaster, which has been manufacturing cleaning products for 35 years on-site in Carryduff, Belfast.

The cleaning products are dispatched to Europe, New Zealand and the UAE.

Invest NI is the regional economic development agency for Northern Ireland, and has the role of growing the local economy by helping new and existing businesses to compete internationally and by attract-ing new investment to North-ern Ireland.

access to local formal colleges or hotel schools.

Those who successfully com-plete all aspects of the Kitchen Management and F&B Service Management courses will re-ceive certification from both Lobster Ink and Hotelschool The Hague.

Facilitated by industry ex-perts, the courses offer students advanced hospitality education and learning methods, includ-ing high definition video les-sons and lecturer led forum-based discussions.

The curriculum is aimed at boosting knowledge in kitchen and food service operations, developing leadership and man-agement skills and establishing a global peer-to-peer support network.

sion was sugar-free specialist, Free’ist, which has a range con-taining 20 sugar-free and no added sugar products, includ-ing popcorn, chocolate bars, cookies and marshmallows.

Homemade granola com-pany ‘Just Live a Little’, which

“Collaborating with partners is essential to achieving our business objectives and to em-power young people in their hospitality careers.”

Accessible on all mobile, desktop and tablet devices, the courses are available 24/7,

still produces its granola in a shed next to the owner’s farm-house beside Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, also came to the region.

Already, Just Live a Little’s products are available in most reputable UK supermarkets, and

which means team members have the flexibility to study when most convenient.

The online courses are ex-pected to be particularly ben-eficial to staff based in remote locations who wish to develop their careers further without


What's cooking?

Fifteen-year-old Dubai home-grown concept, Lime Tree Café, has added a gluten-free bakery to its three Dubai outlets. A se-lection of cakes, slices, muffins, cookies, artisan crackers, gluten-free breads and desserts are now available. Gluten-free desserts in-clude triple-layer tiramisu, choco-late goddess and wild berry and citrus cakes, as well as the well-known Lime Tree carrot cake. The gluten-free range has been made available for pre-order and pick-up from Lime Tree’s Cafés across Dubai. To celebrate the launch

The 11th edition of Food & Hospi-tality Oman will return to Oman International Exhibition Centre from 20 – 22 September. The in-ternational exhibition covers food and beverage, food processing technology, kitchen and catering equipment, packaging systems, and horeca furniture and related services. Oman is a fast-growing market for international suppli-

The Ministry of Health & Pre-vention has launched a ‘Healthy Restaurant’ initiative in the UAE. Restaurants have been asked to adhere to mandatory and op-tional criteria to improve the nu-tritional value of their offerings and empower consumers to make healthy choices. This includes of-fering at least two healthy meals and a separate healthy food menu for children. Affiliated establish-ments will be certified as healthy restaurants by the Ministry of Health & Prevention, and will be

lime Tree café launches gluten-free bakery

food & hospitality oman returns this september

uAe government launches ‘healthy restaurant’ initiative

Lime Tree Café’s outlet on Sheikh Zayed Road had a pop-up gluten-free bakery from 25 – 28 May, showcasing the new range.

ers to the foodservice industry. The market is heavily reliant on imports, with 80% of food re-quirements met through imports, and 25% of its total imports food products. Milk and milk prod-ucts, meat and poultry, cereals, and fruit and vegetables are the most common imports. Reserva-tions can now be made for exhibi-tor stands.

provided with free consultations with a nutrition specialist who will assist participating restau-rants in improving the nutritional value of their offer. Training and education will also be provided to cooks and service providers.

oPerATion fAlAfAl To oPen four More dubAi ouTleTsArabic street food restaurant, Operation Falafel, has revealed expansion plans, with four more outlets planned for the Dubai market.

Currently in three locations, the four new venues will open on Mohammed Bin Rashid Bou-levard in Downtown Dubai, The Ribbon in Motor City, The Village – Luxury Outlet, and at Project ‘Last Exit’, located on the road between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Manhal Naser, CEO & co-founder, AWJ Investments com-mented: “We are thrilled with the success of Operation Falafel in Dubai and are keen on expanding our restaurants in the region and

around the globe to attract more people to enjoy our popular Ara-bic street food. This is an exciting time for the brand and marks the beginning of a larger expansion plan in the region.”

Operation Falafel serves sha-warma, falafel, hummus and fattoush, among other Arabic specialities.

The first Operation Falafel restaurant opened at The Beach mall opposite JBR in March 2014.

The second branch opened at Boxpark in March 2015 and was followed by the most re-cent opening at Kite Beach in March 2016.


What's cooking?

Jones The grocer Middle eAsT MAsTer frAnchisee Acquires globAl brAnd righTs JTG Holdings Ltd, the master franchisee for Jones the Grocer in the Middle East and North Africa has bought the global rights to the brand.

In a separate transaction, L Capital Asia has taken a sig-nificant minority stake in JTG Holdings, with the aim of back-ing the brand in its internation-al expansion.

Another subsidiary of L Capital Asia has taken master franchise rights for the brand in various markets in North Asia, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

The headquarters of JTG Holdings will be based in the UAE, but will have a wider, global footprint, while remain-ing true to its Australian roots.

JTG Holdings and Jones the Grocer CEO, Yunib Siddiqui, said: “Our franchisees and em-ployees are our true partners and the most important ele-ment of our offering. This new

development will bring better focus and new global opportu-nities to all stakeholders in the business.”

Ravi Thakran, chairman and managing partner, L Capi-tal Asia, said: “We are certain that as the new owners of the brand, [JTG Holdings] will do full justice to exploiting its true potential. We look forward to backing JTG Holdings, Yunib and the team in rapidly rolling out more stores on their own or with franchise partners in new and existing markets around the world.”

Jones the Grocer, established in Australia in 1996, is a café and retail outlet specialising in hand selected specialty prod-ucts, and featuring a signature walk-in cheese room, charcute-rie and deli.

The brand has 19 stores across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE.


New places

gourmet by kcal

Mori SuShi ToTora CebiCheria Peruana o’LearyS

Jay Williams, executive chef, The Westin Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina introduces the first ever Gourmet by Kcal

Please describe the concept of the venue in your words? The concept is good food, cooked well as nature intended. We source as many of the prod-ucts as possible from fairtrade organic farms.

What are the signature items on the menu?Our stand-out dishes include the pizza, which is gluten free and made with a carrot or zucchini base, the Cuban chicken salad and the dairy free coconut cheesecake.

Who designed the interiors and how do they reflect the concept?The design was done in partnership with Kcal, and the venue was created under the direc-tion of Kcal co-founder, Andreas Borgmann, and myself.

What makes Gourmet by Kcal unique?Every product we use is chosen because it is better for the environment or benefits a person rather than a corporation. We want guests to feel good knowing that by coming to dine with us, they are making a difference to someone somewhere. For example, we used coffee bags from Raw Coffee Company to cover the furniture and the company donated the proceeds to one of their coffee producers in Ethiopia so that they could buy better equipment and increase their production.

Japanese-Brazilian sushi restaurant, Mori Sushi, has officially opened its doors in Downtown Dubai. Fusing sushi and flam-ing grill flavours, Mori Sushi incorporates ‘feng shui’ into its design. It features a su-shi bar specialising in contemporary takes on sushi, sashimi, nigiri and temaki and robata-grilled bites. Menu items include scallop salad, the avocado caterpillar, the mango rainbow roll and the ura tekka maki.

Location: Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, DubaiOpening date: 11 May, 2016

Totora Cebicheria Peruana is a new con-cept backed by Ròya International, of-fering an authentic Peruvian experience from the sights and sounds to the fla-vours. Combining fresh and authentic ingredients with modern décor reminis-cent of the Peruvian landscape, the DIFC outlet covers two floors and its kitchen is staffed with a team of Peruvian chefs. Menu items include Scallop tiradito and the Lima colada cocktail.

Location: DIFC, DubaiOpening date: 30 May, 2016

UAE-headquartered TIME Hotels Man-agement has launched O’Learys US sports-themed restaurant in Dubai. The casual dining venue has a capacity for 250, spanning six seating areas within the restaurant, terrace, shisha area and bar. The move marks TIME’s second O’Learys franchise, following the launch of its debut outlet at Fujairah Mall in January 2016 – the company’s first ever non-hotel product.

Location: Sheikh Zayed Road, DubaiOpening date: 1 June, 2016


New places

iConS Coffee CouTure TeaTro DownTown LaLuz

ICONS Coffee Couture, a fashion-forward coffee shop specialising in sugar-free and naturally sweetened products has opened its first outlet in Abu Dhabi at the Deer-fields Mall, Abu Dhabi. The brand, founded by German model Elena Weber, already has outlets in Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah. Its healthy new range includes Panama Geisha coffee beans; an ice cream bar sweetened naturally with agave or dates; frozen teas range FrozTeas©.

Location: Deerfields Mall, Abu DhabiOpening date: 9 May, 2016

New Bahrain hotel, Downtown Rotana Mana-ma has opened its signature restaurant, Teatro Downtown, which specialises in international cuisine. The restaurant is the third Teatro in the region, with Dubai and Abu Dhabi outlets estab-lished already. Teatro Downtown offers five dif-ferent cuisines – Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and South East Asian, with 130 menu options. The restaurant adopts an East-meets-West ap-proach spread across three separate areas.

Location: Downtown Rotana Manama, BahrainOpening date: 2 May, 2016

Fine-dining Catalonian/Mediterranean res-taurant, Laluz, is a concept by Barcelona restaurant firm, Grupo Tragaluz, and marks the company’s first venture in the Middle East. Heading up the culinary team is Bar-celona-born executive chef Alain Devahive, who has worked at a number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain and France in-cluding elBulli in Catalonia, known for its experimental cuisine. The outlet is open for lunch and dinner and closes at 3am.

Location: Four Seasons Hotel DIFCOpening date: 4 May, 2016

the factsVenue: Gourmet by Kcal

Location: The Westin Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina, Dubai

Opening date: 8 May 2016

Head chef: Aung Kyaw Swar

Restaurant manager: Antonio Mansfield

Fun fact about venue: Chairs are covered with coffee bean packets


Talent

mixing creativity With PassionRaafiq September, complex bar manager and mixologist at La Vinoteca Barcelona and Café Amsterdam Bahrain, part of the Bayader restaurant management division, advises new bar talent to keep pushing the boundaries of creativity

What was your first ever role in the F&B industry?My first ever role in the F&B industry was as a bar-back at a luxury restaurant in Cape Town called Harbour House and that is when I fell in love with the art of bartending and mixology.

Who has inspired you most in your career?To be honest I get a lot of inspiration from all things around me, but to give credit to one person it would have to be Mochamad Fadli, my mentor who I worked with at Ramee Grand Hotel and Spa in Bahrain.

How do you view the bar scene in Bahrain?It’s very stable yet conservative with huge potential to grow. It can be easily influenced as it is still in the infant stage.

What is the biggest challenge of your role?Maintaining the international standards I’ve set for myself and staff and ensuring they follow through on these standards. Also helping guests understand that mixology is not just about two cocktails and that it’s an experience in itself. Ev-ery time a mixologist creates a drink for a guest he gives a bit more of himself in that drink, because his intention is to create an experience for the guest.

What is your favourite aspect of the role?The joy of seeing the guest enjoy a drink I’ve just created and also seeing the appre-ciation of a guest drinking something that they have never tried before.

If you could work in any bar in the world, which would it be?Some of the best bars are definitely in New

York. I would like to work in Death & Co. or The Dead Rabbit Grocery & Grog.

What tip would you share with new bar tenders starting out in the industry in the Middle East?Always be yourself and be proud of what you do. Never stop learning and pushing your creative limits as this is an ever-evolv-ing industry.

Raafiq September, bar manager at Bayader Restaurant

Management Division

Work ExperienceMarch 2014 - Dec 2015: Head bartender and mixologist, Ramee Grand Hotel and Spa, BahrainJuly 2013 - March 2014: Head bartender and mixologist, The Domain Hotel, Bahrain

October 2010 - March 2013: Head bartender and mixologist, Club 31, Cape Town South Africa


Talent: appointments

roTana’S new CenTro CaPiTaL Doha aPPoinTS exeCuTive Chef

r hoTeLS aPPoinTS new Dubai CLuSTer PaSTry Chef

aDDreSS DownTown Dubai Chef joinS fairMonT The PaLM

Rotana Hotels’ Centro Capital Doha, which opened in May, has ap-pointed Shaikh Toufik Imam as executive chef. In his new role, chef Imam is tasked with menu creation for Centro’s all-day dining restaurant ‘c.taste’, its bar ‘c.mondo’ and 24-hour take-away dining shop ‘c.deli’. The Indian chef has held roles in the Middle East with Ritz-Carlton Hotels & Resorts, Ju-meirah Group, AccorHotels and Rotana Ho-tels, which he first joined in 2010 at Al Bustan Rotana in Dubai. He later rejoined the com-pany in Doha in 2013 as part of the culinary team at Oryx Rotana Doha where he worked his way up to executive sous chef before tak-ing on his current position.

R Hotels has appoint-ed Gayan Weeras-inghe as cluster pas-try chef of its Dubai properties: Ramada Downtown Dubai, Haw-thorn Suites by Wyndham Jumeirah Beach Residence and ibis Styles Jumeira. The Sri Lankan chef was a student of award-win-ning executive pastry chef, Frederic Scail-teur. His first stint in the GCC was as com-mis chef of the pre-opening team at The Torch Doha, before he moved to Bahrain as chef de partie on the pre-opening team of Ramee Grand Hotel. He then served as act-ing sous chef at Art Rotana Amwaj Islands in Bahrain before relocating to Dubai to join R Hotels.

Fairmont The Palm, Dubai has named Cana-dian national Alain Go-beil as its new executive chef. Chef Gobeil has left his position as executive chef at The Address Downtown Dubai, which was severely damaged in the New Year’s Eve 2016 fire and is now closed for the foresee-able future. In his new role, chef Gobeil will be at the forefront of Fairmont The Palm’s new F&B concepts, which are set to launch shortly, including existing restaurants, Brazil-ian churrascaria, Frevo, and the Mashrabiya Lounge. The chef has worked with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts in Canada and in the UAE, including Fairmont Dubai and Fairmont Bab al Bahr.


Opinion

Why loyalty cards are crucial for quick service restaurants

Akshay Dosaj, managing partner of Purple Honey Group says that implementing a loyalty card is the first step toward establishing a returning customer base

Creating customer loyalty to a res-taurant brand is one of the most important things on the sales and

marketing agenda, especially when it comes to quick service or casual dining restau-rants. Customers want to know that they are appreciated by the brand. With the right tools you can add a personal touch to your restaurant and help make sure customers return to you and not to your competitors.

The majority of quick service restaurants in the UAE are located in shopping mall food courts, and this means there are mul-tiple quick service options all lined up in a row trying to entice the customer. Although good quality food is the most important ele-ment of all restaurants, with QSR the price plays a major role in whether it is success-ful or not. When choosing where to eat in a food court, customers are looking for good food at a great price and so one way of en-suring the market goes for your brand and not the brand next door, is by launching a loyalty card.

To illustrate my point, if you are walking

down a busy street and see a Costa Coffee and a handful of charming, yet unheard of coffee shops, the chances are you will opt for Costa Coffee because of the brand rec-ognition factor. Add into the equation the stamps you earn for every coffee bought, and you will be left wondering why you would ever buy your morning cup elsewhere.

Although bringing in a stamp-based re-wards programme is an effective way of se-curing customer loyalty, this should only be one part of the marketing effort and should never be used on its own. One challenge with these types of cards is the fact that many people collect one for every place they visit and simply end up with a handful of loyalty cards in their wallet. This takes away the brand essence and may portray an unfair image that your restaurant is targeting the mass market.

For most loyalty programmes you have to make eight or nine purchases before you see a reward, which can be disheartening for the customer and even make them feel cheated. The key is to create a loyalty programme

that really shows your brand’s appreciation of each customer and isn’t seen as yet an-other marketing tool to increase profits. By having a reward every three or four purchas-es, you are showing the customer that you really do value their loyalty and with awards that reflect your brand ethos, you will be able to stay true to your identity.

When planned and researched properly, introducing a loyalty programme to your quick service restaurant is an extremely effective way of retaining customers. A loyalty card should give customers a com-pelling reason to choose your restaurant by positioning and differentiating your brand in the market. It should be a vehicle through which a brand communicates its uniqueness and delivers strong benefits to its customers.

Instead of viewing a loyalty card as dis-counted value, you should see it as a tool to create a customer database and a way to en-courage people to return to your restaurant. In a competitive F&B market like ours, this can only be a good thing.

about the authorAkshay Dosaj is managing partner of Purple Honey Group, an F&B investment company that creates and op-erates innovative, unique and exciting food and beverage offerings throughout the UAE.

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AhlAn

RamadanManaging an F&B operation during the holy month of Ramadan


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Ramadan is a time of peace and quiet as business and social events wind down providing a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of regu-

lar life. However, for the F&B industry in the Middle East, it can be a daunting period as vol-umes drop during daytime fasting hours, and opening hours extend into the small hours, put-ting a strain on staffing and revenue. However, effective planning around budget and staffing is key to off-setting losses, and running a smooth and efficient Ramadan operation, according to Tom Aitkens, chef patron at Pots, Pans & Boards, Dubai.

“Preparation, setting the right strategy, knowing your clientele and tweaking the offer is key to lowering the impact of reduced trad-ing hours and the fasting period,” Aitkens com-ments. For Bistro Des Arts co-founder Jona-than Vercoutere, the most challenging part of the planning process for Ramadan is organising staffing around unusual working hours. “We all know Ramadan is a hard time of the year in terms of revenue… Staffing is the hardest part to manage during Ramadan as you accrue extra working hours for your staff and also three per-sonal holidays during the Eid break,” he says, adding that the nocturnal operation also puts pressure on timetables. “Our busiest hours are mainly during the evening so we have to think ahead to reduce working hours before the event so that the impact isn’t too hard. It also means that we need to roster the minimum required amount of staff during the day operation so that all forces are focused on the evening.”

Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach

director of food and beverage, Lorenzo Mara-viglia agrees that staffing is a challenge during Ramadan, particularly if there are any hiccups or timetable clashes. However, staff at the hotel are well-prepared for working night-time hours, and some extra manpower is brought in to help with iftar and suhoor from evening venue Mer-cury Lounge, which is closed during Ramadan.

“Many of our staff are more comfortable with the night shift anyway, so the transition is not a large one,” he says. “Mercury is closed dur-ing Ramadan but the staff are trained for ban-queting too so they come in to help with the added pressure in the tent and are accustomed to night shifts.” Four Seasons is also careful to ensure that management take centre stage so that iftar and suhoor operate efficiently with reduced staff numbers. “We centralise our core efforts,” says Maraviglia. “This ensures that leadership is readily available and that we can ease off operations in other outlets.”

Pinnacle Group, which operates Lebanese concepts, Leila restaurant and KrisKros Leba-non in Dubai, among other brands, has a range of mall and standalone locations, and makes sure that the most productive staff are allocated to the busiest locations during Ramadan. Man-aging partner of the group, Ahmed Al Alami comments: “During Ramadan the mall tends to get busier and standalone locations slow down so we do internal transfers and send very quali-fied staff who are productive and efficient to the mall locations.” Additionally, those staff who observe Ramadan’s fasting hours are given the leeway to take time off, or work reduced hours. “We send those who observe and fast to their


Cover Story

avinaSh MohanexeCuTive Chef, The aDDreSS

Dubai Marina

(L-r) ibraheeM MuSLeh, exeCuTive Chef, PoTS, PanS & boarDS

Dubai; enDri KoSTuri, generaL Manager, PoTS, PanS & boarDS Dubai

jonaThan verCouTereCo-founDer biSTro DeS arTS, Dubai home towns to enjoy the serenity of the

holy month,” Alami adds. At The Address Dubai Marina, fasting

and non-fasting staff are balanced out on the rota to ensure efficiency doesn’t suf-fer. “I try to be patient and flexible with my team as I understand that it’s not easy to have a completely new system where my Muslim team fast the whole day from sunrise to sunset, because it lowers their productivity and effectiveness,” says Avi-nash Mohan, executive chef. “I plan my op-erations well in advance and try to balance the shift between Muslim and non-Muslim staff who can be supportive to each other.”

In addition to planning staff rotas around Ramadan’s unusual dining hours, budgeting effectively is a key concern for every F&B outlet in the region. At Four Seasons, the budget is laid out to ensure that a larger portion of the revenue is re-quired from the evening operation. “We

have a structured plan in place to ensure that both staffing and revenue are more than possible,” says Maraviglia.

Bistro Des Arts’ Vercoutere agrees that managing your own expectations as a busi-ness is very important during Ramadan. He comments: “Our budget is built ac-cordingly so anything over that budget is positive. Any revenue lost during [fasting hours] means we have to work harder to make up for it at other times, but the best way is to have realistic goals so that you don’t have to worry about making up for it later on.”

Some businesses also implement ad-ditional revenue-generating initiatives to offset the negative impact of fasting hours on business volumes. Ivan Haller, director of food and beverage at Yas Viceory, Abu Dhabi comments: “We do generate less revenue [during Ramadan] but we work a lot with our neighbours and community by

Pierchic offers twists on its classic seafood fare during Ramadan

The iftar set-up at Constellation Ballroom, The Address Dubai Marina


Cover Story

offering cooking classes for adults and children and we have spe-cial lunch offers and a wallet-friendly high tea served throughout the month.”

Takeaway and delivery options can also boost profits during the holy month, however licensing must be secured in order to do this, Pinnacle Group’s Alami points out. “We work on attaining permits from the Department of Economic Development in Dubai to deliver during the day,” he says.

Retro Feasts, Dubai has started working with delivery service, Deliveroo ahead of Ramadan to cater to nearby offices and resi-dents to help boost revenue. Luke Thomas, chef patron of the venue also sees Ramadan as a chance to target new markets and experiment with new menu offerings. He comments: “Ramadan is an opportunity to explore different avenues with the change in opening hours. Where breakfast and lunch would normally be a more popular option for The Beach, we have revised our offerings and invite customers to try us. Due to our location we have a lot of tourists during normal operational hours and during Ramadan we get to appeal to a different demographic.”

And while non-licensed venues don’t see much change in terms of average spend per head during Ramadan, those that serve alcohol take a hit with reduced beverage sales. “Average spend obviously decreases since alcohol serving only starts after 8pm,” comments Bistro Des Arts’ Vercoutere. That said, Maraviglia of Four Seasons claims that other aspects of the business off-set this challenge. “The spend on beverage does decrease, however this is made up for with in-room dining and shisha revenue that ac-cumulates on a larger scale,” he says.

Another potential area for losses during Ramadan is food waste

“DurING the fIrSt week of ramaDaN we are aware that obServerS teND to SpeND qualIty tIme wIth famIly aND frIeNDS aND eNJoy the famIly SettING So we lower our par level

aND alwayS have a toleraNce of aN extra 5 to 10% IN caSe we have walk-INS”

ahmed al alami, managing partner, pinnacle Group

Image courtesy of Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach

Umm Ramoul, Next to Emirates NBDTel : +971 4 284 3322 / 04 284 3966

Email: [email protected] www.gelatotek.com


Cover Story

generated by iftar buffets, however many restaurants have become more sophisticat-ed in recent years to reduce the impact of this. Generally, iftars have to be booked in advance, and many operations have started to opt for live cooking stations and refilling buffets throughout the evening based on demand, rather than over-catering at the start of the event.

Mohan of The Address Dubai Marina comments: “Wastage is well controlled as we get cover numbers for iftar so far in ad-vance and we plan according to bookings.

Also, we try to keep portions smaller and refill when required to avoid unnecessary waste. Our iftar is based on live cooking stations to provide freshly cooked food and avoid waste so nothing goes in the bin.”

Some restaurants, such as Pierchic, avoid wastage altogether by sticking to their à la carte menus instead of offering iftar and suhour buffets. Julian Biddulph, general manager of the over-water restaurant com-ments: “Being based within a restaurant rather than a banqueting operation, we mi-nimise waste by creating everything fresh

“we Do GeNerate leSS reveNue [DurING ramaDaN] but we work a lot wIth our NeIGhbourS aND the commuNIty by

offerING cookING claSSeS for aDultS aND chIlDreN aND we have SpecIal luNch offerS aND a wallet-frIeNDly hIGh tea

ServeD throuGhout the moNth”- Ivan haller, yas viceroy, abu Dhabi

ahMeD aL aLaMiManaging ParTner, PinnaCLe grouP

ivan haLLerDireCTor of fooD anD beverage,

yaS viCeroy, abu Dhabi

juLian biDDuLPhgeneraL Manager, PierChiC, Dubai

Image courtesy of Pots, Pans & Boards

The iftar set-up at Four Seasons Resort Dubai

at Jumeirah Beach


Cover Story

to order. We don’t have a buffet selection; instead we maintain our standards.”

Pinnacle Group allows guests to take home leftovers to reduce waste and also shares excess stock among staff, according to Alami. The company works on a “par” level based on previous Ramadan opera-tional results to plan carefully for what is needed. “During the first week of Rama-dan we are aware that observers tend to spend quality time with family and friends and enjoy the family setting so we lower our par level and always have a tolerance of

“our buDGet IS buIlt accorDINGly, So aNythING over that buDGet IS poSItIve. aNy reveNue loSt DurING [faStING hourS] meaNS we have to work harDer to make up for It at other tImeS, but the beSt way IS to have realIStIc GoalS So that you DoN’t have to worry about makING up for It later oN”

- Jonathan vercoutere, bistro Des arts

an extra five to 10% in case we have walk-ins,” says Alami.

And so, while reduced revenues and staffing issues during Ramadan are a se-rious challenge, careful planning, value-added activities, and creative marketing can help to off-set losses to ensure the holy month is a peaceful time for everyone – even for those in the restaurant business.

“We make sure that the collective work throughout the month of Ramadan is achievable, efficient, and above all – obtain-able,” concludes Four Seasons’ Maraviglia.

Lorenzo MaravigLiaDireCTor of fooD anD beverage,

four SeaSonS reSorT Dubai aT juMeirah beaCh

LuKe ThoMaSChef PaTron, reTro feaSTS, Dubai

ToM aiTKenSChef PaTron, PoTS, PanS & boarDS,

Dubai

Fattoush salad, Leila, Downtown Dubai


What's cooking?

As Mango Tree Worldwide closes its only Middle Eastern outlet at the prime location of

Dubai’s Souk Al Bahar, managing director Trevor Mackenzie asserts that the Thai brand will return

to the region before the end of 2016

“i’ll be back”The

Business


The business

After almost a decade of operations, Bangkok-found-ed Thai restaurant brand Mango Tree will depart from what is arguably one of the most sought-after spaces in the region – the terrace of Dubai’s Souk Al Bahar, which overlooks The Dubai Fountain.

Considering how challenging it can be to secure such a location, it’s not surprising that Mango Tree Worldwide managing director Trevor Mackenzie is sad to be leaving.

During an interview with Catering News Middle East at the res-taurant just weeks before its closure, Mackenzie reminisces about the early days in 2007 when the venue, franchised by Landmark Group, first set up shop. “I’m sad to see it go,” he says. “When we first looked at the site there were no patios so we went to Emaar and they built them for everyone. I think it really changed how the souk works because before it was an internal space. I’m glad they changed their minds.”

Mackenzie is clear that Mango Tree isn’t going because of per-formance issues, but rather due to the preferences of the landlord, Emaar Hospitality. “It’s not because we’re not performing – we’re performing very well. This is one of my top locations in the world for performance and when I tell investors the type of volumes we do here, they’re like ‘wow…ok’. It’s not for lack of working and trying – these things happen. I’ve just got to look at it positively and think, ‘ok, on to bigger and better’. This isn’t my destiny.”

Despite the positive performance Mackenzie professes, he ad-mits the price hikes for Emaar rentals in recent years, in addition to the premiums charged for views over The Dubai Fountain and Burj Khalifa, has put a strain on profits.

“Emaar has raised its rentals quite a bit over the past couple of years and it’s something everyone in Dubai talks about. A 30% in-crease is massive, and it’s not necessarily just here but everywhere. As restaurateurs we talk about how expensive restaurant rentals in Dubai are and Emaar has set this new benchmark price, which is really unrealistic for F&B operations.

“We all have a certain percentage we like to be at for rental and we know we can be profitable but then when things like labour costs start to go up and you pay more for staff housing, this adds to our costs. With rental costs combined it brings down the over-all profits,” he says, asserting that running an F&B operation in Dubai today is not what it used to be. “In the early days, everyone thought that opening restaurants was super profitable, but now I think everyone realises that we really run on a very thin line.”

At the time of our interview, both Mango Tree and its next door neighbour Rivington Grill – which is also closing – were spec-ulating about which operator might fill the empty spaces, how-ever Catering News has since been informed that Melbourne fish

Yellow Curry Beef Brisket

Pad Thai Lobster

restaurant brand, The Atlantic will take over under a franchise agreement with Solutions Leisure, the company behind successful Dubai-grown concepts such as Q43 and Lock Stock & Barrel, and franchisee of Asia Asia in Pier 7 and Karma Kafé, also in Souk Al Bahar (full story on p8).

All is not lost however, and Mackenzie is adamant that Man-go Tree will be back in region. His major criteria? A location as outstanding as Souk Al Bahar. “For Mango Tree, no matter what, we’re always looking at a class A location, so it has to be some-thing with a ‘wow’ factor. If you look at this, it has the fountain, you look at Tokyo, it oversees downtown Tokyo,” he says.

In addition to spectacular views, Mackenzie is after a place where guests can have a unique experience. Clearly Souk Al Bahar gives guests – particularly tourists – the theatrics and music of the half-hourly fountain display, and a talking point like this is central to the Mango Tree concept. It isn’t simply a place to eat Thai food, Mackenzie asserts, highlighting the new Mango Tree on the River

“It’S Not for lack of workING aND tryING – theSe thINGS happeN. I’ve JuSt Got to look at It poSItIvely aND thINk, ‘ok, oN to bIGGer

aND better’. thIS ISN’t my DeStINy”


The business

years later, there were just three locations for the brand – in Bang-kok, Tokyo and London. Today, there are 40 spanning the same three locations, as well as Philippines, China, and now the US, with a Washington DC venue marking the first step in the group’s expansion throughout the North American continent.

“We always had a philosophy to move west. We launched in the US last year, so we’re gearing up our US operation to be ready to expand across the rest of the US. We’re taking it step by step to see what’s happening in the market,” says Mackenzie. Meanwhile, the company’s China expansion is being handled by a trusted partner, and Mango Tree will open its second venue there in October this year.

In addition to trialing new markets, a number of brands were intro-duced under the Mango Tree flag to offer more flexibility to investors. Mango Tree Bistro, a casual standalone brand that is “more alcohol driven” and Mango Tree Café, which is alcohol-free and focused on simple, approachable dishes such as Thai green curry, pad Thai and children’s options, making it suitable for mall locations.

In addition, Mackenzie believes that Saudi Arabia would be the perfect testing ground for a non-alcoholic version of the flagship brand, Mango Tree. A standalone site in Jeddah was confirmed pre-

viously, with the restaurant fully designed, how-ever a disagreement between the partners led to the project being cancelled. This time, Mackenzie is in negotiations for a hotel location.

“We’re looking at a few sites under construction in Jeddah,” he reveals. “I get excited about Saudi Arabia because I can see how to do our flagship brand without alcohol. We’ve had proposals to go to Pakistan and Bangladesh, and I’ve said no be-cause alcohol is part of what we deliver [in our flag-ship brand] but Saudi will be a learning experience to understand what we can deliver in our restau-rants without the alcohol component.”

Testament to the challenges Mango Tree has faced in trying to run the flagship brand without alcohol, was the company’s experience in Qatar. A Mango Tree restaurant was operated on The Pearl for two and half years but once the venue

Mango Tree Washington DC is the first step in the group’s expansion across the US

in Bangkok, where guests are whisked along the Chao Phraya Riv-er before being dropped off at the restaurant.

“In every location we do something different. For me it’s a lifestyle concept – I hate being lumped into this category of Thai food,” he explains, pointing out that the restaurants avoid featur-ing the usual Thai paraphernalia, such as Buddha statues or el-ephants. “Sometimes I hear people say, ‘if you want Thai food, go to Mango Tree’ – how about going to Mango Tree because you want to go to Mango Tree?” he exclaims.

The Thai lifestyle is something Mackenzie exudes, and having lived there for 12 years, he has even been accused by the chairman of the family-run business, Pitaya Phanphensophon, of becoming too eastern with his laid-back attitude. Mackenzie first entered the F&B industry in Canada “by accident” as a bartender, before work-ing his way up to a senior front-of-house position at well-known fine-dining restaurant, Blue Water Café. During a trip to Thailand, Mackenzie came across Mango Tree Worldwide. The company was established in 1957 by Khun Srichai Phanphensophon who opened the first Coca restaurant in Surawong, and his son Pitaya went on to launch Mango Tree in 1994. When Mackenzie came on board 10


The business

At the new Mango Tree on the River, Bangkok, guests

are whisked along the Chao Phraya River before being

dropped off at the restaurant

lost its alcohol license, profitability became an issue. “We tried for another year, but people just weren’t coming back,” says Macken-zie. “We had this ‘wow’ location where you could pull up in your yacht right next to Mango Tree and we did fashion shows and sun-downer events but once all that went away, the lifestyle element disappeared and it became a café.” Asked whether he considered changing the brand to fit under the Mango Tree Café flag, he com-ments: “The Pearl rentals weren’t that cheap so we needed to do a certain amount of volume or have that higher average cheque component to survive, so we decided it was in our best interest to close the outlet and protect the brand.” However, Mackenzie has plans to be back in Qatar also and is currently scouting out loca-tions. “I believe in Qatar and the future so I want to get in before it’s oversaturated,” he comments.

Oman and Abu Dhabi are also promising locations, however Mackenzie continues to test the water with both, not wanting to go in too early. With reference to Oman, he says: “I think I eventu-ally will. I just think Thai food at the level of Mango Tree it’s maybe not mature enough yet.” And on the prospect of an Abu Dhabi restaurant, he says: “We do see that we need to have a Mango Tree in Abu Dhabi so we will have one there no matter what.”

Despite his interest in the wider GCC, the Canadian business-man’s number one priority for now is to return to Dubai, and he is in discussions with some potential partners. Putting his laid-back Thai philosophy to the side, he admits the race is on to return to the region by the end of the year with a Dubai venue.

“We don’t want to be out of the region. I came here years ago when there was nothing. I believe in the region for the long term and the growth possibilities for our brand are endless… I’ll be back,” he says.

“IN the early DayS, everyoNe thouGht that opeNING reStauraNtS waS Super profItable but I thINk Now everyoNe realISeS that we

really ruN oN a very thIN lINe”


Out to lunch

a chef of PrinciPle

Izu Ani first made his mark in Dubai as the opening head chef of French fine-dining restaurant, La Pe-tite Maison, which catapulted into The S.Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants list just two years after its launch. Emaar Hospitality then snapped him up to create a new Mediterranean-inspired concept and

La Serre Bistro & Boulangerie was born. Today, it’s the most successful restaurant in Emaar’s portfolio.

Ani attributes his achievements with both of these res-taurants to the strong principles he has learned from a handful of important mentors through-out his career, the standout be-ing Philip Howard who Ani met when he was just starting out at The Square in Mayfair, London. Howard instilled into Ani the principles he lived by himself: to always say good morning to your teammates and to be yourself, both at home and at work.

“He taught me to be just who I am,” says Ani during an inter-view with Catering News at La Serre, just weeks before his departure from the restaurant. “Some chefs try to change themselves and take on a persona, so they become some-thing they’re not. You don’t have to do that – just be who you are.”

So, who exactly is Izu Ani? The Nigerian-born chef was brought up in London but spent a while learning the clas-

sics in France and modernist cuisine in Spain before relocat-ing to the Middle East in 2010. Wherever he goes, he dives straight into the centre of the action in an effort to absorb everything around him, with the belief that food, language and culture are intrinsically intertwined.

Speaking of his time in France, where he worked at the two-Michelin starred La Bastide Saint Antoine and the world famous three-Michelin starred Auberge de L’Ill, Ani says: “I didn’t just want to learn French food; I wanted to

understand the culture behind the food and to speak French. To do that, you’ve got to go there and be part of it, you’ve got to participate.”

Admitting that in London he was like “a petulant child”, mov-ing to France was a life changing experience for Ani. “The French calmed me down and said ‘Izu, understand what you’re doing; appreciate it instead of trying to beat it or own it. Try to be part of it’,” he recalls. For Ani, under-

standing food means you can be consistent and replicate a dish the same way each time.

For example, at La Bastide Saint Antoine in the region of Grasse – considered the world’s capital of perfume – Jacques Chibois, the chef at the helm of the restaurant and one of Ani’s key mentors, encouraged him to take a tour of the perfumeries in order to learn the role of fat in bringing out

As Izu Ani departs Emaar Hospitality’s La Serre Bistro & Boulangerie, he reveals his next exciting venture and some key learnings that will

stand him in good stead along the way. Crystal Chesters reports.

“I’m the SpIrItual owNer of thIS place, but we DIDN’t come to aN aGreemeNt oN how to move forwarD. I

DoN’t waNt to DIe IN here, I waNt to keep creatING… I waNt to keep puShING my

lImItS aND evolve”


the vapours of the flowers, which is the same principle that can be applied to cooking.

“If you use [fat] correctly it’s your friend, if you use it badly it’s your enemy,” Ani explains. “I always use the phrase, ‘I’m a lazy chef’ be-cause I buy the best ingredients and if I don’t need to do anything, I don’t do anything. I just give it to the guest to enjoy because I under-stand the product and that’s when you know whether to leave it alone or touch it,” he says. It was also Chibois who taught him about ingredi-ents he chuckles, recalling a particularly strong reaction his mentor had to the kitchen team us-ing out-of-date tomatoes.

“He just went crazy! He took out a box of to-matoes, threw it on the floor and said nobody was allowed to pick them up, so we had to walk around them or run over them. He wanted to teach us a lesson!”

Following the service, the chefs were asked to go to the staff cafeteria where Chibois laid out five different types of asparagus. He started with, “You have no respect for things! You don’t even understand what you’re cooking!” before proceeding to question the chefs on the names of each different type of asparagus and how they should be cooked.

“He wanted us to understand each one. For example, there’s more bitterness in the white asparagus so you cook it differently to the green asparagus. You look at each differently and learn how to use it,” says Ani.

However, Ani’s education didn’t stop there. He was ever-fascinated by modern cooking techniques, including molecular cuisine, epito-mised at the time by the world-renowned elBulli restaurant in Cata-lonia. To find out more, he travelled to the Basque Country in Spain to work for free at Arzak, Mugaritx and Akelarre restaurants, but quickly became disillusioned with how the chefs were doing things.

“There’s a lot of glitz and glamour but when you understand it, you realise there’s not a lot of substance behind it. Classic is always something you go back to and if you understand the classics you can build anything on them.”

In 2010, Ani relocated to Dubai as the opening head chef of La Petite Maison, and keeping in mind the strong principles he had learned in Europe from his mentors, the first thing Ani did

Warm goat’s cheese salad: Many of the items

on La Serre’s menu are vegetarian and gluten-free

was insist on implementing staff wages that were way above the going rate at the time.

“I changed the mentality of how people worked in this industry because they used to find the cheapest people to do the jobs they wanted. I said no, you pay a fair wage for what they’re going to give.

“When I was interviewing people they were telling me they were earning AED 600 per month, and I was shocked,” says Ani, remem-bering the first person he hired – a Filipino national called Marcel who was so enthusiastic that he came to the interview an hour early.

“I had a lot of affection for him because he was such a hard worker. He came in as a commis at the time but I remember I was paying ridiculous money – AED 3500 – and the boss said, ‘you’re going to kill the market by paying so much – stop it!’ I said, ‘why?’ People have got to earn well to enjoy what they’re doing. You can’t just take from them and not give anything back. If you make a cake and everyone brings an ingredient, everyone should take a piece of the cake.”

When he joined Emaar Hospitality in 2013 to set up Mediterra-nean concept, La Serre, Ani carried the same philosophy with him, insisting on allocating 25% of the budget to staff wages.

“How are you going to put the product there if you don’t have the talent? You spend first and then you make, because if you try to save first, you don’t make. It’s as simple as that!”

He is also careful not to abuse his good reputation by cutting costs or “cheating” the guests when it comes to ingredients. “I

out to lunch

Burrata with tomatoes is a simple dish, which allows the ingredients to shine


Out to lunch

could think that if I change an ingredient for something cheaper they’re not going to know – but I’ll know!” he asserts, high-lighting that to this day, he uses Valrhona chocolate in his pastries.

In fact, Ani believes that most restaurants fail as a result of compromising on their principles when the going gets tough, when they should instead be putting more effort into the project. “You invest, you keep add-ing. You make your customer more loyal to you because you keep your standards high – that’s the way I like to do it.”

Ani thinks another challenge for good res-taurants in Dubai like La Serre, is that they can be bypassed as the crowds chase after myriad new openings.

“When there’s so much stuff in your face you can get confused and if you dine out once or twice a week, you’ll realise the places that are good get overlooked because you’re always trying out new things. And with the transit mentality of Dubai, people are just looking to make a quick buck; there’s no in-vestment in the future,” he says.

It’s for this reason that Ani’s next career move won’t be to open another restaurant. And to follow his dreams, he had to part company with Emaar Hospitality. “I’m the spiritual owner of this place, but we didn’t come to an agreement on how to move for-ward. I don’t want to die in here, I want to keep creating… I want to keep pushing my limits and evolve,” he says.

Ani will turn his attention to sharing his knowledge with others, just as he was taught to do by his mentors, Paul and Marc Haeberlin, the father and son duo behind L’Auberge de L’ill, who said, “nothing you have is yours”.

“How can I claim that everything I’ve learned is mine? A lot of chefs hold everything in – ‘no it’s my recipe’. Everything I have was given to me and I believe that’s the biggest learning I’ve ever had; learning how to share,” Ani says, revealing his latest venture. “I’d love to do a research and development hub where the creativity has no limits or boundaries. We can strive to set a mark and be part of the community,” he says.

The R&D hub will be what Ani refers to as his “playground”. Set in a villa in Jumeirah, it will provide a space where both adults and children can come to learn about ingredients and nutrition. “I have to impart my knowledge to the younger generations,” Ani explains.

“If I can change one kid’s perspective on how to eat, I’ve done my job. I want to put a structure in place so that whoever is yearning to understand a bit more about what we do, please come, I want to share what I know.”

Citing the old saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”, Ani is also keen to revolutionise the way cooking classes are delivered in Dubai, with

the aim of helping people to really un-derstand food rather than copy recipes.

“In the future we’ll give cooking classes but in a professional way. It’s not that you come in to learn a recipe, it’s that you come in to understand a prod-uct. If I teach you how to understand a tomato, you can use it in any way, be-cause you’re not following something, you’re being a part of something, and that’s the key.”

In addition to the educational ele-ment, Ani will run a chef’s table, which

opens on an ad-hoc basis with no menu and very limited seating. And with his strong background in France, he also wants to open a bou-langerie within the building, commenting: “There will be elements in the villa that will be broken up into research and development for bakery and pastry.”

A greenhouse will also be constructed where Ani will grow his own fresh produce, and a test lab will allow him to trial new recipes and menu concepts.

“It’s not a gimmicky place, I’m researching things, I’m trying to un-derstand more. I’ve done the food, but then there’s the culture behind the food and some days I’ll let you see what I’m doing, I’ll allow you to come and taste it.”

At the time of our interview, Ani was about to embark on a re-search trip around Asia to “add layers” to his cooking, before return-ing at the start of June to work full steam ahead on his new project, which is set to open before the end of 2016. And while many F&B concepts in Dubai are nothing more than a flash in the pan, Ani as-serts he is here for the long-run, and wants to put something back into the community.

“When you have a transit mindset, in certain ways you stop living because you don’t commit fully. So I say no, I’m going to commit. This is where I live now, this is my home and I’m going to invest in it. I want to evolve the culture not just take from it,” he concludes.

La Serre Bistro & Boulangerie

“he JuSt weNt crazy! he took out a box of tomatoeS, threw

It oN the floor aND SaID NoboDy waS alloweD to pIck them up, So we haD to walk arouND them or ruN over

them. he waNteD to teach uS a leSSoN!”


The big cheese

Where faith meets food

Central to the holy month of Ramadan is the ob-servance of Iftar, whereby families, friends and communities come together to break their fasts together. However, it’s not just in the faith of Is-lam that food holds such a central and symbolic place: at tables of grace spanning the world’s re-

ligions, food has the power to transcend boundaries. This is a topic very close to the heart of Indian celebrity chef, Vikas Khanna who has lectured at Harvard University in the US on ‘Food and Faith’, and released his new Dalai Lama-narrated documentary, ‘Kitchens of Gratitude’ in May at Cannes Film Festival.

In the documentary, Khanna discusses his travels throughout the world during which he discovered “the oneness of communities created through food” and demon-strates that “from the com-munity kitchens of Sikh temples, to the modest feasts of Buddhist monas-teries to Jewish soup kitch-ens and Muslim Iftars” food has the power to permeate borders and boundaries like nothing else on earth.

“Every faith is based on sharing and the sharing of food is the first essential to breaking down barriers. I thought – that’s the subject the world needs to hear about right now!” says Khanna during an inter-view with Catering News at his Dubai restaurant, Junoon, in Shangri-La Hotel, Sheikh Zayed Road, the second venue in his portfolio. The orig-inal, Junoon in New York City, opened in 2010 and earned a Michelin star for four consecutive years.

The boundless nature of food is something Khanna witnessed growing up, explaining that while he was born and raised in Punjab, North India, many of his grandmother’s dishes were from bordering

Indian celebrity chef Vikas Khanna tells Crystal Chesters how food has the power to break down barriers

Pakistan – although he may not have noticed at the time. Khanna ex-plains: “Pakistan was a part of India and the borders can’t divide a culture like that, there will be overlapping, there will be resonance, there will be echoes.”

At the time of our interview, Khanna was working on creating a dish from Pakistan for the menu at Junoon Dubai, inspired by the street food of Lahore he discovered on a visit to the country two years ago. “We’re developing a kebab. The translation of it is horrible, it means sandal kebab because it looks like a shoe! But it’s amazing, and that’s going to go on the menu,” he explains.

In addition to Pakistani influences, Khanna likes to incorporate Chi-nese and Tibetan notes, and this blurring of borders has become a

trademark of his cuisine. “We’re going beyond

the borders of India. I get inspiration from Tibetans, many of whom live in In-dia,” Khanna says, high-lighting his use of Tibetan flour to make some of his breads. “After the revolu-

tion in China, everyone came to India as a land of asylum and their cuisine is so different to Indian cuisine but they had to adapt to what was available locally, and I’ve started incorporating their accents into my food. I’m proud to show the diversity of Indian cuisine, otherwise it would have a generic structure that’s almost cloned.”

Khanna sees overlaps in cuisines and cultures everywhere, includ-ing Dubai, which he likens to a “mini-India”. He is amazed by how the flavours and ingredients of Indian food are very much connected to Emirati cuisine.

“Even the native foods of the UAE are so intertwined with In-dian food. There’s so much influence and trade; the history of the spice routes. If you look at the cuisine there is such a mix of in-

“SometImeS you wISh for SomethING aND It happeNS for you, aND SometImeS you try aND try aND It DoeSN’t happeN. you’ve Got to leave a few thINGS IN your lIfe up to the uNIverSe; what wIll be wIll be”


Thebigcheese


gredients, there’s such an overlap in the structures of the cuisines, the tech-niques, the tastes, so because of that, the natives [of the UAE] think that [Indian] is their cuisine,” he says.

In addition to the Pakistani dish, Khanna was launching some new des-serts during his visit – Thandai, a milk-based summer drink, and rasmalai, a Bengali dessert consisting of soft paneer balls immersed in chilled creamy milk. Inspired by the traditional recipes, Khanna has altered the formats to present the dishes in new ways.

“In the Thandai, we have incorporated almonds, saffron and cardamom, and for the rasmalai we’re doing shots. So we make them without changing the beauty or the memory of the dish, just the form of it,” he explains.

Changes to Junoon Dubai’s menu take place less regularly than in the New York venue, where Khanna is based. Comparing the two cities, he comments: “The market in [New York] has evolved in a totally different way. It’s so much about the dynamics of the cities. If you’re opening a generic restaurant or something based on fast food, then you’ll do what the British love since that’s what made Indian a cuisine of the world. But when you’re doing handcrafted cuisine or more researched cuisine in a niche market, it requires more imagination.”

The major difference Khanna notes between Dubai and New York is the avail-ability of ingredients. “I feel here you get everything, and it’s surprisingly, amazing quality. But when you compare it to what we do there, you have so many more things at your disposal in New York. For example, if you’re doing eggplant, you’ll have 60 different variations available.”

That said, Khanna loves Dubai and is amazed by how quickly the culture has developed in this part of the world. “This is very new but the way it has evolved is fantastic – it’s never happened before on this planet,” he says. “It took other coun-tries centuries to develop a culture but here within a few decades, they’ve made such an amazing culture. It’s very eclectic, it’s very young,” he says.

However, he is very aware of the increasing competition among fine-din-ing Indian restaurants in Dubai, with venues such as Mint Leaf of London, Indego and Ashiana by Vineet, and Bombay Brasserie at Taj Dubai just some of the rivals on the market.

“I think because the local market is so developed and has such amazing choice now, you’ve got to be at the top of your game,” Khanna admits. However, he believes that Dubai’s proximity to India is something that stands Junoon in good stead. “It’s a three-hour flight away and people just come here to eat. It’s amazing how the market has opened up and of course it’s the middle classes earning more money which really helps fine-dining restaurants,” he says.

The Big Cheese

Lahori Boti

Paneer Dum Anari

Frozen Pineapple Junoon Dubai

The big cheese

In addition to Dubai, Khanna expresses high praise for Oman, say-ing “I’m crazy about that city!”, while Abu Dhabi is another market on the chef’s radar. “Abu Dhabi is more authentic [than Dubai]. I just love it; it’s not got so much influence of the western culture as Dubai. It’s still native and you still have that preserved culture that’s overlapping and struggling to survive within western parameters,” he says.

Yet despite his appreciation for the region, it is clear that expansion is not the top priority for Khanna at the moment. With just two res-taurants in the world, he admits that growing a portfolio as a celebrity chef comes with its challenges.

“It’s not easy for chefs like us to expand,” he comments. “I’m not going to use the phrase ‘control freak’ but sometimes you feel you’ve got to have trust.”

A more urgent focus than expansion for Khanna is using his pas-sion for food and his celebrity status to help others, commenting: “It’s interesting using food in a totally different aspect; the [fundraising] activities won’t stop!”

This month, Khanna is doing a major campaign to sell his new book, ‘Utsav: A Culinary Epic of Indian Festivals’. The first 12 copies of the limited-edition publication are being hand-delivered by Khanna to the likes of US President Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others.

“I’m gifting them this book because India incorporates every faith and it’s about every celebration of every festival, ritual, ceremony, custom, and tradition from the smallest to the larg-est community,” he says.

The first copy has been auctioned off, with the profits going to the Smile Foundation, an Indian NGO set up to conduct initiatives effect-ing positive change in the lives of underprivileged children, their fami-lies and communities.

He has also pledged $1 million in one year from the profits of both his restaurants to provide a packet of milk to every street child in India, and this reflects the essence of Khanna’s philosophy – that food can play a major part in solving the world’s problems. “Imagine a city where nobody is hungry – what a blessed Utopian concept!” he exclaims.

Asked about his vision for the future, Khanna smiles and says, “Can we see into the future? I can’t see the future.” Instead, he prefers to leave it up to what he refers to as “cosmic destiny”.

“Sometimes you wish for something and it happens for you, and sometimes you try and try and it doesn’t happen. You’ve got to leave a few things in your life up to the universe; what will be will be. We’re going to take one day at a time and do the best within our abilities,” he says.


The Vesna interior portrays the imperial style of Eastern and Baltic Europe, characterised by high ornate ceilings, elaborate beaux facades, Art Noveau furniture and shimmering chandeliers

The full measure


from vesna, With love

Open just over six months, Vesna is tapping into a gap in the Dubai market for high-end Slavic cuisine

despite a strong tourist and ex-pat population from eastern European countries, Slavic cuisine still hasn’t made its mark on the Dubai restau-rant scene. Until recently, the only outlets serving Slavic

fare were relatively low-end, unlicensed venues. However, Vesna, located on the mezzanine floor of Conrad Dubai is try-ing to change that. Alexandra Vovchenko, managing partner of Vesna Restaurant & Lounge, which is part of Aston Restaurant Management Group, comments: “There are many places in Dubai with Russian food but we won’t go there, because they aren’t classy. They are located in cheap ar-eas and it’s a different crowd.”

Judging by a throng of five-star re-views on TripAdvisor, the concept is go-ing down well, having been open now for just over six months. From the start, Vovchenko was certain Vesna should be located within a five-star hotel to ensure it achieved its luxury status. “We knew we needed to be located in a busy area and definitely in a five-star hotel, but it wasn’t easy because five-star hotels believe the stereotypes about Russian concepts – that they are cheap and bad. It wasn’t easy to break those.” However, the partnership with Conrad Dubai was perfect, particularly given that the previ-

ous GM of the hotel, Andreas Jersabeck, had worked in Kiev and saw the potential for Vesna.

The project had been in the pipeline two years prior to its opening on 25 No-vember 2015. Vovchenko, from Ukraine, had travelled extensively across France, Switzerland, the UK, New York and LA where she saw lots of high-calibre Slavic restaurants. After carrying out a hospital-ity internship at Burj Al Arab in Dubai, she realised there was potential for a similar concept in the emirate. When she met her business partner – Madeep Singh Pujji, owner & CEO of Vesna – by chance at a dinner in Dubai, the rest was history.

While the vision was always to bring a luxury Slavic restaurant to Dubai, the team had to make sure it was accessible for international guests also. This ex-plains why the restaurant’s name, ‘Vesna’ means spring across a number of Slavic languages, and why the restaurant con-cept is referred to as ‘Slavic’, rather than Russian. “The concept targets all Russian speaking people from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Georgia, etcet-era, but we also want to target everyone,” says Vovchenko.

Interior designer, Sanjay Dhawan came on board to create an ambience that would reflect this brief, and decided to go for something balanced, that wasn’t

The full measure


The full measure

Traditional Russian dessert, Anna Pavlova

The famous tart soup, Borsch

Award-winning head chef Maksim Tvorogov is at the

helm of all culinary activities at Vesna

too Slavic but still embodied the heri-tage conveyed by the menu. The interior portrays the imperial style of eastern and Baltic Europe, characterised by high or-nate ceilings, elaborate beaux facades, Art Noveau furniture and shimmering chandeliers. Dhawan explains: “Alexan-dra knew what she wanted so the design brief helped. We did a lot of travelling around and sourcing. The existing ar-chitectural surroundings and the cuisine they were planning to bring in had to match the interiors. They wanted a con-temporary Slavic cuisine so we had to balance the interiors in a way that was Russian, but contemporary.”

However, with just three months to transform the space from rustic steak-

house, Marco Pierre White Grill, into Vesna, Dhawan admits “there was no room for error”.

He comments: “The time frame was a challenge, as were the decisions. In an environment where your rent starts kick-ing in and the pressure of costs is build-ing up, you’ve just got to go.”

Another major challenge for the team was sourcing a chef who could create re-ally high-end Slavic cuisine.

“We wanted the menu to be high class yet still casual and authentic. We tried many chefs, we went to Ukraine and Rus-sia and some big restaurateurs in Moscow advised us of one chef from Odessa,” ex-plains Vovchenko. And so, Russian chef Irina Angelova was brought on board to

“there are maNy placeS IN DubaI wIth ruSSIaN fooD but we woN’t Go

there, becauSe they areN’t claSSy. they are locateD IN cheap areaS aND It’S a

DIffereNt crowD” – alexandra vovchenko,

managing partner of vesna restaurant & lounge


The full measure

“the tIme frame waS a challeNGe, aS were the DecISIoNS. IN aN

eNvIroNmeNt where your reNt StartS kIckING IN aND the preSSure of coStS IS

buIlDING up, you’ve JuSt Got to Go,”

– Sanjay Dhawan, interior designer

create the menu. “She was really great. The food was exactly what we wanted: authentic but with a bit of fusion so it could be understandable for everyone,” Vovchenko adds.

However, once the menu was finalised, the next hurdle was to find a chef who would stay on the premises and be able to recreate the same high-quality cuisine while speaking English well. “It was a big challenge to find a chef who cooks our cuisine well and speaks good English and in six months we tried so many chefs. Finally, we found a chef from St. Peters-burg,” says Vovchenko.

Madeep Singh Pujji, owner & CEO of Vesna

Today, award-winning head chef Maksim Tvorogov is at the helm of Ves-na’s culinary team. A member of the St. Petersburg club of chefs and a regular participant on cooking shows such as ʻTasty Tipsʼ and ʻLunchtimeʼ, Tvorogov researches the origins of each dish, and re-introduces them to diners in new for-mats. Some of the menu items take in-spiration from as far back as the 18th century during the reign of Catherine the Great, with traditional cuisine like the famous tart soup, Borsch, and dessert items such as Napoleon cake and Anna Pavlova. Educating guests on this type of cuisine has been an essential part of the marketing effort for the restaurant. “It’s about being educated, it’s not just ‘buy this it’s great’. It’s about understanding the culture so that if someone asks you, you can tell them,” says Vovchenko.

And while there are no current plans for expanding the concept, Vovchenko would like to continue raising aware-ness of Slavic cuisine in the region and beyond. “Internationally, we are open to [expansion],” she reveals.

Having been quietly building its fan base over the past six months, it will be interesting to see what the second half of 2016 holds for the restaurant. However, one thing’s for sure – Vesna is a unique concept in the Dubai market, and that alone is saying something.


Out of this world

out of this World:

Greasy chicken wings and limp burgers are a thing of the past as American Cuisine undergoes a glamorous makeover. Catering News investigates.

Ted's American Diner


Out of this world

THE CHEFSHOW POPULAR IS AMERICAN CUISINE IN THE MIDDLE EAST? AndreAs HAugg: Doha is growing at a rapid pace and the city has a multinational population. The demand for American-style food is growing, with large franchised res-taurants having been around for a long time, and with more on the way. What seems to becoming more trendy are the 1950s and 1960s style American diners. People get excited about listening to rock n’ roll music and seeing collectables from that era. MAttHew dAHlkeMper: It is becom-ing increasingly popular, with the trend of the moment really focused on shakes and burgers, however, I don't think it is fully understood. American food triggers a feel-ing of comfort for most but internationally, Americans are often known for hamburgers, when there is so much more to it. American cuisine is extremely regional and I would love to see more of that understanding. For instance, the delicious lobster tails from Maine, New England are on our menu, and they are a real must-try item.debrup MirA: Most people think of fast food like burgers and sliders, hot dogs, chicken wings, fried chicken, corn on the cob, various kinds of popcorn and potato fries when they think of American food and this type of food is extremely popular among children and teenagers in Dubai. Tex-Mex cuisine, which is a mixture of Texan and Mexican cuisine, and mainly includes na-chos and salsa, quesadillas, buffalo chicken wings, batter fried calamari and shrimps, are also believed to be a part of American cuisine and these things have gained im-mense popularity over the years. grAnt bAllinger: There are few up-scale American restaurants in UAE. I think it’s a misconception that all American cui-sine is fast food and steakhouses. American cuisine still needs to find its deserved place in the Middle East, and thanks to restau-rants like Market Kitchen, people have start-ed realising that there is a lot to discover when it comes to American cuisine.

HAVE YOU ADAPTED AMERICAN FOOD TO SUIT LOCAL TASTES? AndreAs: We have created a lamb kofta

ANDREAS HAUGG, ExECUTIVE CHEF, TED’S AMERICAN DINER,

BANANA ISLAND RESoRT DoHA By ANANTARA

HERO DISH:

HERO DISH:

DEBRUP MIRA, ExECUTIVE CHEF, JW’S STEAKHoUSE, JW

MARRIoTT HoTEL DUBAI

burger. We freshly bake our burger buns every day using zaatar in the dough, the sauce is made with laban, and the burger patty has Middle Eastern secret spices to make the perfect Ara-American burger. MAtt: We want to cook authentic Amer-ican food while catering to the needs and wants of our local clients, so we have taken the decision to create authentic American recipes, cooked as they would be back home. People seem to be less ad-venturous with certain foods, but I have no problem with pushing the envelope.debrup: We haven’t altered any tradi-tional American tastes to suit the local palette. In fact, American tastes are well accepted in this region and people love the unique smoky, barbeque flavours.grAnt: We are always trying to adapt local flavours into our cuisine, for ex-ample the sautéed shrimps served with local yoghurt labneh has been a success among our clientele. Furthermore, for iftar during Ramadan 2016, we are fea-turing Market Kitchen signature dishes with Arabic influences. For example, in the iftar menu, we have short ribs mixed with local hummus and our signature dessert, salted caramel sundae mixed with hallawa.

WHAT ARE THE KEY TRENDS EMERGING IN AMERICAN FOOD?AndreAs: Wood-smoked meats are defi-nitely something hot off the grill at the mo-ment. MAtt: I see American food chains wher-ever I go here in Dubai. I can't speak for the rest of the region, but people seem to really enjoy quick-service concepts. debrup: American beef is gaining popu-larity at steakhouses. Beef is emerging as a celebration protein and although people talk about not eating too much red meat, when it comes to a good quality steak most guests can’t resist. Amongst the American range of beef available in the market, the certified Angus beef is superior.grAnt: We are seeing more and more din-er concepts in the UAE. The trend is to take the customer on a journey, not only with the food, but through décor and atmosphere.

Ted’s Original – the original beef burger, which comes with a choice of cheddar, Swiss or American cheese.

The medium cooked flame grilled ribeye steak from the certified Angus

beef (CAB) range. It comes with a side of mashed potato and some

buttered beans.


Out of this world

Market Kitchen - Le Royal Meridien Abu Dhabi

Also, the business lunch or express lunch is popular. You find a lot of restaurants adopt-ing this concept to cater to busy executives.

WHERE DO YOU SOURCE PRODUCE FOR YOUR MENU?AndreAs: We get our items from spe-cialty suppliers in Doha.MAtt: Our produce comes from all over the world. Local produce exists, but it is not always the quality we are looking for during certain times of the year. I try to focus on regions and seasonality in parts of the world where I know it is strong.debrup: The prime ingredients are from the USA and we have our local sup-pliers import these items for us. Our American meat supplier is FANTCO, based in Dubai. We also source from Chef Middle East and MH Enterprise, which deliver most of the dry products among other ingredients.grAnt: We work mainly with local sup-pliers, all of whom are based in the Mid-dle East Region. We believe in the quality and freshness of local produce.

WHAT PRODUCTS DO YOU FIND CHAL-LENGING TO SOURCE?AndreAs: It is challenging to import products that are not readily available in the local market. As Ted’s serves top quality food, we want to source authentic American products.MAtt: American beef is a luxury here. It takes me a few weeks to get it, but it is so worth it. A lot of vendors say they sell American beef, but it is commodity boxed beef, which is something I would expect to see in your average supermarket back home. Fortunately, I have found a good line on Creekstone Ranch, which is a relief.debrup: There are no challenges in sourc-ing good products here in Dubai. Our sup-pliers have good connections and networks and most of the ingredients are always avail-able. At times, halal certification on specific products or brands could be challenging, but we do get alternative brands with the necessary certifications.grAnt: Seafood is still a challenge as we are always seeking freshness and quality. However, we are in collaboration with some

THE CHEFS

MATTHEW DAHLKEMPER, ExECUTIVE CHEF, FIREBIRD DINER By MICHAEL

MINA, FoUR SEASoNS HoTEL DIFC, DUBAI

GRANT BALLINGER, CHEF DE CUISINE, MARKET KITCHEN, LE RoyAL

MERIDIEN ABU DHABI

The BBQ-braised beef short ribs, which is smoked for three hours

and then braised in a mixture of molasses and beef stock with

caramelised vegetables and served with four types of corn and

crispy onions.

The soy glazed beef short ribs with apple-jalapeño purée and

rosemary crumbs.

HERO DISH:

HERO DISH:

Out of this world

great suppliers who support our choices and help us to provide the best quality food to our customers.

HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR MENU EVOLVING OVER THE NExT 12 MONTHS?AndreAs: We are focused on regionalised Ameri-can state cuisine, for example Texas BBQ southern fried chicken.MAtt: We are trying to find new ways to elevate the food while staying true to our core values and cuisine. My goal is to educate people on how much more there is to American food, despite the bad reputation fast food has given us. We will try a lot of things over the course of the year. Even after just two months of op-erations we have changed things drastically. I can only imagine where we will be in 2017. debrup: Menus need to be changed regularly so we study the market and competitors in terms of pric-ing and menu variety. Every restaurant has its own set of core dishes and if we ensure these are main-tained well, customers will come back for them. At JW’s Steakhouse we do have a lot of these signature dishes. Even if we change our menus and refresh the offerings, some of these core popular dishes are still available for our guests. Our menus have a sec-

tion featuring the steak of the month and daily specials. If there is

something interesting in the market, for example during a certain season, we’ll trial it first in these sections before putting it on the main menu.grAnt: Our menu is designed according to the seasons, so we change it four times a year. This October we are looking to go back to our roots in Market Kitchen and celebrate the dishes from the heart-land of Texas.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR AMERICAN FOOD IN THE REGION?AndreAs: Healthification of fast food has arrived because con-sumers are demanding to know what is in the food they are eating. Higher quality meat, organic products and healthier options will be on the minds of chefs. MAtt: I believe American food will continue to grow, not only in the Middle East, but globally. Hopefully places like Firebird can illustrate a better, more refined approach to what is perceived as American food globally. debrup: American food is changing from fast food to a more refined meal. I feel that burgers will change to steaks and healthier American corn-fed fried chicken could replace fried chicken. Chil-dren are developing healthier eating habits, and the new genera-tion will influence the development of American fast food. grAnt: American food needs to move away from its image of be-ing junk food or fast food. The flavours of American food are very powerful. It needs to be balanced with a healthy approach, which we believe is booming now in the US.

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Melitta Professional Coffee Solutions

www.melitta-professional.de


The United Arab Emirates is an important trading partner for local businesses and Northern Ireland’s relationship with the market continues to grow. A 27% increase in exports to the market was recorded in the latest 12 month

rolling period, from Janu¬ary 2015 to December 2015, compared to the same period the previous year. Moreover, £9.2m of food exports to the GCC were recorded over the same period, with exports to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Driving market-led export sales of innovative food and drink products is vital to achieving success and Invest Northern Ireland’s companies have hit the ground running in grasping the opportuni-ties developed for them as part of Northern Ireland’s Year of Food and Drink 2016.

‘In the hospitality world, I guess there’s no better place than Dubai when you want to do business with the global industry. The Ruler’s vision for this great city attracts some of the world’s best companies in the hotel supply chain, said Dubai-based, Barry Clarke, Regional Direc-tor for Invest Northern Ireland, the UK region’s economic development agency, who leads business development teams in Dubai and Jeddah.

He added, ‘People are often surprised to know that the creams used by Dubai’s finest chefs, the fine aged halal beef and lamb and organic salmon on their restaurant menus; the carpets in the 5 star hotels and conference rooms; the linens on their table and the materials used to ensure that Dubai hoteliers maintain the standards of cleanliness ex-pected from the millions of business visitors and tourists, come from this small and unassuming part of the United Kingdom’.

Last year, Northern Ireland witnessed a 27% increase in exports to the UAE; one of its most important trading partners. Producing some of the world’s finest F&B, this year Northern Ireland celebrates the Year of Food and Drink

Pure, Natural, QualityRich land, award-winning food, passionate people

Fresh Food from Northern Ireland

This year’s Gulf Food saw a large number of NI companies come to Dubai, some for the first time. These covered a wide range of product categories from breads and cakes to nuts and snacks. The trend toward ‘free from’ was well catered for by brands such as Freeist and B Free available from local retailers e.g. Spinneys. Snacking is another consumer trend in which NI companies are well set to meet demand. Mackle Snacks has been manufacturing snacks for over 10 years for some of the leading UK retailers. It offers premium and value range snacks which can be produced Organic, Gluten Free etc. Forest Feast from Portadown Co. Armagh has had considerable success locally with its ‘Street Food’ range. This collection of tasty nut-based products includes exciting flavours such as ‘Kerala Cashew and Coconut Spice’ and would be at home in any hotel room mini bar.

The travel hasn’t all been one way either. Recently, some of Dubai’s leading chefs and food buyers have visited the country. The objective of the visit was not only to showcase the wonderful food and drink on offer but for the delegation to meet some of NI’s most passionate producers. Sales to customers in Dubai have grown considerably over the past three years and the interest shown in Northern Ireland by such an influential group cements the prestige of its offering in this region. The Middle East is a market of great potential for Northern Ireland food and drink and Invest Northern Ireland, whose role it is to drive exports from the country believes the sector will only go from strength to strength.

Visit the buy NI Food site to find out more: www.buynifood.com


Advertorial

Since its inception in 2004 Kettyle Irish Foods have been synonymous with dry ageing. Located in the idyllic surrounds of County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, Kettyle is the original dry aged company with a hunger for innovation. They recently invested in a Salt Moss Ageing Cave; a unique process and an industry first, which is fully IP protected.

Dry ageing is the optimum and most consistent method of meat maturation that does not disturb the tissue make-up, while holding and intensifying the flavour profile. Salt Moss Cave Aged meat is more consistent, tender and flavoursome than any other available and Kettyle possess the only purpose built dry ageing facility in Europe.

The meat is aged in fridges lined with salt bricks made from extra virgin Irish oriel sea salt and carrageen moss seaweed, which draw all excess moisture from the meat. In the fridge, humidity and wind speed is controlled.

Cut to the chef’s specification, each hand selected beef and lamb cut is given optimum maturation time in the Salt Moss ageing chamber. The grass fed beef is selected from traditional Irish sucker herds, with each selected for its size, fat cover, marbling, pH and muscle eye development; the first marker of many for selecting great beef.

With 15 master butchers on site, Kettyle utilise the entire animal from “nose to tail”. The maturation, combined with the craft and knowledge of the butchers, ensures Kettyle can provide customers with an exciting catalogue of butchery.

Locally sourced from the grasslands of Lough Erne the lamb comes from Suffolk and cheviot dams crossed with texel rams. In partnership with Trofina, Kettyle began the distribution of halal certified Moss Cave Aged beef and Lough Erne lamb in the UAE in 2015.

CONTACT Distributor: [email protected]íle Sweeney works alongside distribution partner Trofima to support restaurants in the UAE with staff training and tasting events. To request further information and samples contact Síle via: EMAIL: gcc@ kettyleirishfoods.com TEL: +971 (0) 55 764 3730

ONLINE www.kettyleirishfoods.com

Established in 2008, Glenarm Organic Salmon Ltd is the only Atlantic salmon farmer in the Irish Sea and the sole producer of the world's finest organic salmon.

Based in the historic village of Glenarm, County Antrim, the company produces up to 600 tonnes of organic salmon each year, distributed weekly across 15 countries from Singapore to San Francisco, to discerning customers seeking premium quality seafood from responsible and sustainable aquaculture.

The farms are located in Glenarm Bay and Red Bay off the Antrim coast, separated by 11 miles of fast flowing coastal seawater.

In the exposed and energetic coastal waters of the North Channel in the Irish Sea, currents and tidal flows ensure optimal exercise and firm muscle formation in the salmon. The salmon also has plenty of space to grow and thrive with maximum stocking densities of 10kg per cubic metre providing the salmon population with a living environment that reduces stress and promotes healthy growth and freedom to thrive.

Each farm is stocked with a different generation of organically reared smolts all sourced from the island of Ireland.

With both whole fish and smoked fish available, Glenarm’s approach to rearing salmon gives priority to the health and welfare of the fish, to the long term protection of the environment and to the delivery of an outstanding product to customers.

Glenarm Organic Salmon is committed to ensuring that the rigorous standards set by the Organic Food Federation are fully achieved, if not exceeded, and salmon is also accredited Bio Suisse.

Farmed organic salmon is one of nature’s healthiest foods. It is a source of well balanced and easily digestible protein and contains less fat than an equal serving of any other meat or poultry. As well as providing high quality protein, salmon is an excellent source of polyunsaturated fatty acids known as Omega 3 fatty acids, which assist in blood circulation by lowering blood fats and preventing blood clot formation.

To ensure a fresher product and longer shelf-life for the retailer and consumer, Glenarm is able to harvest, process and dispatch within 24 hours, with global shipping within four days.

CONTACTEMAIL: [email protected]: [email protected]

ONLINEwww.glenarmorganicsalmon.com

Kettyle Irish Foods Halal certified meat and first of its kind ageing techniques, fresh from Northern Ireland

Glenarm Organic SalmonOne of nature’s healthiest foods, reared organically and distributed globally

Fact

In the Middle East Kettyle supplies

lamb loin and lamb rack to Nobu,

Dubai.

Fact

In the Middle East, Glenarm fresh salmon is distributed by Fresh Express and smoked salmon is distributed

by Sea Horse


Pritchitts, the foodservice division of Lakeland Dairies, produces a range of UHT whipping and cooking creams including its marketing leading brand Millac Gold.

Pritchitts’ expertise lies in technically advanced dairy production to provide chefs, caterers and bakers the convenience of longer life products without compromising on taste or quality. Under the Lakeland Dairies umbrella, Pritchitts’ markets span the globe, supplying customers in over 70 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Pritchitts is accredited to both the ISO 9001 Quality Management System Standard and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Standard for Food Safety and works closely with stakeholders to achieve continuous environmental improvements for all aspects of operations.

The flagship product, Millac Gold was developed by chefs for chefs and is extremely versatile with a delicious dairy taste. It delivers great whipping stability, sharp piping definition and a whipped yield of up to three times its volume. When used in cooking, Millac Gold thickens quickly and doesn’t split, even when used with acidic ingredients.

Some of Pritchitts’ environmental achievements, include: the reduction of carbon output by 79% per Kilo of product produced since 1999; a reduced energy consumption of 46% per Kilo of product manufactured since 2004; the diversion of more than 80% of all wastes away from landfill and the successful initiation of a “growing biofuel from waste” programme.

Pritchitts has also received numerous awards for environmental stewardship and commitment to sustainable manufacturing.

The firm is part of the Lakeland Dairies group – one of Northern Ireland’s largest farmer-owned dairy co-operatives. On a daily basis, fresh milk is collected from over 2,200 family farms, operating within a fifteen county catchment area within the island of Ireland.

The group has grown into a global market leader in the manufacturing of dairy-based products with foodservice products developed with the professional in mind to deliver high-quality yet functional products to busy kitchens and bakeries around the world.

CONTACT Distributed in Dubai by Fresh Supplies, LLC Paddy Darcy EMAIL: [email protected]: +971508644857

ONLINEwww.freshsupplies.ae

PritchittsDairy for the professional

Greenfields Ireland Limited was established in 1992 and, from its formation it has grown to employ a workforce of 30 people with offices in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Nantwich, England, Australia, New Zealand and Dubai, UAE.

Greenfields is an international dairy trading company supplying dairy ingredients, specialist milk products and finished dairy products to customers throughout Europe, the Middle East, South America, Far East and Africa. The company sources an extensive range of products including Various types of Butter, AMF, Milk powders , , Milk Proteins , Whipping Cream UHT Milks and a range of Natural Cheeses from suppliers locally in Northern Ireland to suppliers in United Kingdom, throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America, Middle East and Oceania.

The Belfast office is the hub of sales and marketing and export administration teams and is focused on anticipating and meeting the needs of the global customer base.

Greenfields Ingredients is principally involved in the supply of a range of Dairy ingredients to its UK customer base including leading food manufacturers. The experienced sales team of Greenfields Ingredients is able to serve the needs of the UK customer base with technical and administrative support from the head office.

Greenfields Ireland LLC was established in Aug 2001 and operates an office in the heart of Dubai to serve the needs of an extensive client base in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen and the wider MENA region. The Dubai office manages direct sales and technical support and makes regular visits to customers across the region.

Greenfields’ strategic network of offices is invaluable in allowing the company to offer competitively priced dairy ingredients and finished dairy products to customers and respond to all customer requirements in a prompt, professional manner.

The company’s goal is to provide all customers with the highest quality ingredients and finished products from all stages of the “milk flow”. These include dairy desserts, Bakery products, ice cream, confectionery, yoghurts, chocolate, processed cheese, ready meals and UHT products.

CONTACT EMAIL: Charlie Millar - [email protected]: + 9714 3117171 MOB: + 971507843427

ONLINEwww.greenfieldsireland.com

Greenfields Ireland LtdDairy specialists across the milk production chain


Advertorial

Kitchenmaster has been manufacturing its comprehensive range of hygiene chemicals in the UK for over 30 years and selling them around the world to more than 4,000 happy customers. All products are manufactured to strict UK quality control standards and the company is member of the CHSA-Cleaning and Hygiene Suppliers Association.

The Kitchenmaster brand has been available in the UAE since 2003 and the company has its own LLC in Dubai (Kitchen Master Detergents & Disinfectants Trading) to ensure there is no service dilution through local distributors and to provide our UAE customers with competitive prices and outstanding delivery performance.

All UAE customers are provided with free dispensing equipment, hygiene stickers for their premises and regular staff training as recommended by the Municipality. Furthermore, Kitchenmaster’s product range is also fully approved by the municipality which ensures customers’ premises will pass any inspection from the Environmental Health Officer.

Kitchenmaster’s products can be found in some of the UAE’s most prestigious hospitals, bakeries, restaurants, cafes and hotels and the list of Kitchenmaster customers continues to grow strongly each year.

CONTACTEMAIL: Binu Sivan - [email protected]: 0561183791

ONLINE www.kitchenmaster.ae

‘We are now sharing our world class quality meats, fish and dairy products with the finest restaurants and hotels in the GCC. Residents, business visitors and tourists are enjoying the richness of our land and the innovation and passion of our producers.’

Barry Clarke,Head of Territory IMEAInvest Northern Ireland

CONTACTFor more information about food and drink from Northern Ireland, please see www.buynifood.com or email Shane McArdle. EMAIL:[email protected]://www.investni.com/international/me.html#shortform

Dubai TEL: + 971 4391 4700EMAIL: [email protected] Jeddah TEL: + 966 2622 5550 EMAIL: [email protected]

@InvestNI_MEast

Invest Northern Ireland Middle East

Zenith Hygiene Group is the UK’s largest independent manufacturer of cleaning and hygiene products. With over 15 years’ experience Zenith has always exceeded its customers’ expectations through consistent delivery of quality, service and value. Aiming to always work in partnership with customers, Zenith provides clean and hygienic environments and reduces their long-term costs. Applying the Zenith unique industry knowledge to specific customer needs, the company can always offer the right product.

With over 3,000 customers operating more than 10,000 sites across the UK, Zenith services from independent owner-managed businesses, to large national operators and many customers have been loyal for more than five or ten years.

Zenith only works with export partners who match its high standards of doing business; quality cleaning and hygiene products and outstanding service. Sustainability is also an integral part of the company’s success. As the UK’s largest independent manufacturer of cleaning, sanitisation and hygiene products, Zenith constantly seeks to improve the performance of products for customers but never at the expense of safety or environmental impact.

Zenith works in numerous sectors including F&B, healthcare, sport and leisure and exports.

CONTACT TEL: +44 (0)1707 270 260 EMAIL: [email protected] For orders in the Middle East: [email protected]

ONLINE www. zhgplc.com

Kitchenmaster NIThe hygiene specialists

Zenith Hygiene GroupHygiene heroes across multiple sectors

Vision Support Services is the leading supplier and distributor of luxury, performance and specialist textiles to leaders in global accommodation, retail and healthcare markets. In 2016, we successfully integrated our luxury Liddell brand into our global business.

Founded on the banks of the River Lagan in Ireland 1866, Liddell has been crafting and creating beautiful linen for use in the most luxurious settings for over 150 years. From the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, to the opening of Dubai’s seven star Burj Al Arab, the Liddell name carries a reputation for elegance and luxury like no other.

Today, the heritage rich Irish name lends itself to Vision’s luxury product range, perfect for five star establishments the world over.

Vision GuaranteeThrough our powerful product brands – Liddell, Hilden and Whitakers

– we provide the most extensive range of quality linen and filled goods products, strategically covering multiple market sectors.

We guarantee the ultimate in quality, service and responsibility – offering you complete peace of mind. Each item is carefully designed to meet the demands of a hotel, restaurant or spa, including preserving your investments and injecting a classic style into your venue.

We will work closely with any hospitality establishment to offer a full range of bed, bath, table linen, filled goods, robes and accessories – so you can benefit from the widest choice of luxury products manufactured to the highest quality.

CONTACTEMAIL: [email protected]

ONLINEwww.liddell-international.com

Liddell powered by Vision


Products

full of beansCatering News explores the best coffee products on the market

BONCAFé MIDDLE EAST LLCBoncafé Middle East LLC, part of Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group has launched Boncafé compatible capsules, which are avail-able in four different blends: Café Espressa, Café Ristretto, Café Lungo and Café Decaf. They are premium quality, freshly roasted ground coffee and fully recyclable. Segafredo Zanetti coffee, also part of Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group, is now roasted in Viet-nam where the company has inaugurated its first coffee roasting plant. With a production capacity of up to 3,000 tonnes of coffee, the plant has been designed to support the sale of Segafredo coffee and other group brands in Asia and the Middle East. “Having the new roasting plant facility in Vietnam allows us to roast locally for South East Asia and Middle East markets. We offer a wide range of coffee and blends, from high-end gourmet coffee to budget options and single origin coffee, all at competitive prices,” said Tony Billingham, Boncafé Group CEO. This year, Boncafé Middle East LLC is also looking to expand its business into B2C, as well as maintaining its focus on the foodservice industry.

EMAIL: [email protected]: +971 4 282 287 42 WEB: boncafeme.ae

Boncafé compatible capsules are available in

four different blends


Products

TSSCKaffa, a new blend of Bonomi coffee, is the latest launch from Technical Supplies & Ser-vices Co. Ltd (TSSC) in the Middle East. An espresso with floral notes and a light hint of sweet and sour, the blend contains slightly spicy aromas. Kaffa coffee beans are from Ethiopia, Brazil and India, and are 80% Arabica and 20% Robusta. Available in 1kg pack-ets, the high quality espresso blend is suitable for the horeca industry. Kaffa is part of Bonomi’s Bar Collection line, conceived by the company’s master coffee roasters to make sure consumers can enjoy all the aroma of a true Italian espresso coffee. The bags are equipped with an aroma-saving valve, ensuring conservation of the blends.

EMAIL: [email protected]: +971 4 343 1100 WEB: www.tsscdubai.com

ORBIS COFFEE ROASTERYHaving visited Northern Sumatra in Indonesia last year to see the latest crop, Orbis Cof-fee Roastery selected a particularly high elevation shade grown Arabica coffee due to the lower than normal rainfall in the region. Low in acidity, full-bodied with a long finish, the espresso is perfect for those who like to savour their coffee. All Orbis coffees are freshly roasted in Dubai and delivered within 24 hours to locations around the UAE. F&B busi-nesses that choose Orbis coffee prefer quality over price since typically the products are 15% more expensive than a Robusta-based imported coffee, however Orbis argues that the customer gains this back in the flavour. In 2016, Orbis Coffee Roastery is looking to grow and prides itself in being one of the few fourth generation coffee roasters. The com-pany aims to capitalise on increasing demand for fresh coffee with lots of flavour.

EMAIL: [email protected]: +971 4 341 7789WEB: www.orbisfoods.com

4 CORNERS TRADINGLyons coffee will soon be distributed in the Middle East to the foodservice industry and to supermarkets by 4 Corners Trading. A premium instant coffee brand, Lyons was first founded in 1894 by Joseph Lyons and was popular among British Victorian society through its 200+ strong chain of 24-hour ‘Lyons Corner Houses’. The brand was also served at Buckingham Palace garden parties, the Chelsea Flower Show, the Wimbledon Lawn Ten-nis Championships and Windsor Castle to name a few. Lyons has recently introduced a modern range of instant coffee, and its range includes Rich Roast Agglomerate and Luxury Gold Roast, available in glass jars and composite tins in 100g-750g varieties. Suited to re-tail and catering, including back-of-house service, vending, mobile catering services, hotel bedrooms, travel and distributive cash and carry in both profit or cost sectors, the full range will be available this summer from 4 Corners Trading. Jim Cain, business director at Lyons commented: “Our in-cup performance is simply down to the superior Arabica ori-gins coffee in the blend sourced from Central and South America, which we have expertly prepared in the UK with our partner Fine Foods International. Each blend in our range is meticulously crafted. We aim to ensure that every cup of Lyons instant coffee delivers a rich, full-bodied, aromatic and well balanced taste.”

EMAIL: [email protected]: +971 (0)4 884 7248WEB: www.4cornersuae.com

Kaffa, a new blend of Bonomi coffee

The Lyons Gold Rich 100g jar

Orbis coffee is locally-roasted and delivered

within 24 hours


Products

COFFEE PLANET Coffee Planet has launched its new and improved range of Nespresso-compatible coffee capsules, each filled with a blend of freshly roasted, 100% Arabica coffee. Created by the Coffee Planet roast master, the range is available in five distinct taste profiles and strengths, including a UTZ-certified organic espresso capsule. Each capsule is packed immediately after roasting in Dubai and features a new and click-cap capsule design, which creates a smooth extraction. The company also uses fully-recyclable plastic cap-sules, which have been nitrogen-flushed to maintain the freshness of the coffee. The capsule range has been specifically designed to offer the foodservice industry a consistent, efficient and speedy freshly roasted coffee. This year, Coffee Planet will continue to focus on its ethically sourced and locally roasted coffee ethos and will introduce new single origin options. The company is also looking to drive brand presence within the foodservice sector while enhancing its retail presence.

EMAIL: [email protected]: +971 04 341 5537WEB: coffeeplanet.com

RAW COFFEE COMPANY Raw Coffee Company is launching a new sub-brand called Refinery by Raw with super premium limited edition micro lots available from the roastery and also from a members-only online ordering platform. Matt Toogood, managing di-rector, Raw Coffee Company said: “As the market matures and with a more educated consumer, we believe they will be looking for diversity and new flavours in their coffee. In-ternational trends are seeing a shift towards brewing single origin coffee, where the focus is on quality in the cup. As the market for specialty coffee grows, cafes are looking for suppliers that can help them to differentiate themselves from their competition.” Raw Coffee Company’s existing coffees will remain unchanged to complement the new Re-finery by Raw range. In 2016, Raw Coffee Company will build two more Raw coffee trucks and tuk-tuks ahead of the busy events season. The company is also launching an app to facilitate online ordering.

EMAIL: [email protected]: +971 4 3395474WEB: www.refinerybyraw.com / WEB: www.rawcoffeecompany.com

The new Coffee Planet Nespresso-compatible coffee capsules

Raw Coffee Company is launching a new sub-brand

called Refinery by Raw

ADV_LC_M100i-S30_203x273.indd 1 16/05/16 10:22

ADV_LC_M100i-S30_203x273.indd 1 16/05/16 10:22


Product news

the silent disease of the 21st centuryCEO Dr Ahmed Eltigani, founder and leader of Al Rawabi Dairy Company introduces the firm’s new vitamin D milk aimed at combatting vitamin D deficiency

V itamin D, also known as “the sunshine vitamin”, is very unique in that it can be ob-tained through sun exposure

in addition to food intake. Although the UAE is blessed with being one of the sunniest regions in the world, vitamin D deficiency sadly affects more than 65% of the population across all age groups and its symptoms often go unnoticed for sev-eral years.

Fatigue, hair loss, peeling nails, head-ache, skin rashes, bone pain, muscle aches, loss of energy and general chronic pain, are symptoms of vitamin D defi-ciency but are often misdiagnosed as stress-related. It is wise not to take such symptoms lightly and get vitamin D levels checked in order to address the problem. Vitamin D plays a role in fighting chronic diseases such as osteoporosis, osteoar-thritis, diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, breast and prostate cancer, depression, cardiovascu-lar diseases and more.

It is essential for maintaining the in-tegrity of the skeletal system because of its role in absorbing intestinal calcium. Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets among children and osteopenia and os-teoporosis among adults and the elderly. However, the other none-skeletal health related benefits of vitamin D have also just recently started to unravel. It is now well-known that vitamin D enhances the immunity system and is necessary for optimal health because of its role in the metabolic functions of the pancreas, brain, liver, heart, thyroid and kidneys.

The causes of vitamin D deficiency in-

clude inadequate exposure to sunlight, low nutritional intake of vitamin D, in-door confinement during the day, living at higher altitudes or in urban areas with tall buildings, air pollution, time of day and season, latitude, aging, sunscreen use, degree of skin pigmentation, and dressing habits.

For example, a sunscreen with an SPF

of 30 absorbs approximately 95% of in-cident UV-B radiation and thus drasti-cally reduces the production of vita-min D. Many people are unaware of the right way to obtain vitamin D from the sun. For instance, exposure to sunlight through glass will barely result in any vitamin D being produced because UV-B radiation is reflected. Moreover, vitamin D levels are positively correlated with physical activity and negatively with fast food intake. Very few foods naturally con-tain vitamin D but some of the foods that do are wild caught salmon, other oily fish (sardines, mackerel and tuna), cod liver oil and mushrooms.

Due to the difficulty of obtaining ad-equate vitamin D, nowadays some foods and drinks like milk, yogurt, cheeses, butter, breakfast cereals, margarine and juices are artificially fortified with vita-min D. For example, Al Rawabi Vitamin D milk is loaded with vitamin D, protect-ing families against the risks associated with vitamin D deficiency.

However, for artificially enriched foods, consumers should always check and make wise choices by being aware of the level of fortification in foods. A sim-ple “vitamin D fortified label” on many brands may not be adequate enough to secure optimal body requirements.

In conclusion, sensible sun exposure along with focusing on the right choice of vitamin D enriched foods, vitamin D supplementation of at least 2000 IU/d for adults and 1000 IU/d for children is essential to maximise overall health and minimise the risk of developing several serious chronic diseases.

Al Rawabi full cream vitamin

D milk

CEO Dr Ahmed Eltigani, founder and leader of Al

Rawabi Dairy Company


4 corners souad Jallad, marketing manager, 4 corners discussess the comPany's neW PartnershiP With ronnefeldt tea comPany

Product news

HAVE YOU INTRODUCED ANY NEW PRODUCT RANGES FOR 2016? We have recently partnered with Ron-nefeldt, one of Europe’s oldest tea com-panies and exclusive supplier to top-class hotels, restaurants and catering businesses. Ronnefeldt tea range includes LeafCup®, Tea-Caddy® and Teavelope® as well as the finest loose leaf teas from the best gardens of the origin countries.

WHAT IS YOUR CORE BUSINESS CON-CEPT AND PRODUCT RANGE?At 4 Corners we believe in a corporate governance that puts sustainability at the forefront of our business, and we always seek smart ways to reduce supply chain waste and carbon impact through our one-stop-shop strategy, which has proven to be operationally efficient, cost-effective, and paperless. Our customers can simply place one order and receive one delivery for all of their products (frozen, chilled, and ambient) through our multi-temper-ature fleet of vehicles. We also represent our own label range of products, where

the specifications can be tailored to cus-tomers’ stringent requirements.

HAVE YOU ExPANDED THE COMPANY?Last month, we celebrated our one-year an-niversary in the new head office and distribu-tion centre in Dubai Investment Park 2. We have built our state-of-the-art eco-friendly warehousing system where we have intro-duced mobile racking. The physical plot size of the building is 40,000ft2 but it houses a capacity of 80,000ft2. Using this clever tech-nology, we have been able to house the same volume of operation using 50% less energy and producing 50% fewer carbon emissions. The warehouse incorporates frozen, ambient and chilled food storage, enabling us to offer all of our customer a one-stop-shop solution.

HOW POPULAR IS TEA IN THE MIDDLE EAST?Tea is still the second most consumed bever-age in the world, second only to water. The Middle East especially has some of the high-est per capita tea consumption in the world.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN SOURCING CHALLENGES IN THE MIDDLE EAST FOR TEA?The challenges associated with sourcing tea are related to quality. Since tea is a natural product, changes in quality can occur due to different weather conditions and seasons, yet the customer demands the same aroma every time.

WHAT TEA TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING EMERGE GLOBALLY?The trend is going toward organic and healthy teas and infusions. Herbal and fruit infusions, with caffeine free properties and health benefits along with a great taste are definitely top of the list.

ARE THERE ANY PRECAUTIONS RE-qUIRED WHEN HANDLING TEA?Obviously the heat in this region is one of the biggest threats. Storing tea in a dark, cool place, away from any other aromas, preferably in some kind of sealed container is really all you need to do to protect your tea. In general, tea has a three-year lifes-pan, but it will lose its aroma the longer it is stored. White tea, especially, will be best when it is fresh.

HOW MUCH CREATIVITY DOES TEA AS AN INGREDIENT ALLOW?Tea is a 5,000-year-old product and well known in all cultures around the world, with every culture having come up with its own way of preparing and consuming tea. I don’t know any product that is more versa-tile. You can create different varieties with the same tea simply by altering water tem-perature, the amount of tea used, brewing time and condiments.

Simplicitea® by Ronnefeldt, supplied by 4 Corners

contact details• E: [email protected]• T: +971 4 884 7248• W: www.4cornersuae.com


Product news

meiko launches uPster dishWasher range in singaPore

German warewashing technology specialist, Meiko, took part as an exhibitor at Food & Hotel Asia 2016 (FHA) from 2 – 15 April at Singapore Expo, to showcase its latest product innovation, the new

UPster range of dishwashers.The product launch took place at Singapore’s the Flower

Dome, the world’s largest glass greenhouse, combining tech-nology and nature.

Hosted by celebrity chef Eric Teo, the event was attended by 340 industry specialists from Middle East & Africa, Australia, India, South-East Asia and China.

Following the introduction of the company’s large M-iQ and small M-iClean machines at previous editions of FHA, the UP-ster range of machines is now available in a variety of models, from small glasswashers to large flight style dishwashers.

Tim Walsh, managing director, Meiko Middle East & Africa said: “Our UPster range offers reasonably priced dishwashers with essential features but still keeping premium-brand quality. Quality is not up for negotiation with Meiko.”


Marketplace

smooth oPeratorboncafe middle east tssc

Coffee machine suppliers highlight the trends, innovations, and products heating up the industry

Tony Billingham, Boncafe Group CEO showcases the Strada AV

Keisuke Kutomi, TSSC food and beverage manager reveals the best-selling A600

What is your best-selling coffee machine product?La Marzocco coffee machines are our best sellers and we are launching a new model, the Strada AV, at the end of June.

What is unique about the Strada AV?The Strada AV is the ultimate addition to the Strada line of high-end, professional-grade commercial machines and is the choice for customers who appreciate the fa-miliarity of volumetric controls, and who seek consistency in high-volume settings. The Strada AV reflects the same design and boiler technology of the Strada family, but is the very first version to be equipped with flow meters and a three-button control panel. It delivers a stable brewing platform thanks to its thermal stability system and individual coffee boilers. Performance Touch Steam Wands improve the machine’s er-gonomics, meaning it always remains cool to the touch. Barista-friendly electronics make it easy to change settings, programme the machine, update the firmware by USB and provide the user with a reliable, enjoyable and unique experience.

What are the latest trends in coffee machines?Innovation for coffee lovers and baristas in terms of machine technology is a trend, with the introduction of electronic paddles and scales for example. The increasing interest of consumers in home versions of commercial machines in an attempt to replicate the café experience at home or at the office, is another trend we are noticing.

What maintenance services do you offer clients?We provide 24/7 service support, preventive quality control, calibration and mainte-nance, replacement machinery, and service and calibration for many manufacturers, and we have mobile and fixed service centres.

E: [email protected]: +971 4 282 287 42 W: Boncafeme.ae

What is your best-selling coffee machine product? The A600 is our best-selling coffee ma-chine product.

What is unique about the A600?The machine is intelligent and user-friend-ly with innovative Swiss technology for perfect coffee enjoyment and it is easy to handle for maximum hygiene.

What is the most important feature of the perfect coffee machine? The most important factor of any coffee machine is to achieve consistency.

What are the latest trends in coffee machines?The latest trends are easy operation and good design.

What type of F&B operation do you cater for?We cater to hotels, restaurants, and airport lounges and we offer 24/7 maintenance.

E: [email protected]: +971 56 577 4391W: www.tsscdubai.com

The Strada AV The A600


marketplace

smooth oPerator coffee Planet la marquiseRobert Jones, Coffee Planet managing director highlights the best-selling Nuova Simonelli – Aurelia II

Olga Mirtova, marketing manager, La Marquise International showcases the WMF 1500S

What is your best-selling coffee machine product?We offer an extensive range of machines from leading manufacturers. Catering to high volumes and demanding coffee professionals, the Nuova Simonelli – Aurelia II, is one of our best-selling coffee machine products across hotels, catering companies and cafes. This semi-auto-matic machine guarantees quality extraction, which provides consis-tent coffee results every time and is a firm favourite with the foodser-vice industry, thanks to its reliability and versatility.

What is unique about the Nuova Simonelli – Aurelia II?The Nuova Simonelli – Aurelia II adds a new dimension to coffee qual-ity with the innovative T3 technology system. It introduces new refer-ence standards for temperature accuracy in water supply, as each group includes a three-dimensional temperature control, so the barista can easily set temperature distribution of each group for maximum flex-ibility when serving multiple drinks.

What is the most important feature of the perfect coffee machine? One of the most important features of a coffee machine is the ability to control the water temperature. A coffee machine needs to be able to adapt to the characteristics of each coffee blend as well as providing the barista with the flexibility to create the perfect extraction for a variety of coffees. Naturally, the perfect coffee machine goes hand-in-hand with an experienced, well-trained barista and fresh, locally roasted coffee to really bring to life the delicate flavours and nuances of the coffee.

What are the latest trends in coffee machines?A trend is to transfer the real coffee experience to the cup. Coffee in-dustry enthusiasts are turning to specialty coffee machines — such as the Victoria Arduino VA388 Black Eagle — to cater to the increas-ingly sophisticated needs of the consumer coffee palette. This coffee machine guarantees a perfect espresso every time, as the weight of the liquid extracted is measured directly in the cup to ensure each espresso is made with the same ratio for a consistently good brew.

What maintenance services do you offer clients?With a dedicated 24-hour maintenance and support line, we can re-spond to emergency call-out issues quickly and efficiently. Our techni-cians are equipped to fix coffee machines on-site where possible, while replacement machines can be provided.

E: [email protected]: +971 04 341 5537W: coffeeplanet.com

What is your best-selling coffee machine product?In the traditional coffee machine line our best-seller is La Cimbali M39 TE with Turbosteam from Italy, and in our fully automatic range our best-seller is the WMF 1500S from Germany.

What is unique about the WMF 1500S?The WMF 1500S is very customisable with one or two built-in grinders and a chocolate hopper. It can be used either with a water connection or with water tank options. An eight inch digital MMI display allows the user to customise their own menu and to place advertising on the machine. It comes with three milk options, comprising basic (cold milk will become hot milk or hot foam); easy (creates hot or cold milk based beverages depending on preference); and dynamic (48 hot or cold milk based beverages). An automatic cleaning programme takes place every 24 hours.

What is the most important feature of the perfect coffee machine? A perfect coffee machine has to have a water pump pressure of eight to nine bars; independent group boilers able to set and maintain water temperature depending on coffee blend; and a milk system with both hot and cold milk and milk foam.

What are the latest trends in coffee machines?A trend is consumer demand for being able to operate a traditional looking coffee machine with minimum knowledge and skills. WMF Company came up with the WMF Espresso, which looks exactly like a traditional coffee machine but has all automatic features, including a built-in grinder. The operator just has to insert the portafilter, press the button, and get ready for barista-class espresso, which is what we call ‘handmade automatically’ with WMF Espresso. Additionally, Cim-bali has the M100i machine, a coffee and milk intelligence system that simplifies the manual actions involved in making an espresso or a cappuccino through smart grinders connected to the groups by bluetooth or Wi-Fi and Tur-bosteam, which creates perfect hot and cold milk foam.

What maintenance services do you of-fer your clients?We offer 24/7 technical support, includ-ing maintenance and spare parts and ma-chine replacement if required. Our techni-cal team has 20 professional technicians.

E: [email protected]: +971 4 343 3478W: www.lamarquise.ae

The Nuova Simonelli – Aurelia II in red

The WMF 1500S


melitta muddle meMelitta® Cafina® XT6 is put under the spotlight by Oliver Welschar, global key account manager, Melitta Professional Coffee Solutions

Darren Castillo, sales manager - café division, Muddle Me presents the Slayer

What is your best-selling coffee machine product?It is our fully automatic coffee machine Melitta® Cafina® XT6. It was recognised with a German Design Award 2016 earlier this year.

What is unique about the Melitta® Cafina® xT6?The compact piston coffee machine, which is just 30cm wide, has clear, sleek lines, ergonomic functional areas and advanced technol-ogy for high beverage quality in the cup. A new, grinder with 75-mil-limeter grinding disks made from specially polished, durable tool steel is even more effective than its predecessors. It reduces grinding time and protects bean aroma as the disks hardly produce any heat. Consistent high quality is ensured by the Automatic Coffee Quality System (ACS), which continually monitors and regulates all relevant parameters, such as coffee grind, dosage, brewing time and water temperature. With increasing wear, the grinding disks are automati-cally adjusted so that the optimum coffee grind is always guaranteed. A newly developed milk and frothed milk system guarantees a previ-ously unknown level of quality and variety. Not only does the system ensure that hot, cold and frothed milk are always available, it also enables users to vary the consistency and temperature of the milk froth by programming it according to the product.

What is the most important feature of the perfect coffee machine? One very important feature of our piston coffee machines is the top-quality metal brewing unit, which ensures a reliable and highly pre-cise operation. The ability to set the piston pressure for each coffee specialty individually via the display, helps underline the special char-acteristics of the various beverages.

What are the latest trends in coffee machines?A wide variety of top-quality milk froth.

What maintenance services do you offer your clients?We provide after-sales service and also sell coffee and accessories. Melitta Professional Coffee Solutions is dedicated to ultimate qual-ity in the cup, greater variety with indi-vidualised frothed milk variants, maxi-mum ease of operation and cleaning, and outstanding design which whets the appetite for delicious beverages.

E: [email protected]: +49 571 50 49 0W: www.melitta-professional.de

What is your best-selling coffee machine product? The Slayer is our best-seller.

What is unique about Slayer?Slayer was imagined, designed, and built for one purpose: to make coffee better by means of flavour profiling. It allows the barista to change the profile of the coffee without having the roaster change the roasting profile.

What is the most important feature of the perfect coffee machine? The three most important features are the ability to control water temperature, pressure and flow rate. All of these variables need to be controlled accurately and consistently so that once your profile has been dialed in, each extraction will taste the same as the last.

What are the latest trends in coffee machines?Most coffee machines use pressure profiling, which makes Slayer exceptional. Slayer uses a precision needle valve to control flow rate during extraction. With a prolonged pre-brew phase and the ability to change the brew water's flow, baristas can use "flavour profiling" to manipulate the coffee's aroma and taste.

What maintenance services do you offer your clients?All machines come with a one-year international warranty, which we support locally. We also have the option for Annual Mainte-nance Contract as well as call out services from our in-house main-tenance team and a large range of spare parts available in stock for all our brands.

E: [email protected]: +971 4 517 8111W: www.muddle-me.com

The Melitta Cafina XT 6 soloThe Slayer

Marketplace


orbis coffee schaererJustin Clarke, CEO, Orbis Coffee discusses the Trinity One multi-function pour over coffee brewer

Schaerer introduces the Schaerer Coffee Soul

What is your best-selling coffee machine product?It’s called the Trinity One and in its simplest form, it is a multi-function pour over coffee brewer.

What is unique about Trinity One?The Trinity One is a brewing revolution for specialty coffee. Com-bining a number of brewing methods including pour over, air pres-sure, and cold brew, it reduces bench top clutter and provides a functional, minimalist brewing experience. To top it off, the Trinity One is presented in a high quality stainless steel and black walnut timber finish and is now available from the Orbis Coffee Roastery in Dubai.

What is the most important feature of the perfect coffee ma-chine? Simplicity to train and operate are the key features. That’s why we love the Leva coffee machines that are minimalistic in terms of electronics and internal pumps. Many of the originals of this type of machine are still in operation in Italy.

What are the latest trends in coffee machines?Fully automatics are getting better and better at producing true espresso style coffee but the real trend at the moment has to be cold brew coffee. Here in the Gulf, cold brew coffee adds to the selection of drinks when the weather heats up.

What maintenance services do you offer your clients?We are pleased to respond with a 90 minute call out within Dubai and 120 minutes for the rest of the UAE. We also cover Qatar and Kuwait and will be in Oman and Saudi Arabia by the end of 2016.

E: [email protected]: +971 4 341 7789W: www.orbisfoods.com

What is your latest coffee machine launch?With the Schaerer Coffee Soul, Swiss coffee machine manufacturer Schaerer is launching the pioneer of the new coffee generation.

What is unique about it?The 33-centimetre slim, fully-automatic coffee machine is based on a newly-developed platform and offers advanced technology packed in an athletic yet elegant design. A true innovation is the patent-pending Uptime! descaling system, which stands out due to its simple application. In addition, the touch display has been further developed and the beverage display has a more attractive design. For milk foam as if it were made by a barista as well as the highest beverage quality and largest variety of drinks, the Best Foam milk system is available. The Schaerer M2M Coffee Link telemetry system is available as an option and enables real-time data evaluation as well as location-independent access to the cof-fee machine.

When will the product be available?The Schaerer Coffee Soul will be available starting in autumn 2016 and with a cup quantity of 180 per day, it is perfectly suited for small restaurants and coffee bars.

E: [email protected]: +41 32 6816200W: www.schaerer.com

The Trinity One multi-function pour over coffee brewer

The Schaerer Coffee Soul

marketplace


Why have you launched a new healthy options menu?Since opening in late 2014, we have noticed a steady change in how people eat. Our pa-trons are more health conscious now and are demanding more in terms of health benefits, but of course they don’t want to sacrifice taste either. We have always been flexible, producing off-menu items for those with al-lergies or specific dietary requirements and we have noticed a steady increase in people requesting healthier dishes to match their lifestyles. We therefore decided the time had come for Mint Leaf Dubai to adapt by offer-ing healthy options on our à la carte menu.

What items does the new healthy menu consist of?There is a wide range of dishes available, from grilled Chilean seabass to quinoa biry-ani, quinoa crusted black pepper veg-etable seekh kebabs and coconut and lime leaf prawns. There are starters, main courses and desserts with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. The menu is designed to include healthy ingredients without compro-mising on taste.

What is your hero dish?The fisherman’s prawns are the star item on the healthy options menu and this happens to be the healthiest too. It consists of prawns gently poached in lime leaf and a coconut

milk-based sauce. We don’t use any dried or powdered ingredients, and everything is low calorie and sourced fresh.

What is the best gluten-free option you offer?I would say either the aloo chaat – crispy baby potatoes tossed with sweet yoghurt and tam-arind sauce, topped with gram flour vermi-celli – or the Chilean seabass moilee tossed with exotic vegetables. It really depends on what kind of flavours you like.

How will you continue to evolve the menu over the next 12 months?We are continuously taking on board feed-back and suggestions from our guests, and steadily adding healthier options to our menu based on what off-menu dishes are or-dered regularly and what demand we are see-ing in the restaurant. We are hoping over the next few months to have an equal number of healthy options and regular menu items and we’re certainly on track to achieve this.

Please share one of your tips of the trade for budding chefs in the industry:Start with classic recipes and master them. The basics are everything in cooking: once you understand and have mastered the ba-sics, that’s when you should start to experi-ment and fuse them with new ingredients, techniques or trends.

Chef Vivek Kashiwale, Mint Leaf of London, DIFC Dubai, unveils the restaurant's new healthy menu

sPill the beans

Mint Leaf Dubai has views over Burj Khalifa

Spill the beans

Quinoa crusted subz seekh

Tandoori salmon with mustard and herb marinade

Aloo Chaat, a vegetarian dish

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email: [email protected]. Box 24739, Dubai, UAE

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