COMING OF AGE - DUBAI's GULF FOOD - Pastry Perfection

I have visited several food exhibitions in the past few years and have even read comments about some European competitions of this very year that stated the level of entries was not up to scratch, for the global stage.
Personally I believe that we all have so much to view on Facebook, Google and Blogs that our day to day acceptance of new desserts and pastries is so high, that when we go to international competitions and exhibitions our expectations are merely far too grand. After all we have all probably watched the YOU TUBE videos of the creations before us, being prepared in training videos on the internet just days or weeks before.
A surprise is not one when you have seen the product being prepared now is it!???

So imaging my surprise this year when at the Gulf Foods exhibition in Dubai and seeing the high calibre of desserts on display.
I comment about the desserts and not other items such as cakes, wedding cakes, or centerpieces because ,well they have their place in the world but I don't believe a wedding cake can really be judged by chefs-even pastry chefs. There are just some things that are too open for personal opinion in this subject. After all I've been asked by some brides in my own businesses to make some modern creations which I know full well a judge would be horrified at, yet the brides in my store were willing to pay several thousand dollars for the privilege.
One mans trash is another treasure right !!
A wedding cake can only be judged on techniques, most of which are aged and to be judged well usually is so overly garnished in these techniques that no modern bride would want the thing near her wedding.

And don't forget Im talking the Middle East . I have close friends who have businesses based upon Wedding Cakes and in their region the older techniques are definitely still modern.
IF we are going to have a Wedding cake competition then shouldn't the thing be about 4 metres high and made mostly of styrofoam with 800 portions cut in the back kitchen for the guests !!
Is technicality to be judged or pure creativity.
Most of you will say that the answer is somewhere in the middle, but based on judging parameters and guidelines I prefer to argue not. Another subject which I find little personal favor with are bread centre pieces. Few modern buffets use them, even fewer do them well and in reality the best are made from salt dough not bread at all.
I get it, but I don't.
I'm a lover of the intricacies. I love centerpieces of chocolate and sugar for it proves the correct use and understanding of both mediums. Crystallised or blotchy sugar shows incorrect temperatures or handling as does bloomed chocolate which can't be hidden or forgiven. New techniques and infinite detail are still being created and blowing away our minds year after year in both realms, I just don't see the same advances in new age salt dough techniques.
Of coarse all personal opinions and I am well aware there will be opposition.
But this blog is about the brilliance of pastry in Dubai in 2012. I just wanted to show (albeit a few weeks late) some of the entries and to loudly say congratulations to the pastry staff and their chefs of DUBAI and the GCC for their top work, dedication and advancements over the past few years. The Middle East was once seen as blip on ones resume, today any resume of worth shows at least some time worked with the Gulf Region.  Our region is now renowned for its high standards, its pushing of the envelope in all areas of creativity and those of us that do work here all well know that some of the worlds most creative chefs, are born in the GCC and greater MENA region.
There was once when you had to whisper, I work in the MIDDLE EAST, there was a time people even feared coming here, but today all chefs can proudly scream I AM FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, and people will show us their attention.
Well done to all those who competed in 2012 in Dubai.
You have much of which to be proud .

Rewards for Good Things

Some things in life truly surprise you. They are few and far between but they happen.

Someone recently queried my sanity at spending the Bd 20,000 or $75,000 on publishing Arabian Dreams on limited release, throughout just the Middle East. My reply, was , well "I BELIEVED IN THE PROJECT."

Many of us who cook, never invest in ourselves throughout our career . Yet we are our greatest tool. We are not about knives, but about ourselves. A chef does not stand back and point to his expensive knife box and say,"There, that is the sum of my career".

This is not my "ouevre", I believe there is more inside me yet to come, but its pretty dam close. If the remainder of my career I do nothing more than sit back and reflect upon the pride of the effort my team where I work,  made to help produce the dream which was ARABIAN DREAMS, then I will truly be blessed anyway.

I am not a religious person to any great extent, but I do believe if you put good things out into the universe you will be rewarded. (A harsh lesson a GM I know is currently learning on the opposite end of that scale)

ARABIAN DREAMS has definately been a good thing and has been accepted into the universe by thousands of people. Not only has the book become the BEST ARABIC TITLE COOKBOOK IN THE WORLD and on the list of TOP 57 COOKBOOKS of 2011 but it has also sold far greater numbers than I ever hoped for.

If "Success is based upon the amount of risk you are willing to stomach", then risk I did. 

Today Arabian Dreams is to be found in Abu Dhabi at Blossum Cakes store, In Egypt through the Egypt Chef's Association, In England through Squires Kitchen store and On-line, through Lebanesebooks.com can be found in Australia through Fred Mayer imports NSW, and throughout the Middle East in Jashanmal bookstores, booksarabia.com, and in all good bookstores (including Waitrose supermarket in Dubai) through the Middle East.
Starting this week ARABIAN DREAMS has been lucky to garner some truly blessed PR at the hands of amazing magazines. Three full pages in Spinney's FOOD magazine, Dubai, a whole 4 colour pages in HELLO magazine MIDDLE EAST Edition July 23rd publication and more in Dubai Voyager Duty Free magazine and we hear soon to come to Tabloid Saturday in the GULF NEWS newspaper.
Ten months it has been released now and yet sales continue to climb and PRess becomes greater every passing day. To those who joined the Arabian Dream and the most amazing book i have ever been part of, thank you from the bottom of my heart. This book is not about personal gain, but about proving that REAL CHEFS still have a voice in this world. Many publishers prefer home economists and designers who barely cook, because CHEFS are too professional (yes I have a dozen letters from publishers stating that). ARABIAN DREAMS was born, produced, written , photographed and paid for by a team a CHEF who had a belief that the words and the food meant something and deserve to be set free into the universe. Rewards for good things are truly a blessing,

For those of you who do not live in the MIDDLE EAST, please try and get your hands upon a copy to view photos of amazing food, the read the words of Gary Rhodes about the beauty of the Middle East and to read the text from myself and my team who labored over this book of New Age Middle Eastern Concepts.

Before you judge the Middle East based upon news broadcasts, learn about its history and its culture and especially its food. Do not be swayed by politics or fighting. Yes its bad, but there are millions more people working hard within the Middle East who are surviving and trying to tell the world how amazing this place really is. Like any country, there are problems, but below the surface and below the headlines, the people, the culture and the food are an absolute blessing. Even we who live here, are sometimes blinded by its sands. Yet take a day off and most of us wonder at why we would ever consider to leave its shores.

Inside the kitchen we have no boundaries, other than the limits of your imagination and your skill. Step inside a Middle Eastern kitchen and you will find the true United Nations, the absolute Gulf Co-operative Council and a world of absolute freedom.

Thank you to everyone for your interest in ARABIAN DREAMS and may all your DREAMS come true.

Spinney's FOOD magazine available throughout Dubai and the UAE August 2011

Third page of Spinney's FOOD Magazine Middle East 

HELLO Magazine Middle East Edition July 23rd 2011

ARABIAN DREAMS, now selling in Cairo through the Egypt Chefs Association, In Paris at the Librarie Gourmande, In Abu Dhabi at Blossum Cakes, Jashanmals bookstore in Bahrain and also in stores in UAE, Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait. Call Swiss Food in Bahrain for a copy in Qatar or Bahrain or go online at Amazon.com, Lebanesebooks.com, Squireskitchens.com and Booksarabia.com.

One More Date and Another Tart !!!!!!!!! oh...and a GATEAU VOYAGE!

ONE MORE DATE.............

I was asked recently to do an international dinner for a chefs association outside of my current country. In considering the honor, I wanted to showcase ARABIAN DREAMS , the book, and give the diners for the event a sampling of what I am trying to get the world to see....." That the traditions of the Middle East are amazing and yet they can be turned into NEW AGE masterpieces quite simply."
 LA DATTE ARABIA is perfection in presentation to my humble beliefs. It serves dates, the Middle East's abundant fruit of an honorable past, in a manner few would expect.  At the same time it gives so many variations of it in one dessert. Date and thyme gellee, date cake, date mousse, date ganache and date glaze. So much date, and for most people an horrific concept, having never eaten dates outside of Sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce.
Arabian Dreams was born from a desire to prove chefs can create from the ground up in everything they do. That we are more than one dimensional cooking robots. That our skills, talent and artistry can produce more than plates of 5 minute organliptic pleasure. An idea can blossum one summer ,and by the winters end, it can be turned into an award winning book title. I have never been so inspired nor so proud of anything, as I was ARABIAN DREAMS. OF course that is closely followed every day when the inspiration to cook, makes me proud of the creations we produce, the taste buds we set on fire and the memories of amazing desserts, my diners, patrons and guests will have many moons from now.
The greatest honor a pastry chef can ever be granted would be to hear, a decade from now," I still remember the sensations of dining on that most memorable of dessert you created."

LA DATTE ARABIA - PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE
(White chocolate filled with date mousse, date cake, Umbread
and glazed with Date glaze. Served with date and thyme gellee
date ganache.)

AND ANOTHER TART.............

My dear friend and blog teacher , Anita Menon (Check out her amazing blog) asked me to describe what ,"a day in the life of a Pastrychef" actually entails. Well certain difficulties stand before me in doing that. None of which I wish to share.

Some, within the realm of where I work, believe that all we do as chef's, is sit, chat and drink coffee, and that is about it. Few realise that during the sitting and the chatting, myself and colleagues could be discussing what it is we see before us, which we desire to achieve in reality and some how take dreams and turn them into plated edible perfection.

As a writer, I remember a quote, from I know not who, which stated some thing like," The novel I desire is already written before me. I see the words, they need just be plucked from the air floating before me and scribed upon the page in the order in which they fall."

For us as chefs, it is the same. "I see the finished dish before me, the only thing standing in my way is to place the order, chopped the fruit, bake the cake and organise the parts into that which my minds eye, has already begun to devour."

As a chef and a writer I find many similarities. And much of both worlds collided back in 1987 when Gary Rhodes OBE stated , "Simplicity need not mean sloppy. Done to perfection, the simplest dish can bring you a Michelin Star".

Simplicity in writing is the key. Too big an idea means thousands of pages of explanation. I adore the 800 word essay, where beginning, middle and end; concept, evolution and finality must all collide within a set number of words, be fun to read, or instructive and make sense on a singular published page.

Cooking is much the same. 

You do not have to make every single dish a monolithic enterprise to achieve greatness. Some of the simplest dishes truly are the most memorable.

For me, tarts always seemed too simplistic. Today I hold them high and shout from the highest of mountain tops, that tarts can be magnificent.  A tart shell baked perfectly, a filing not too sweet, not too dry, a simplistic topping of meringue, nuts, or glaze and you have perfection.

A day in the life of a pastry chef can be summed up as a day of tarts. I may sometimes sit and chat a little longer than most. I may sometimes have a few too many cups of coffee. But those who fear that laziness has crept within the soul of this pastry chef need look no further than the photos below. A day in the life of a Tart maker. All made, all prepared, all executed to perfection on a singular day. And yes....others sampled them, some of them twice. Some asked for slices to take home and others where shared among my staff. Simplicity does not mean un-creative either. These gorgeous entities will remain with me now for years and shall sooner or later become the basis of another morphed creation, simplicity will one day have its chance at complicated and stunning. For now, taste speaks for itself; simple, stunning, sexy.

Bakewell tart

Candied Chestnut tartlets 

Chestnut, vanilla creme brulee and fresh fig tart. 

Maple Syrup meringue tartlets

Fresh pear and baked Mascarpone tart 

Tarte tatin

 oh....AND A GATEAU VOYAGE!!!......
Again simplicity wins the day.
Playing for a day with chestnut paste to extend the conceptual range for a European client I did not stop at the perfect chestnut tartlets with Italian meringue nor at the Chestnut, Vanilla Brulee and Fresh Fig tart, but continued on to this gorgeously moist Gateau Voyage Marron. It speaks for itself and so I shall stop.

Gateau Voyage MARRON (white fondant glaze with candied chestnuts and gold leaf)



"LOVE ALL, SERVE ALL" as the famous words of Hard Rock Cafe state. Let the kitchen be the world's true UN. We are all united by the food that we eat, we all deserve a meal and therefore we all must take social responsibilities in the protection of the earth on which we live. No food, No us, No blogs. Oh what a shame!!!