So it’s no wonder that Sofitel have chosen to host one of their global Stars Food & Art events at Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach in an ever expanding city where supercars and super rich are ten a penny and nothing seems to be impossible, not when you apparently have all the money in the world to spend and not much to spend it on.
It won’t be cheap, but Stars Food & Art is not about the everyday and the extraordinary tends to be expensive. Most of us have by now eaten tasting menus with matching wines, but few I suspect have eaten one prepared by seven star chefs all at once.The initiative was taken by the management of Hotel Sofitel the Grand Amsterdam and Lise Goeman Borgesius, author and food journalist, and has grown to be a yearly event across countries and continents.The premise is promising.
In another corner of the giant space his fellow star chefs are busy signing the ornate souvenir menus that each guest will receive at the end of the night, quite a job when there are over 200 to get through. The chefs come from all countries but talk in various versions of French and the atmosphere is one of fun and banter before the serious job of prepping up for the evening begins. Some have already been in the kitchen for days; marinating, sous-viding and getting to grips with the layout and staff.
Cyrus calls me over to one of the stoves, he has his rice almost ready and asks me to taste. It’s very good and enthused he plates up a sample of the complete dish he will serve tonight; ‘Duck tikka a la Mrs Matthew’. He pushes elements around to get the best visual effect and happy with the result he surrenders to the kitchen staff’s pleas to pose for a photo with them. His wife looks on with a grin, Cyrus’s bonhomie is infectious.
With time to spare before the evening, I catch the spanking new overhead metro to reach the centre of Old Dubai. A local food blogger, iliveinafryingpan.has kindly volunteered to show me the other side of eating in Dubai, a world away from Michelin stars but just as eclectic and just as tasty in its own way. It’s certainly less expensive and so we eat a little something in lots of small places.
As darkness slowly falls, the local rich kids start their own drive, the nightly ritual parade of dad-bought supercars up and down the corniche, a mile-long promenade with 200 shops, cafes and restaurants. The guttural bark of tuned V8s and V12s with no particular place to go can be heard as they rev up showily. It’s a Jeremy Clarkson wet dream out there tonight and every night.
Flowers would have been in order for the entertainment, putting the Art in food and art star turn opera singer Edita Adlerova from the Czech Republic performed for the first time in the Middle East, her voice rising effortlessly above the happy babble of the diners. She was just one of the international entertainers on the night.
At around 1am, as everyone was beginning to flag a bit, and I was thinking with some concern about my cab that was coming in just four hours’ time, Claire Clark’s dessert appeared. She called it a Fantasy Hoop and it was certainly the stuff dessert lovers’ dreams are m
There was coffee of course but I had two choices – stay awake on caffeine until my cab to the airport arrived, or try to get some sleep in the scant four hours available. I opted for the coward’s way out and headed back to my room wobbling gently and feeling I might never need to eat again. So it was a shock to find a selection of 9 fancy desserts from the hotel waiting on my bedside table, along with non alcoholic champagne.
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Sofitel Food Stars and Art is around the world and will be coming to London in 2013 at the Sofitel St James, the chefs have yet to be announced.
If you can’t wait then there is Amsterdam Nov 9 & 10 2012
HOTEL SOFITEL DUBAI JUMEIRAH BEACH
Jumeirah Beach Residence, Dubai Marina, PO BOX 473828, 0 DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The menu
Thomas Bühner, *** La Vie (Osnabrück, Germany)
Smoked carpaccio of watermelon, parmesan cream, pine seeds, balsamic, wild herbs.
Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc 2010, Marlborough, New Zealand
Christophe Aribert, ** Les Terrasses (Uriage les Bains, France)
Pan-seared foie gras, strawberries, antesite and salad shoots
Reichsrat van Buhl Riesling Kabinett “Julie” Halbtrocken 2009, Pfalz, Germany
Joe Barza, Joe Barza Culinary Consultancy (Beirut, Lebanon)
Akkawi cheese wrapped in fattoush salad
Guigal Cotes du Rhone Blanc 2010, Rhone Valley, France
Bernard Bach, ** Le Puits Saint Jacques (Pujaudran, France)
Grilled scallops, saffron brioche crust, fennel foam, lemon caviar
Hugel et Fils Gentil 2009, Alsace, France
Giovanni D’Amato, ** Il Rigoletto (Reggiolo, Italy)
Tomatoes , datterino’, burrata cheese lasagnetta, basil
Frescobaldi Nipozzano Riserva 2008, Chianti Rufina DOCG, Italy
Thomas Bühner, *** La Vie (Osnabrück, Germany)
Potato foam, pumpkin ice-cream Hot/cold
Cyrus Todiwala Spice Namaste (London, UK)
Duck Tikka a la Mrs Matthew
Dindori Sula Reserve Shiraz 2008, Nashik, India
Claire Clark, *** The French Laundry (California, USA)
Fantasy Hoop Coconut crème, mango cremeaux, tropical fruit confetti, fruit coulis
Klur Gewurztraminer vendanges tardives 2004, Alsace, France