< PreviousTrending caterermiddleeast.com April 2020 10 La Carnita As it heads towards its second anniversary, La Carnita at the InterContinental Dubai Marina has proven to have a staying power beyond many of its erstwhile contemporaries. With its hip-hop styling and tacos on With a freshly updated menu, the Mexican taqueria continues to prosper What's the fuss about... tap, the Toronto import plugged a gap in the market back in 2018 and has consistently pulled in the crowds ever since. Its laid back, come-as-you-are atmosphere struck a chord with people looking for the antithesis to Dubai’s high-end dining scene, says marketing manager Romina Chiara Torres. “When people first step into La Carnita, they don’t feel like they’re in Dubai anymore. We’re that getaway where people can escape the glitz and glamour to just be real. I think we can attribute our success over the past two Trending 11 April 2020 caterermiddleeast.com new, a new experience, a new dish, so you have to constantly evolve, experiment, and execute”. That means adding new items to the menu to encourage repeat visits or entice back customers who may have thought they’d already completed the full La Carnita experience. Torres says the latest additions “reflect the region and its climate as well as trends in the food industry”. She explains: “We've added a selection of ceviches that cater to our customers need for fresher and lighter dishes as well as more vegan and plant- based options. It's always important to listen to the market and what we were noticing was an increase in the demand for plant-based and pescatarian dishes. So far they've been a hit.” So which of the dishes has been the most popular? “Our tacos are the pillar of La Carnita but our churros are pretty much the Beyoncé of the menu. They're just a hit with everyone. As to why they are so successful? They're just so delicious. "Seriously have you tried them yet?” years to that – a craving for real food, real vibes, and real music.” La Carnita wasn’t the first Mexican joint to open in Dubai, but since it started seeing success there’s been a clear trend towards the cuisine, something Torres thinks is attributable to its reputation as a comfort food. She says: “It’s a cuisine that is more sociable than others because it’s centred around sharing, not just a meal, but memories with your family and friends.” However, with increasing competition, Torres says La Carnita has “learnt never to stay stale. Customers are always on the hunt for something 12 different types of taco at La Carnita including beef cheek, baja shrimp, and spicy Mexican chorizo "We’re that getaway where people can escape the glitz and glamour to just be real" La Carnita interiorTrending caterermiddleeast.com April 2020 12 Big talk Lessons learned from a year in the business Cassette was born out of a pas- sion for food. The stories and laughter shared over my fam- ily’s dinner table with rich and varied dishes from all around the world inspired me to pursue my venture into the F&B business. Cassette comes from French origins, therefore our menu pres- ents creative curated dishes that would evoke subtle hints of French familiarity. Since opening our doors on February 2 2019, it’s been a pleasure getting to know our customers, neighbours, and community. We really take pride in serving healthy dishes and comfort food that creates authentic and captivating stories. We made sure that customers not only get rich avours, but also a piece of art served on every plate. One of the key successes is that we have established the brand on the market as a recognisable name for guests to unwind, feel at home, and connect. As a small business, our goals have always been to minimise our expenses and keep the quality of the product and service, which we deliver at the highest standard. We have always been proud of the fact that we can keep low food and beverage cost by reusing some of the waste products thanks to chef Shaunne who is always trying to be innovative and bring fresh ideas. Our biggest achievement during the rst year of the business is that we were able to make it sustainable. Cassette has brought down its food wastage to a bare minimum by turning would-be waste ingredients into soups, purées, and syrups. We always order the correct amount and don’t buy more than our regular needs. We implemented eco- friendly practices that aim to improve the health of our customers and the environment. Our takeaway containers are 80% biodegradable, all drinks have non-plastic straws, and drinking glasses are 100% recycled. Even though using sustainable products is costly, people recognise and appreciate the fact we are trying to use biodegradable items as much as possible. Making sure we educate our team on how to be more environmentally friendly is key for our small contribution to a more eco-friendly experience. We at Cassette make conscious effort to support the local farmers such as New Leaf Herbs, Harvest Fresh Produce, and Urban Fresh Local Produce. Working with UAE local farms provides our customers farm-fresh fruits and vegetables that are homegrown. Buying locally reduced our carbon footprint and is more ecological to the environment. We’ve kept 98% of the staff since the opening of Cassette while giving them the opportunity to grow with us and develop their skill set as we believe our most important asset is the people we have around us. Creating the feeling that everyone is part of the family contributes to the experience of our guests. "We take pride in serving healthy dishes and comfort food that creates authentic and captivating stories" By Haider Madani, Cassette Restaurant and Café founderCareers 13 April 2020 caterermiddleeast.com Grand Hyatt Abu Dhabi names new executive chef The JW Marriott Marquis Dubai has appointed Moritz Neumann as its executive chef. In his role, Neumann will oversee the property’s 15 F&B venues while leading a team of 300 chefs. The German national brings with him an 18 year long career, having worked across six different hospitality brands and completed three hotel pre- opening phases including over three years as an executive sous chef with Marriott Hotels from July 2013 before joining Renaissance Hotels in October 2016. Originally from Bavaria, he joins JW Marriot Marquis after a spell in charge of culinary operations at La Ville Hotel & Suites City Walk. Speaking about his new post, the chef said: “At Marriott we always strive to be one step ahead. In order to do that we foster a work environment that supports associates to learn, grow and innovate. It is a fantastic brand to work with and I am immensely looking forward to this new chapter at the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, a hotel that inspires other hotels in the industry.” JW Marriott Marquis Dubai culinary director Stephen Wright added: “2020 promises to be a very busy year with many exciting projects. With Moritz onboard we will further strive to enhance service quality as well as revolutionize the food industry here in Dubai.” Following the chef’s hire, JW Marriott Marquis Dubai revealed it is currently planning to revamp two of its F&B venues, a venture “Neumann will be heavily involved in.” JW Marriott Marquis Dubai welcomes new executive chef CAREERS Stefan Moerth brings 30 years of experience at Michelin-starred restaurants Moritz Neumann will lead a team of 300 chefs at the hotel in Business Bay Grand Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel & Residences Emirates Pearl has appointed Stefan Moerth as its new executive chef. He will oversee the entire culinary operation of the property. Moerth brings with him 30 years of experience at Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and in luxury hotels around the world. After stints at Bangkok’s Mandarin Oriental and The Peninsula Bangkok, he served as the executive chef in several luxury Hyatt properties in Asia including Park Hyatt Saigon, Park Hyatt Tokyo, and Grand Hyatt Seoul. His most recent position was executive chef at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. “This is an exceptional opportunity to work in a new Grand Hyatt in the Middle East, with our goal to establish the hotel as a favorite dining destination in Abu Dhabi,” he said. “I want to have authenticity, sustainability, and freshness in everything we put on a plate to take into account the well-being and expectations of today’s savvy customers while adding a modern touch to provide the most interesting culinary experiences for them.” Moerth will be in charge of all four F&B venues — Verso, Lexx, Sahha, and Pearl Lounge — as well as all of the events’ culinary operations. “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Stefan who brings vast culinary expertise throughout his world travels,” said Grand Hyatt Hotel Abu Dhabi general manager Julien Gonzalvez.Five minutes with... James Knight-Pacheco caterermiddleeast.com April 2020 14 Five minutes with... James Knight-Pacheco Executive chef of ME Dubai, housed in the already iconic Opus Building by Zaha Hadid, James Knight-Pacheco tells us what to expect from its F&BFive minutes with... James Knight-Pacheco 15 April 2020 caterermiddleeast.com At what stage of F&B development did you come into the role? When I came in, around October time, it was rough and ready, nothing had been done yet in terms of menu design so I literally started from zero. I had to look at the kitchens to see what I was working with and at the other restaurants that are here because we didn't want to be clashing in terms of food. Even down to ordering plates for an entire hotel – everything had to be done from scratch, so it was quite intense. When you work for a brand like this, there’s only one in the world, so the challenge is do we get the same as everyone else? No. So then how do you source suppliers? Huge challenges, but at the same time an incredible opportunity to discover different things and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Tell us about the hotel’s F&B. Central is our signature restaurant and we take influences from the flavours of Spain. So we’re inspired by Spain but we’re not a traditional Spanish restaurant whatsoever. Central is what we call cosmopolitan tapas and bar. We are based in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world and that’s exactly what we wanted to achieve. The tapas and main courses are all inspired by Spain, with a little twist: for example mackerel is huge in Spain and we’re going to do some really cool things with it. Then we have the lobby lounge which is called the Opus Studio. It’s the epicentre of everything because as soon as you walk in you have this incredible grand atrium and I think everybody will want to come and see that place — it’s very special and definitely not seen before in Dubai and the Middle East. We have the pool area where we have dishes with super cool funky names like Life on the Veg, Lifesaving Snacks, all very pool based. Then Relax and Refuel which is right next to the gym. It’s based on clean-eating, a lot of vegan items and protein energy balls, but all house made. then you finish in Maine. Amazing. Then we keep the entire vibe here and that’s the aim. But definitely for Central the aim is to really stand out and not just be another Spanish restaurant. We know that Dubai has incredibly talented chefs and homegrown concepts and that’s ideally what we want to be. You previously worked at Six Senses Zighy Bay, how was that different? With a resort like Zighy Bay it’s just there and the guests that are there are there for a reason, whether it’s for wellness or just to stay and enjoy the food — we did not have any competition at all in Zighy Bay. You could literally do whatever you wanted to a degree. Then coming to Dubai you are in a city that is surrounded by restaurants, that is surrounded by competition, so you have to be super smart to attract the right type of people. It’s a completely different ball game and a completely different way of thinking. It’s inspired me and scared me in equal measures, I’m not going to lie. I know all the top boys, I know who I’m in competition with, so the pressure is there, but the pressure is something that I welcome because without pressure you’re not going to perform. It’s inspiring to come into a project and lead the whole thing from a culinary point of view. Nobody was here before me, so it’s amazing to be involved from day one and set the standards. How important is sustainability to what you are doing? Melia as a brand is one of the most sustainable in the world. This is exactly what we’re looking to do here. We’re doing our own composting, the uniforms are all sustainable, we’re not accepting plastic or polystyrene from our suppliers. We’re trying to get homegrown as much as possible. Sustainability plays a huge part and you’d be silly to ignore it from a chef’s point of view. We’re doing everything we can to be zero-waste and I’m really hammering it and talking and educating the team about why it’s so important to think beyond chopping an onion and throwing it in the bin. Do you want the F&B to compete with other high-end restaurants? We have Roka here. It’s a huge name and a sister of Zuma. We have Maine Land Brasserie. These are quite prominent names and we are incredibly proud to have them in our vicinity, but at the same time we need to have a signature restaurant that people don’t just come to because they’re staying with us. We want that place to be a destination, somewhere you come not to just have incredible food but to meet incredible people and have an amazing time. Maybe you start in Central and have tapas then you want to go have some sushi in Roka, Food Safety caterermiddleeast.com April 2020 16 A global coronavirus pandemic has caused havoc with the F&B Food Safety 17 April 2020 caterermiddleeast.com industry, but will it see long-term improvements in food safety?Food Safety caterermiddleeast.com April 2020 18 Gates Hospitality CEO and founder Naim Maadad was the first to call on the government to step in and lockdown restaurants so they would have a chance to reduce their outgoings and get help with utilities, rent, and other taxes. Now that it’s happened, the F&B industry in the Middle East is waking up to a new normal, for the foreseeable future at least. While some of what has happened will have an indelible negative effect on the sector, with restaurants closing down and many staff losing their jobs already, an improvement in food safety and hygiene across the board could be a singular positive. The change has been immediate says Alp Aksoy, vice president, hospitality, Africa, ME, and Turkey for cleaning solutions firm Diversey. “With Covid-19, I believe everybody has become more aware that basic hygienic practices, such as washing your hands or disinfecting spaces, are a part of preserving our way of life. While in the past working while sick was heroic in certain workspaces, now people realise such actions challenge the sustainability of a business and human health. Therefore; we could say that there has been some awareness, even though not necessarily towards food hygiene, but generic awareness of basic hygiene, which is also the fundamentals of food hygiene.” Many restaurant operators have implemented heightened food hygiene regimes, including Krush Brands which owns Freedom Pizza, Wildflower Poke & More, and others. Founder and CEO Ian Ohan says that while its kitchens are already rigorously operated on strict HACCP standards, it has added in extra measures. He says: “We have increased the frequency of two-staged Optimism was high going into 2020. Expo prom- ised to bring untold millions of new customers into the region, Saudi Arabia was opening up to the world and bringing with it a burgeoning F&B scene, and Dubai’s growth continued unabated with new restaurants popping up on every corner. But it couldn’t last. We didn’t know it then, but at the turn of the year an unseen virus was slowly spreading its way through Wuhan, China and by March it would be the most talked-about thing on the planet. Covid-19, although more widely known by its generic name, coronavirus, has upended the F&B world in a way no one thought possible. The situation is changing daily, but as of the start of April, all restaurants in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Oman, and many, many other countries throughout the world are on complete lockdown. It was a move that many in the industry had been crying out for. Data from food website Chef’s Pencil showed that searches for Chinese and Italian food (the countries most widely affected by the virus initially) plummeted as much as 96%. Although not transmitted via food, Covid-19 is highly contagious between humans and public spaces where people were likely to congregate, such as restaurants, quickly became no-go zones. Mingora and NPD’s sales track data which is used by QSRs and fast-casual brands to track their progress from week to week showed single-digit decline followed by double-digit decline week-on-week as customers stayed away from dining out in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak and chose to self-isolate to limit any potential exposure to the crisis.19 April 2020 caterermiddleeast.com hand sanitisation to a minimum of every 30 minutes and between every delivery for our drivers who, unlike third- party delivery companies, are actually our employees and can enter our stores to sanitise themselves properly and frequently. We also have asked our drivers to maintain a 1m to 1.5m minimum distance from customers and minimise closer contact to essential only. “We have further implemented the use of antibacterial masks for all kitchen staff and drivers. This is an added precaution to help protect our customers and employees from potential Covid-19 transmission from airborne respiratory droplets transmission.” But, while making strides to improve hygiene is an important step, Marc Hajjar, country manager of Boecker UAE tells us it’s important that restaurants do it correctly, otherwise, their attempts could be meaningless. He says: “Our food safety experts have noticed different mistakes such as improper handwashing technique and wrong use of disinfectants while cleaning and sanitising food contact surfaces. There is also a tendency to not disinfect items such as menu cards, sauce bottles, tabletops, chair handles, cash counters and credit card machines. Other improper hygiene habits are the usage of cloth instead of disposable towels for cleaning surfaces and the usage of electric fly killers instead of glue board machines.” To ensure that these systems are implemented properly, Aksoy believes F&B operators need to invest in training for both the back of house and customer-facing teams. He says: “Restaurants should not treat hygiene merely is about products only, they should seek to have www.charvet.ae Add your choice of color to Charvet’s powerful cooking ranges. If you have: • an open kitchen • a specific brand color • or just want to make a statement ...then you can have a top-quality French- made, modular or bespoke cooking suite panelled in a wide selection of colors. Whether you are looking for a colorful show piece with that wow factor, or an affordable, modular suite for all your cooking needs, Charvet has a solution just for you. For more information email sales@charvet.ae STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD "I believe everybody has become more aware that basic hygienic practices are a part of preserving our way of life"Next >