Ahead of the UK's country day celebrations at Expo 2020 Dubai on Thursday, celebrity chef Vineet Bhatia is whipping up quite the storm.
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Bhatia has been nominated as the culinary ambassador of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland campaign to raise the UK's profile on the world stage.
On Tuesday, he gave seven competition winners from Gems Schools in Dubai a behind-the-scenes look at his preparations for the UK's country day reception, which Prince William is expected to attend. It will celebrate the start of the Commonwealth Games Queen Baton Relay at Expo 2020 Dubai.
The three-course lunch will be served to dignitaries and special guests.
The students – aged 15 to 17 – were taken on a guided tour of the UK Pavilion and shown dishes that will be served during the reception.
They include: smoked salmon shaped into a crown over a bed of roasted butternut squash with beetroot and ginger drops; gol gappas with chicken and mango covered in truffle; Welsh lamb with herb potatoes and cumin spinach; and poached pear with orange marmalade, ice cream and crumble.
The canapes – which the students got to taste – were equally delicious and included mashed potato and Welsh lamb in filo pastry, salmon with green pea mash and a touch of gold, and bite-sized scones with a hint of cardamom and a generous dollop of jam and cream.
Moulding young minds
For Bhatia, the initiative is all about inspiring the next generation.
“I think of this as an extra activity for them [the next generation of culinary masterminds]. Not everyone has to become chefs, but it should be seen as an artistic thing – perhaps similar to learning to play the guitar,” he said.
He sees the rise of baking in 2020 as proof that more students are interested in learning.
“When everyone was stuck at home, what did they want to do? Bake banana bread. Everyone wanted to learn to cook. At that time, I was based in Dubai, and we wanted to do something for the children.”
Speaking about the competition, he said: “We have some truly unique entries, from chocolate and avocado to small muffins with garnishing. It’s all about how artistic you can get.”
On becoming culinary ambassador for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland campaign
As an Indian-origin chef, Bhatia’s appointment as the culinary ambassador for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland campaign may seem strange. But when you consider the UK has chicken tikka masala as its national dish, it soon makes sense.
From opening a small restaurant on Old Brompton Road in London to restaurants in Harrods, Bhatia has proved he’s worth his salt.
“As a chef, I believe you wear many hats. For an event like this, you have to take a spin on classic British dishes and add a bit of spice to it. Being of Indian origin, those spices and flavours come to us naturally,” he said.
“Meanwhile, in the UK, the produce you get is of a very high quality – so much so that you don’t need to do much in terms of cooking it.
“With the best quality produce from UK and spices from India, you can’t go wrong.”
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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