For two women about to open a new restaurant, mother and daughter duo Mireille and Yasmina Hayek are remarkably calm.
Sure, they tap away on their phones now and again but distracted they are definitely not as they prepare to unveil their 16th location, the Em Sherif Sea Cafe at the Rosewood Abu Dhabi on Al Maryah Island.
The cafe is currently in its soft launch phase and joins the growing number of Em Sherif outlets in nine locations worldwide, encompassing restaurants, delis and cafes.
Scroll through the gallery for images of Em Sherif Sea Cafe in Abu Dhabi
A taste of Lebanon
Known to her myriad fans around the globe as Em Sherif — or the Mother of Sherif — Mireille, 51, has become as renowned for her cooking skills and business acumen as she has for creating a home away from home for those craving traditional Lebanese food.
“I cook authentic food,” she says. “I work as if I were in my home, not in a place of business. I treat my restaurant like my house, supervising everything from A to Z, and people love it because they feel at home.”
Mireille’s daughter, Yasmina, an alumna of the prestigious Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France, and the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan, Italy, is the perfect foil for her mother. “I’m a very competitive person, so I want to always be the best and I always push further. Every opening is a lesson,” Yasmina says. “I feel pride and I would like to inspire others.”
Turning passion into perseverance
“I started 11 years ago in Beirut,” says Mireille. “My passion was to cook at home for family and friends, and everybody would tell me: ‘You have to have a restaurant just for fun and passion.’”
“Perseverance, honestly,” Mireille says of the secret to her success. “I work every day like it's my first day, so for me, it’s never done. Every day is a challenge that I enjoy. I want the business to grow healthy and successful.”
After abandoning her plans to become a doctor, Yasmina embraced her destiny to step into the family business, bringing the skills she accumulated catering for the likes of McLaren and Carolina Herrera, as the former chef de partie at Copenhagen’s three Michelin-starred restaurant Geranium, and as a commis at Le Grand Restaurant and Restaurant Hexagone in Paris.
“We grew up with food at the centre of the family,” says Yasmina. “Mum was a great cook, so we were surrounded by amazing food. It’s the presence. We treat our staff and customers like family so everybody feels valued. The service is personalised and intimate.”
Family first
The Em Sherif brand has made its way across the Middle East, with outlets in the UAE, Oman, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan, as well as in Monaco and London. Despite this commendable expansion, though, Em Sherif remains first and foremost a family business.
Spearheaded by Mireille, the team also includes Yasmina, Mireille’s brother Dany Chaccour as chief executive and her son Nabil as business development manager at Em Sherif Lebanon.
“Our relationship evolved a lot,” says Yasmina of the work bond she shares with her mother. “After culinary school, I went to Lebanon with another vision — which was to go against the current, but it didn’t work out. I realised my mum knows the market, and I had to adapt myself to it and bring the best of both worlds to the same place.”
After discovering the truth behind the old adage of “mother knows best”, Yasmina, 26, became an integral part of the brand’s international expansion, a growth of which Mireille only half-jokingly notes: “I didn’t want to expand, honestly, but it happened. It’s my baby.”
“I’m a very lucky mum,” she says. “With Yasmina around, cooking is fun. Even the stress of work becomes less stressful. Of course, we disagree, but if I’m convinced by Yasmina, it’s always constructive.”
‘Playing around’ in Monaco
The brand opened at Monaco’s Hotel de Paris de Monte-Carlo in April; it was more than four years in the making. Em Sherif — The Deli, meanwhile, opened at Harrods, London, in January.
“We were supposed to open in Monaco before Covid, but obviously that was put on hold,” says Yasmina. “When we finally got the go ahead, the staff came to Beirut for two weeks to train and then I went to Monaco. We had one month to go there and source all the ingredients.”
Noting that the challenges came from adapting recipes to suit less spicy European palates, she admits to enjoying “getting out of the box and changing things up… being able to play around more than elsewhere”.
“The restaurant celebrates with delicacy a culture that you can taste, see, hear, and feel,” says Ivan Artolli, managing director at Hotel de Paris de Monte-Carlo, noting that “visitors from the GCC and the Levant represent our third largest clientele”.
He says the menu offers famed Em Sherif dishes with French produce, with a focus on seafood. "The signature dishes are created especially for Monaco and vary according to the menus," he says. "Living in the principality inspires chef Yasmina and she’s bringing this creativity to her dishes.”
‘My favourite dish to make is everything’
Speaking about the family business's latest launch in Abu Dhabi, Mireille says: “Em Sherif Sea Cafe is my love letter to Lebanon’s Mediterranean side, with fresh bright flavours and welcoming interiors filled with natural light and beautiful sea-inspired designs."
The Sea Cafe opening in Abu Dhabi follows the model’s launch in Bahrain, and there’s an opening planned in Riyadh later this year.
“We try to innovate while staying true to ourselves and staying authentic,” says Yasmina. “At Em Sherif, there are no constraints, no boundaries. We always push further, to be more creative, to come up with new ideas while preserving tradition and authenticity.”
While their latest Abu Dhabi outlet promises to serve the likes of raw red sea bream, shrimp provencal and samak ras asfour amid a Mediterranean and Portuguese-inspired decor, for Mireille, the simplest of dishes can still inspire the most creativity.
“My favourite dish to make is everything,” she says. “I like old cuisine, anything cooked well in a nice way. I love my manoush, which is a very simple dish but one that I always keep working on. The recipe has to be perfect, and with a little bit of your soul in it.”
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Essentials
The flights: You can fly from the UAE to Iceland with one stop in Europe with a variety of airlines. Return flights with Emirates from Dubai to Stockholm, then Icelandair to Reykjavik, cost from Dh4,153 return. The whole trip takes 11 hours. British Airways flies from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Reykjavik, via London, with return flights taking 12 hours and costing from Dh2,490 return, including taxes.
The activities: A half-day Silfra snorkelling trip costs 14,990 Icelandic kronur (Dh544) with Dive.is. Inside the Volcano also takes half a day and costs 42,000 kronur (Dh1,524). The Jokulsarlon small-boat cruise lasts about an hour and costs 9,800 kronur (Dh356). Into the Glacier costs 19,500 kronur (Dh708). It lasts three to four hours.
The tours: It’s often better to book a tailor-made trip through a specialist operator. UK-based Discover the World offers seven nights, self-driving, across the island from £892 (Dh4,505) per person. This includes three nights’ accommodation at Hotel Husafell near Into the Glacier, two nights at Hotel Ranga and two nights at the Icelandair Hotel Klaustur. It includes car rental, plus an iPad with itinerary and tourist information pre-loaded onto it, while activities can be booked as optional extras. More information inspiredbyiceland.com
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
