Nineteen months after taking over Table 9 in the Hilton Dubai Creek, British chef Darren Velvick has moved on to pastures new and launched The Croft, a casual British eatery in the Marina at the Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites.
Velvick was widely recognised for his innovative cuisine at Table 9, but says fine dining is not where his heart is.
“I don’t want to be a strict person in the kitchen,” he says. “I want to loosen up and have fun. I want people to come up and see what we’re doing. This is where I want to be.”
It has taken more than two decades of hard work to get there. Velvick started training with celebrated British chefs Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing in 1998, long before either of them was a household name.
“I watched Gordon and Marcus on the stove,” Velvick says. “As a young chef, I was just in awe of them. They’re just mind-blowing to watch.”
Velvick honed his skills and work ethic under their leadership.
“We’d work all day and night,” he says. “We’d get in the restaurant at six in the morning and go home at two or 3am. Then we’d go in again at six. But that’s what I wanted as a young chef. I had big ambitions to get to the top.”
Velvick’s career as a chef happened quite by chance. Raised by a single mum, his family didn’t have much money. At the age of 14, he landed a job washing dishes at a restaurant a bike-ride away from home.
“They’d give me £1.50 [Dh8] an hour – I felt rich,” he says.
The restaurant’s owners, Richard and Kate Smith, took the youngster under their wings.
“If it wasn’t for them helping me and guiding me, I would have just been a young lad getting into trouble. They really focused me,” he says.
The more time he spent there, the more his love of food grew and evolved.
“The chefs would keep feeding me,” he says. “I started trying all these new foods I’d never tried, such as smoked salmon, foie gras and scallops. I’d never experienced anything like it.” After telling Richard he wanted to be a chef, Velvick trained once a week in the kitchen for seven years.
“I learnt the whole operation,” he says. “Then Richard got me a job in France and I went to work there for a year. I’ve got a lot to thank them for.”
Now, at age 41, Velvick is seeing his dreams come to life at The Croft. Each dish on the menu reflects his signature style. You’ll find traditional dishes such as fish and chips, but you’ll also find beef tongue-and-cheek pie; roast chicken stuffed with truffle, mushroom and brioche crumbs; and ox-tongue chips with pastrami mayonnaise.
“I grew up in England and these dishes have grown with me,” Velvick says. “That’s where I’ve got an advantage.”
His laid-back personality shines when he talks about his new venture. He wants diners to feel at home inside.
“I’m in here talking to the guests,” he says. “It’s just having a laugh with them – we’re not trying to be serious, it’s having a bit of fun.”
Velvick is often asked about notable British chefs coming to Dubai – Jason Atherton, Tom Aikens and Gordon Ramsay, for example, will all open restaurants in the city this year. Is he worried?
“No, not at all,” he says. “The one strength I’ve got is that I’m here. I’m in my restaurant. People are sick to death of all these chefs coming over here, taking a big pay cheque and not actually cooking. They’re only as good as the chefs they put in their restaurant.
“I’ve built up a great following from Table 9. I have guests who invite me round to their houses for barbecues. Diners become your friends here. They’re not guests.”
As for his former home, Table 9 closed at the start of Ramadan this year and will relaunch next month as a bistro concept, a departure from its previous fine-dining focus.
• The Croft is open daily from 6pm to 1am. For reservations, call 04 319 4794
sjohnson@thenational.ae
