The story
One woman loved a dish on the new menu created by Quest chef Ben Wyatt so much she proposed marriage. And no wonder. Since August, high atop the capital on Level 63 of Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, the 35-year-old Wyatt and his team of 10 food scientists have been turning out an incredibly detailed range of fanciful items, many of them in disguise. A recent tasting reveals the result packs a serious culinary wallop for diners, while also tapping into their childlike sense of play. Wyatt promises an experience guests will remember when they wake up the next morning.
“When you go to a fine dining restaurant, you don’t always go to fill up your belly,” he says. “It has to be a show, it has to have flair.”
The creations
While chefs from Tokyo to New York have been paying homage to soil for several years now in various forms, Wyatt has created a dish that embodies it: his Vegetable Ash Salad looks exactly like a slightly weedy garden. The mixture includes finely chopped green beans, French snow peas, apple and pineapple, bound by a dressing of tamarind, palm sugar and fried shallots. Freshly chopped herbs including dill, coriander, mint, the Japanese shiso leaf and kinome peek out from all corners, covered in a fine layer of vegetable ash. Other wonders include a foie gras notebook, a firm but yielding cover made from puréed soya beans, a tiny breadstick quill resting in a small jar of ume sauce. A thin envelope of rice paper hides all the flavour of a full-sized California roll. The yuzu crumble dessert? It just looks like a lemon. The result prompts a true sense of wonder, and Wyatt shrugs off attempts at a deeper explanation. “I think a lot of it here is, why not? Just go for it.”
It’s important to note, though, in going for it, that Wyatt has created an array that is delicious as well as curious.
“Nothing is made without considering the flavour or the reason behind it,” explains Wyatt. “At the end of the day, the food has to be good, it has to be intuitive, it has to be responsible.”
The concept
Wyatt, who comes to Quest via the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore
and previously worked at Burj Al Arab in Dubai, began experimenting with flavours and textures back in 2005. He’d been inspired after hearing about the French chef Michel Bras, who runs a Michelin-starred eatery in Laguiole. Bras had created a dish inspired by the mountain and sun – one that did not resemble it slightly – and Wyatt sought out a video. Then, through great trial and error, he got to work.
“I was mixing everything up,” he explains. “And sometimes it went wrong. Like really, really wrong sometimes. It evolved from there.” Eight years later, when creating the Quest menu earlier this year, Wyatt’s team stepped in whenever he got too ambitious and began veering toward dishes that just could not be practically produced on a regular basis.
“Sometimes I get out of hand,” he says. “They tone me down.” It takes special tools and a lot of patience to produce the 16-item menu, one that is as fun and quirky as the jokester Wyatt is. They include a home-use, not industrial, blender, a dehydrator and a distiller for sauces.
The details
The menu is best enjoyed as a tasting experience for Dh550, but those who are curious can sample items à la carte as well. Quest is located on Level 63 of Jumeirah at Etihad Towers. Call 02 811 5666 or email jadrestaurants@jumeirah.com for more information and to book the Inspirational Asian Fine Dining experience.
amcqueen@thenational.ae
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
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.”
