For anyone who has ever taken up the challenge of eating an extra hot chilli, or has wanted to grill the perfect steak, or simply indulged in the UAE’s gastronomic fare, Friday marks the start of a food festival running for nearly a month in Dubai.
The inaugural Dubai Food Festival kicks off with a two-day carnival in Festival City this weekend, featuring celebrity chefs, cooking competitions, food tents and live entertainment ranging from stand-up comedy to musical performances.
The extravaganza continues with the five-day Gulfood trade show starting on Sunday, tasting events throughout the city over the coming weeks, themed lunches and demonstrations during next month’s Festival of Literature and culminates with the seventh annual Taste of Dubai event from March 13 to 15.
Laila Suhail, the chief executive of Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment, which has organised the month of festivities together with Dubai’s tourism department, says: “As Dubai’s profile as a regional and international arts and media hub continues to grow, so does its culinary credentials.”
Helal Saeed Al Marri, the director general of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, adds: “Dubai’s status as a culinary destination is one that has risen considerably in recent years and the creation of a citywide food festival will enhance this further. It provides a chance for us to share Emirati culture, cuisine and hospitality with the world.”
This weekend’s carnival will launch the festival. Organised by Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), it will feature seven celebrity chefs, including the BBC TV cook Silvena Rowe, Sanjeev Kapoor of Signature restaurant in the Melia Dubai hotel, the MasterChef judge John Torode and stars of the Fatafeat cookery channel.
They will be doing cookery demonstrations on stage while the Great Yalla barbecue competition will pit teams from 20 meat-loving nations including South Africa, Germany and France against each other in a grilling contest. Another contest, with the name Beat the Heat, will dare contestants to try the ghost pepper, one of the hottest chillies in the world.
A section called Little Greenfingers will give schoolchildren a chance to show off vegetables they have grown and there will be sumo wrestling, comedy shows, performances of capoeira and percussion groups using kitchen utensils.
It will be followed the next weekend with the Big Grill, dubbed a two-day “celebration of meat and music” at Emirates Golf Club.
Trixie LohMirmand, the senior vice president of exhibitions and events for DWTC, says the carnival was created to offer the public a chance to join in a food-themed event as Gulfood is limited to traders.
“Gulfood is only accessible to business and industry professionals, but we received tremendous feedback from the public clamouring for food events,” she says. “A lot of the events are built around family experiences with competitions, opportunities to learn and entertainment.”
Silvena Rowe
The Bulgarian-born chef, who moved to Dubai to explore her fascination with Arabic food, will be running a pop-up restaurant at this weekend’s event called Carnival Rowe.
“I have such a passion for, and feel so strongly about, using local and organic produce,” she says.
“By exploring local resources, I found a wealth of amazing produce.”
She set herself the strict challenge of sourcing nearly all the ingredients for Carnival Rowe from within 50 kilometres of Dubai. They include lamb, vegetables, fruit and even truffles, although she declines to say where they are grown.
The Dh225 four-course menu will include vegetables with a black truffle sabayon, Emirati-style marinated slow-cooked lamb, a gluten-free dark chocolate and hazelnut cake and the Arabic dessert mouhalabieh.
“Local produce is beautiful. It was extremely difficult but I am working with some very good people. I want people to experience the best of the best,” she says.
“It will be a celebration of local flavours.”
Tickets must be bought in advance at www.dubaifoodcarnival.com.
Manal Al Alem
Manal Al Alem’s rich cuisine is a reflection of her diverse upbringing. A Palestinian born in Lebanon, she grew up in Saudi Arabia and studied in Egypt.
She moved to Kuwait when she got married 20 years ago but found the dishes she tried to recreate from her childhood never turned out perfectly.
Al Alem says a dearth of Arabic cookbooks and television shows led her to teach herself by going into professional kitchens and asking chefs for their recipes.
“I wanted to cook but I did not know how,” she says. “I started learning different cuisines and trialling dishes.”
Al Alem now appears on her own show on Abu Dhabi TV, Manal Al Alem’s Kitchen, and has published several cookbooks of her own.
She runs a cookery school in Kuwait and plans to stage culinary demonstrations throughout the weekend at Dubai Food Carnival.
“I want to show audiences realistic dishes they can go home and cook themselves,” she says.
“I teach the basics. Mine is not a cookery show, it is a learning show. When you have raw materials before you and can transform them into something real, that makes you and others happy.”
Tarek Ibrahim
Ibrahim is instantly recognisable as the face of the Fatafeat television shows Min Misr, 100 Lahma and 100 Makarona. With his tendency to burst into song during his programmes, he has become one of the channel’s most popular stars.
Born in Egypt, he moved to the United States at the age of 20 to study as a pilot but realised he was enjoying his part-time job in a restaurant kitchen more. He earned his commercial pilot’s licence but abandoned the cockpit for the kitchen. “I relied on what I had seen my mother do and then kept expanding on it,” he says.
He opened a bakery in Minnesota in 1984 and went on to open five more restaurants blending eastern and western influences before becoming a cookery teacher.
His TV career began eight years ago in Egypt, before he was spotted by Fatafeat when he moved to Dubai.
“It has been unbelievable,” says Ibrahim, who will be judging the Great Yalla competition and cooking with taro root on stage.
The award-winning cook was recently honoured by the World Association of Chefs Societies.
• Tickets for Dubai’s Food Carnival, running from 10am to 11pm on Friday and Saturday, cost Dh60. Children under 12 enter for free. For more details, visit www.dubaifoodcarnival.com and www.dubaifoodfestival.com
