Long after the last dessert has been eaten at the closing Awards Gala Dinner on Thursday evening, the effects of Gourmet Abu Dhabi will be felt across the region. Particularly among the host chefs who shared their kitchens as part of the Epicurean Promotions, with the guests who attended the special tasting dinners (which were unique, multi-coursed affairs) and for those who were introduced to new techniques and ingredients at one of the many culinary masterclasses that were held as part of the event.
These were a particular highlight. They provided a fantastic opportunity to watch established chefs working at close quarters, sharing their ideas, tips and recipes and plating up ambitious-looking dishes, which were later condensed (sometimes painstakingly) into canapé-sized form, for the audience to taste.
From modern Japanese-style cooking to French fusion and classic Italian peppered with Asian influences, the stage at the Armed Forces Officers Club and Hotel has seen it all over the past two weeks. Many of the dishes produced required a level of dexterity and skill (not to mention fancy equipment) beyond the scope of the home cook, but there were also plenty of insider tips for audience members to hastily scribble down.
Marike van Beurden is the head pastry chef at Caprice, a three Michelin-starred restaurant in Hong Kong and, as you can imagine, her creations were highly technical. Yet, there was also much to take away from this class. As part of one of her dishes, Van Beurden prepared a ganache, a simple, versatile sauce made from melted chocolate and warm cream which can be used as a glaze, whipped with more cream to create a filling for cakes or chilled and rolled into truffles. When melting the chocolate, she advised stirring it with a spoon rather than whisk (to stop the mixture from becoming aerated), and said that to prevent the chocolate from seizing (hardening and becoming grainy) it was important that the cream was almost boiling when it was added. She also suggested doing this gradually, stirring well between each addition, to give the ganache a smooth, glossy finish.
If you prefer a lighter style of dessert, then earlier on in the week the Italian two Michelin-starred chef Claudio Sadler made watermelon water-ice. This is easier to prepare than it sounds and doesn't require an ice cream machine. Simply chop and deseed a kilo of watermelon and place in a blender, add caster sugar to taste and blitz to a liquid. Pour into a cold bowl or dish and freeze for an hour, until ice crystals start to form. Remove the bowl from the freezer and scrape the frozen pieces back into the mixture, return to the freezer and repeat every hour, until the mixture is frozen with a fluffy, crystalline texture. Serve the watermelon ice on its own as a refreshing dessert or palate cleanser, or spoon over fruit.
Ryan Clift is an ambitious, experimental chef and his recipes included ingredients such as xanthan gum, malic acid and ultra tex 4 (a thickening agent. Having said that, he made a delicious and simple eight-spice powder which filled the room with a powerful, warm, sweet aroma.
The recipe requires: 50g each of star anise, cinnamon, juniper berries and cardamom, 10g each of cloves and salt, 5g of freshly ground pepper and saffron is added to taste. Pour the spices into a hot, dry pan and toast for 4-6 minutes, shaking the pan every so often, until they smell very aromatic. Allow to cool slightly, transfer to a blender and blitz to a powder. Pass through a fine sieve and store in an airtight container. Clift suggested using the eight-spice to season chicken or duck or, if you're feeling decadent, you could follow his example and sprinkle it over foie gras.
Speaking of luxury foodstuffs, when you splash out on expensive ingredients it is important to make the most of them. So, if you find yourself preparing a lobster dish from scratch, then Tetsuya Wakuda advises quickly and humanely killing the crustacean, before removing the tail and claws and blanching them in rapidly boiling water for 30 seconds. This, he says, will make it much easier to remove the meat from the shell in one piece. When you do come to cook the lobster, Alain Solivérès - a chef renowned for his flawlessly presented food - suggests tying two lobster tails together with kitchen string (flat sides facing each other, with a butter knife between them) in order to keep them perfectly straight.
Another useful tip from Solivérès involved blanching tomatoes. To remove the skin quickly and easily, he advises making a small cross in the base of the fruit with a sharp knife before adding them to a pan of rapidly boiling water (for no longer than 20 seconds). The tomatoes should then be plunged into iced water, to stop the cooking process. The skin can now be peeled away easily.
Anthony Genovese likes to mix Asian and Italian flavours and when preparing his risotto dish he coated slices of ginger and baby aubergine in a tempura batter. He said that the secret to a really airy batter is to lightly combine rice flour with a splash of ice-cold sparkling water and mix sparingly. The result was golden, airy and crisp and is a tip to try at home. He also informed the audience that if a recipe requires buffalo mozzarella and it isn't available, then taleggio makes a good substitute.
As you can see, these classes provided a wealth of culinary information. They were free to attend, but required registration and unsurprisingly, places filled up fast. If you are interested in food and cooking, then I strongly advise securing yourself a spot next year.
The Awards Gala dinner takes place tomorrow night at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr and will see various restaurants and individuals in the Food and Beverage sector recognised with "Abu Dhabi Gourmet Stars". Tickets are still available, Dh1,950 per person.
The specs
Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder
Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
Torque: 350 and 360Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT
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.”
Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAlmouneer%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dr%20Noha%20Khater%20and%20Rania%20Kadry%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEgypt%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E120%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBootstrapped%2C%20with%20support%20from%20Insead%20and%20Egyptian%20government%2C%20seed%20round%20of%20%3Cbr%3E%243.6%20million%20led%20by%20Global%20Ventures%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
- Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
- Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
- Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
WHAT%20MACRO%20FACTORS%20ARE%20IMPACTING%20META%20TECH%20MARKETS%3F
%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Looming%20global%20slowdown%20and%20recession%20in%20key%20economies%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Russia-Ukraine%20war%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Interest%20rate%20hikes%20and%20the%20rising%20cost%20of%20debt%20servicing%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Oil%20price%20volatility%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Persisting%20inflationary%20pressures%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Exchange%20rate%20fluctuations%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Shortage%20of%20labour%2Fskills%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20A%20resurgence%20of%20Covid%3F%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3EFounder%3A%20Hani%20Abu%20Ghazaleh%3Cbr%3EBased%3A%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20with%20an%20office%20in%20Montreal%3Cbr%3EFounded%3A%202018%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20Virtual%20Reality%3Cbr%3EInvestment%20raised%3A%20%241.2%20million%2C%20and%20nearing%20close%20of%20%245%20million%20new%20funding%20round%3Cbr%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%2012%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
UAE SQUAD FOR ASIAN JIU-JITSU CHAMPIONSHIP
Men’s squad: Faisal Al Ketbi, Omar Al Fadhli, Zayed Al Kathiri, Thiab Al Nuaimi, Khaled Al Shehhi, Mohamed Ali Al Suwaidi, Farraj Khaled Al Awlaqi, Muhammad Al Ameri, Mahdi Al Awlaqi, Saeed Al Qubaisi, Abdullah Al Qubaisi and Hazaa Farhan
Women's squad: Hamda Al Shekheili, Shouq Al Dhanhani, Balqis Abdullah, Sharifa Al Namani, Asma Al Hosani, Maitha Sultan, Bashayer Al Matrooshi, Maha Al Hanaei, Shamma Al Kalbani, Haya Al Jahuri, Mahra Mahfouz, Marwa Al Hosani, Tasneem Al Jahoori and Maryam Al Amri
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5