Caviar
You can go out for caviar to many of the country’s fine dining establishments, but if you’d prefer to sample sturgeon roe in the privacy of your home, call one of the caviar chauffeurs from newly launched AmStur Caviar. The chauffeurs not only deliver your chilled gift box of caviar and mother-of-pearl spoon — they are caviar experts who can advise you on how to store, handle and eat caviar. Also in the gift boxes is a gel-ice liner that keeps the caviar cold for up to eight hours and an engraved stainless-steel caviar tin opener. A 30g tin of AmStur Select grade premium caviar starts at Dh330.
Customised
We love these handmade chopping boards from The Joinery Shop Dubai. Made from bamboo (sustainable!) they can be customised with any message – or even a recipe. Pieces include the round hotpad, Dh99; small chopping boards, Dh90 and the large chopping boards Dh220. Order from Littlemajlis.com.
Gadget
Ever wondered how the expensive green juices you buy are so smooth? It’s down to the process they use – massive machines called cold-press juicers. Now that technology – also called slow press – is coming to a worktop near you. Kenwood’s PureJuice crushes fruit and vegetables against a sieve to extract juice, unlike typical centrifugal juices. The spiel says slow juicing doesn’t heat up the juice, retaining more nutrients, and also extracts more juice. Independent tests by Which? showed slow juicers are better that centrifuges for juicing greens and retaining their vitamins, so this is a great buy for the kale-lover in the household. From Dh999 at Jashanmal stores.
Chocolate
Mirzam is a must-visit for anyone shopping for the chocoholic in their life. Their new collection is called Winter in Morocco, a range of five bars made on-site at the chocolate factory in Alserkal, and wrapped in paper designed by Aziza Iqbal (the flavours are white chocolate infused with saffron (Dh43); white chocolate with roasted almond and orange blossom (Dh41); 52 per cent dark milk chocolate with sea salt (Dh39); 62 per cent dark chocolate with Moroccan mint tea (Dh39); and 62 per cent dark chocolate with prunes and ras al hanout (Dh41). A five-bar multipack is Dh206, and you can pack them in handmade Moroccan hampers or wrap them in paper based on Aziza’s design (Dh9 per sheet).
Cooking classes
If you’ve got a budding baker in your midst, bring out their passion with sessions from Scafa in JLT. Single pastry classes are Dh500; a package of five is Dh2,250. They take place on Saturday mornings at 10am. In Abu Dhabi, head to the Sheraton’s La Mamma restaurant for their Italian cooking classes; the next sessions are on January 14 and 28, priced Dh159 plus tax. Cooking@Home organises group or private hands-on classes (Dh230) and demos (Dh180), and also sells gift vouchers (Dh300+); go to cookingathome.website.
The top five Cookbooks
Two of our favourite TV chefs have finally put pen to paper for new tomes. Alton Brown, it’s been too long. The guy who makes food science sexy is back with EveryDayCook, a book whose photography has been done entirely on his iPhone. It’s a compendium of recipes he actually cooks (or so he says).
We all know the real star of Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa TV show is her husband Jeffrey. Their loving relationship (they’ve been married for 48 years) is the sweetest thing on a show that specialises in sugar highs. Now Ina’s made it legit with her new book, Cooking For Jeffrey.
Anthony Bourdain is a chef and food TV star, but he’s not a TV cook. He’s the guy that goes out for Vietnamese food with Barack Obama as part of his world tours. He does, however, write cookbooks, and Appetites, released this autumn, is his first since 2004. The recipes are personal.
Jamie Oliver continues his mission to improve our eating with Super Food Family Classics, based on his TV series in which he studied healthy cultures and translated the findings into family food.
More ‘healthy’ food comes to us from Los Angeles, with a tome from Jessica Koslow, the chef of Sqirl, the Cali-fine-dining-diner. Everything I Want To Eat is the book for the person who only puts Instagram down to turn on the stove.
