If you’ve eaten in any of Dubai’s newest restaurants, you’ll know that eating out isn’t just about sitting at a table with a plate of food anymore. It’s as much about design and innovation as it is about flavour — think of the interior design of Zaroob, for example, or the blackboard and table settings at Tom and Serg, Silvena Rowe’s modern techniques applied to Emirati flavours at Omnia, or the food trucks at Kite Beach. Dubai is catching up with the rest of the world when it comes to forward-thinking dining, and the latest ideas can be found at this weekend’s Meet d3 event at Dubai Design District, where the F&B is as important as the fashion, art and design exhibits, with street stalls, food trucks, pop-up restaurants and international showcase installations — 24 outlet in total. Oh, and there’s a chewing gum factory, which sounds simply unmissable. We caught up with the curator of the F&B offering, Leith Matthews, co-founder of social dining platform Restronaut, to find out what not to miss at the three-day event.
Q. Why did you chose the outlets that you did?
A. As the d3 is set to become the region’s home for design, fashion, art and luxury, the district will also develop partnerships with the brightest talents from the food and beverage industry to deliver a world-class offering of restaurants and cafes, ranging from hip haute dining to passionate street food fare. The Meet d3 event shares this objective and will complement the installations of Fashion, Design, Art and Music with a line-up of trend-leading local and international restaurants and culinary wunderkinds.
Q. Do you think F&B has a role in the design world? Are we seeing design innovation applied to food, and if so, what are the trends?
A. Food and beverage concepts, like design, are always evolving. New concepts are launched all the time, but a rare combination of art and science is required to produce the winning formula of a successful restaurant. While trends come and go, the classic pillars of customer service and genuine hospitality remain fundamental to a successful F&B concept. I think successful design also tries to evolve and innovate, while remaining true to age old fundamental truths of form. Good design revolves and innovates around the user, and one of the food trends you’ll notice around Dubai right now is the growth and popularity of food trucks; they’re quirky, they’re functional and it looks like they’re here to stay!
Q. Bompas and Parr do many kinds of food experiences. Why was the chewing gum factory chosen for d3?
A. I have been a huge fan of Bompas & Parr for many years, and it’s a dream come true to be able to work with them to deliver a bespoke experience at the Meet d3 event. The Chewing Gum Factory is a fully immersive experience that allows the guest to express their creativity through the medium of taste. The flavour combination are endless [there are 200 flavours to be combined in any way the customer likes] and each and every person to pass through the factory will have created a totally individual tasting variety of gum. It’s fun, it’s hands-on and I think it’s a wonderful expression of the work of Bompas & Parr.
Don’t miss:
ANDY WAHLOO AND ALMAZ
The Moroccan-born pop artist Hassan Hajjaj and award-winning restaurateur Mourad ‘Momo’ Mazouz are known to create stunning food-art experiences. The duo behind the 2003 ‘Andy Wahloo’ bar-restaurant that took Paris by storm in 2003 is set to deliver yet another colourful culinary collaboration at Meet d3. Expect a truly unique dining experience in a whimsical restaurant decked out with Hajjaj’s trademark style of recycled North African objects, set to tantalising tastes by Momo.
THE BUBBLEGUM FACTORY
Sink your teeth into 40,000 flavour combinations at the Artisanal Chewing Gum Factory. Brought to Meet d3 by Bompas & Parr, the British food architects knows for the staging astonishing food events and ground-breaking concepts, the duo will be at hand at their pop-art of a booth to help you build your own unique gum.
