Fire, flavour and a rooftop warm-up: Meeting the chefs before Taste of Abu Dhabi

Food festivals tend to be judged by their opening day: The queues, the noise, the first plates handed over the counter. Much of what makes them work, though, happens the night before, when the cooks meet without an audience.

Last night, on the rooftop of the WB Abu Dhabi, Curio Collection by Hilton, the chefs of Taste of Abu Dhabi had that evening to themselves. The sun went down over Yas Island, and the conversation turned to the days ahead: what they planned to cook, what they hoped to share, and who would be coming to watch.

The view from the headliner’s table

Celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo has done this kind of event many times, and it shows in how relaxed he is. Even so, he talks about Abu Dhabi with something closer to gratitude than routine.

“Being in Abu Dhabi, where you get the best international chefs in the world, is a privilege for me,” he said. Then he gave a more practical reason he values the event. Top chefs spend most of their working lives in their own kitchens, he explained, and seldom see each other. “We don’t often get the chance to spend time with chefs who come from all over the world,” he said. “We can talk about new ideas, new food trends. I just love it.”

What he values most, though, isn’t the time with other chefs. It’s the time with the public. Television reaches millions of people, but it doesn’t let them talk back. Festivals do. “When the fans come in and chat to me, ask for pictures, ask me culinary questions, that’s the direct contact I don’t often get,” he said. For a chef whose career has largely been built on screen, that personal contact is the main draw. “Taste of Abu Dhabi,” he said, “is the perfect way to do it.”

A Frenchman, a backyard, and a lot of sun

Chef Frederic Casagrande’s way into cooking had more to do with weather than with training.

He grew up in Northern France, which he described simply: “very windy, cold, rainy.” In 2008 he moved to the UAE and found himself with something he’d never had before. “I suddenly had a backyard and 365 days of sun,” he said. “So I started grilling.”

He’s quick to add that he was bad at it, and he says so without embarrassment. Like most people who get good at something, he improved slowly, through repetition and a lot of mistakes. Over time he developed his own techniques and started entering competitions. Since 2023 he has been the UAE Barbecue Champion. He also founded Smoking Beards, a barbecue rub company, and he has appeared at almost every edition of Taste of Dubai and Taste of Abu Dhabi since he won the title.

As he started out as a struggling amateur, his advice is aimed at beginners rather than at people who already know what they’re doing. “A lot of people are reluctant to start because they think it’s too complicated,” he said. “Go for it, play, and eventually you’ll make something amazing for your guests, your family and your friends.”

He does draw one technical distinction. Low and slow is the world of smoking and long cooking. Hot and fast is grilling over high heat for a short time. Each suits different meats, fish and vegetables, and the skill is in matching the method to the food.

Asked what people most often get wrong, he didn’t name a temperature, a cut or a piece of equipment. He named a habit.

“Patience,” he said. People rarely give the meat or fish enough time on the heat to do what it needs to do.

Exit 10 BBQ: a smoker that started as a crayon drawing

Hunter Burkall and Dave Kimmerly of Exit 10 BBQ have been friends for 20 years. They met through their earlier careers in security consulting, they are godparents to each other’s children, and the business began as a country band, with Hunter on guitar. The name comes from the highway exit for the farming town where Hunter grew up, cooking over fire on a beef farm.

The company itself started during COVID. Hunter had been smoking briskets in Thailand with his son and wanted a smoker at home in the UAE so the two could keep bonding over it the way he had with his own father. He brought what he calls a “Homer-with-a-crayon” sketch to Dave, “the smartest engineer I know,” and Dave turned it into a real design.

They say they are now the only barbecue maker whose equipment is designed and built entirely in the UAE.

Even their lighter pieces weigh around 400 kilos of steel, and the biggest is about 2.3 tonnes. Their link to Taste of Abu Dhabi goes back to Frederic Casagrande, who asked them to build him a specialised grill, and the festival now feels “like a holiday” to them. This year they are running two classes a day built around their motto of family, food and fun, and parents are encouraged to bring their kids to learn how to cook with fire.

What comes next

For the next three days, the chefs from last night’s rooftop will be at Gateway Park, cooking for the public.

Taste of Abu Dhabi runs 13–15 November at Gateway Park, Yas Island.