Matt Preston on chicken wings and the taste of home
'Taste of Dubai is a great excuse for me to come to the city,' he says
As the sun went down, the sounds of giggling children, music and conversations got louder. And in the middle of all of this, at Taste of Dubai – which ran at Dubai Media City Amphitheatre from the 6-8 February - those who got into the masterclass led by food writer-critic-and-Masterchef judge Matt Preston took notes on how to make the best chicken wings in an air fryer. “The secret,” he explained, “is coating the chicken in baking powder 24 hours earlier. It drains the chicken of moisture, leaving it super crunchy.”
At 64, Preston cuts an imposing figure with his salt and pepper hair and beard. A Taste of Dubai regular, he says: “It's a great excuse for me to come to Dubai.”
He was also at Taste of Abu Dhabi last year and says: “There's something really good about being able to do both festivals and compare the two cities. They're very different. I like the way they're both developed in different ways, and kind of how things are changing. I like coming to discover the food, which is one of the great things here, to ask 40 people what's their favourite place. And the weather is heaven.”
He recalls a stint shooting for Masterchef in the country in 2014 in June. “It’s the only time I ever remember my shins sweating,” he jokes.
It’s also a chance, he says to witness the rapid development of the city and how it has shifted its focus – from global to local cuisine. “I love this kind of growth and confidence in celebrating Emirati food. I always used to find it weird that I go to Hyderabad and there'd be more restaurants selling Emirati food, like mandi chicken, than there were in Dubai. So it's great to come in and now see this kind of emerging pride in the traditional food, traditional Emirati cuisine, because there's some great dishes, like the mandi.”
Finding local cuisine that hits the spot can be an adventure. Preston believes often the best food comes from the simplest places. “It doesn't matter where you are, whether you're in Portugal or India… sometimes food can often be seen as an expression of fashion or status or bling, and that's not necessarily the best tasting – It may look great on Instagram, but is it food for the soul? No.”
In Dubai, it’s tricky trying to find authentic cuisine. “Dubai is such a hodgepodge of people. If you're two Iranian brothers who moved here 50 years ago and started making kebabs, and you've become famous for your kebabs here and there. They reflect your background, but they also play homage to where you are. Orfali is a great example. You’ve got so many influences of Aleppo and of Turkey in their cuisine, but it's but it's a restaurant you can only find in Dubai because of those things.
“I think that whole thing about cross pollination of ideas and people and migration is really exciting in terms of creating new cuisine.”
The food draws back to rose-coloured memories of what you ate as a child – warm and fuzzy inducing yet not the same.
For me, “I find it bizarrely with cereal and really cold milk. And, my mother makes really good sourdough, so she makes jelly. So jelly, spread on sourdough. That's kind of the flavour of home.”
