If you need further evidence that Dubai’s food scene has reached a tipping point, consider the fact that Jason Atherton, the star UK chef who has dozens of restaurants around the world, is coming to open a restaurant in Dubai Marina later this year.
Another celebrity chef in town? So what, you might say.
Atherton is a celebrity chef with a difference, because at one time he was a fairly anonymous chef working in a hotel on the Dubai Creek. Now he’s a restaurant megastar, and I’d imagine a source of not a small amount of inspiration for the chefs cooking behind the scenes in Dubai’s many kitchens.
Atherton, of course, was always supremely talented, which is why Gordon Ramsay sent him to work at his erstwhile restaurant Verre in the early 2000s. After four years and a love story (more on that later), he headed back to Ramsay HQ in London, then left to set up his own group.
Now, he’s finally coming full circle with Marina Social in the InterContinental Dubai Marina (opening in May). Before that, he’s meeting fans and cooking at the Dubai Food Festival (DFF) Beach Canteen on Kite Beach, February 26-28. We caught up with him before his visit.
What will you be you doing at DFF?
I’m super excited to be coming to Dubai to start introducing our food to the local market and for people to get excited about what we can produce and what we’re going to unveil at Marina Social. It’s very much like Taste of London where we get to interact with the consumer, have fun, give some books away. We’re in the middle of choosing dishes at the moment. We’re in a container, even though it’s an air conditioned container, so we’ve got to be careful what we do. It’s got to be food that can hold, food we can do quite quickly. So we are looking at two cold starters, one hot main course and one main dessert.
When is Marina Social opening?
September 1 will be the opening date. Me, my wife and my two kids are moving out in the beginning of August, just when it’s nice and hot [laughs]. We made a conscious decision to open after Ramadan, everyone goes away, it’s too hot. So we decided to wait and get the real rush when everyone comes back.
Is this a permanent move for the family?
We’re coming over because it’s a dream of ours to open a restaurant in Dubai. We come once or twice a year on vacation anyway, we hang out, we have a lot of friends and I get to play golf with all my old buddies. We spent four years there so we have a lot of connections. Dubai is a massive international city now, we go to La Petite Maison, we always go there, we went to Coya for New Year’s Eve.
Since you were here working last, the dining scene has changed dramatically. How do you feel about coming back into a new culinary world?
Every time we open a restaurant in any part of the world, we look for a city where you already have a strong pedigree of restaurants because it means you have to work that much harder to get your concept right. You’ve already got La Petite Maison, Zuma Group, Jean-Georges [Vongerichten] is about to open [at the Four Seasons], there’s rumours Alain Ducasse is coming into town, you’ve got Wolfgang Puck, and home-grown talent. It’s great to see people like Greg Malouf in town. When I lived there, there were like 600,000 people and it had the promises of being an international city. Now it’s fulfilled those promises.
Tell us about the restaurant.
It’s going to be very much a cool place to hang out, really beautiful, in the Social grain, in the fact that the restaurant can be whatever you want it to be. If you want to come in and have a cup of tea, you can do that. If you want to come and have a dessert, or a tasting menu, or with your family on the weekend for three-four hours, or on a Thursday night, we’ll have a DJ booth in the bar.
Who’s in the kitchen?
Tristan Farmer is executive chef. He took over the reins for me at Maze for Gordon Ramsay and held a Michelin star while there.
Do you go to any of your old Dubai haunts?
We spent a lot of time on the creek, and when me and my wife were courting we used to spend a lot of time at the Art Cafe in Bastakiya. We often go back and reminisce and explain to our eldest daughter, who is fascinated about our love story. It’s proper old Dubai.
You’ve got 19 restaurants in London, New York, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and now Dubai. When do you say “that’s enough”?
We’re probably getting there now. We grow to 25 restaurants over the next four years. I had a lot of great chefs working for me during my period with Gordon and a lot came with me when I launched my own company. Out of respect for them I wanted them to have their own kitchens. We made each chef a partner in the business so they would benefit from the restaurant if it’s successful. I still cook every lunch and dinner when I’m in London at Pollen Street, and when I’m out in Dubai you’ll see me with my chef’s jacket on in the kitchen.
What about cooking at home?
We cook Filipino food quite a bit. I cook it, [my wife’s] mum teaches me stuff, adobo, lechon, all sorts of things.
