What is the Taste of Dubai?
A dining and entertainment hot spot with a line-up that includes celebrity chefs, home-grown restaurant concepts and family-friendly activities. In addition to Dubai’s top restaurants offering delicious food, there will also be entertainment ranging from fitness classes, beach football and open mic nights to farmers’ markets, children’s play areas and beach cinema.
Watch: Food lovers and culinary stars come together for Taste of Dubai. Catch us live from the Dubai Media City Amphitheatre
When is it?
Taste of Dubai is going on from March 9 to 11.
Where is it?
Dubai Media City Amphitheatre
Parking
There is ample parking all around media city, especially on weekends.
What are the entrance fees?
Entrance is Dh75 per person if you buy tickets online, Dh90 if you buy them at the door
Who can attend the event?
Taste of Dubai is a community event, suitable for all ages.
Participating Restaurants
22 restaurants are participating. These include:
1. Aubaine
2. Abyat
3. Big Easy Bar & Grill
4. Burger & Lobster
5. Carluccios
6. Carnival by Tresind
7. Catch
8. Cook Hall
9. Cucina
10. Fratelli La Bufala
11. GRK Fresh Greek
12. J&G Steakhouse
13. Lucky Voice
14. Namu
15. Olea
16. Ramusake
17. Royal Orchid
18. Sonamu
19. Spice & Ice
20. Teatro
21. The Gramercy
22. Weslodge
This is Taste of Dubai’s 10 year anniversary, so expect a great line up of cooking demos, activities and sumptuous food.
Participating Chefs
We sat down with Luke Thomas, one of Britain's youngest chefs, to talk about what he's up to for Taste of Dubai.
GN Guides: You started cooking and the young age of three years old. While other kids were playing video games, why did you choose to spend your time in the kitchen?
Luke Thomas: I suppose there were two key ages, where I realized that food was where I wanted my career to end up. At three years old I would spend time with my grandmother, who cooked really good comfort food. Cooking with her and the family was a big part of my life. We would grow our own food in the garden, walk to the butcher together and pick up fish at the market.
I was inspired by Jamie Oliver, who made food fun and cool and not so serious in the late 90s, which is when I knew that I would be a chef one day. I would sneak into professional kitchens while I was about 10 and cook with them, shadow them.
GN Guides: You're here in Dubai for the Food Festival, specifically Taste of Dubai. What will you be doing there?
Luke Thomas: Well, I'll be down there this weekend to do some cooking demos and a cookery school. So make sure you head down to try some of the food I'll be making.
GN Guides: What drew you to Dubai, when you were opening your second restaurant?
Luke Thomas: What I find very exciting about Dubai, is that you have a rich melting pot of global flavours. Dubai really does connect the world now, and that is not something to be ignored. Now heading up to 2020 there's going to be a lot more chefs coming to Dubai. When you look at things like Taste of Dubai, it really shows how important this region is for food.
GN Guides: So you've just launched a new menu, could you tell us a little more about it?
Luke Thomas: The whole focus here for us is taking old school favourites and comfort foods without taking them too seriously. Really simple cooking, classics that are made with good quality ingredients. Nothing overly fancy, really simple and real food that anyone can enjoy.
Other celebrity chefs include: Reza Mahammad, Gary Rhodes, Aldo Zilli, Eric Lanlard, Michel Roux Jr., Mohammad Orfali, Tarek Ibrahim, Jenny Morris and Joshua Stanzl.
Electrolux Chefs include: Tim Anderson, Paolo Pettenuzzo and Zahra Abdalla
Restaurant Chefs include: Daniel Ferreira, Jihun Maxime Kim, Darren Hall, Omar Omara and Mohamed Jamal Al Din.
