Dr Jon Craig is a man of refined tastes and a precision-driven outlook to life. After all he is an acupuncturist by profession. Alex Westcott invites him for lunch at the Certo, Radisson SAS Hotel to know more
Should you ask the person you are inviting to lunch for his food preferences? Or should you let a sense of adventure be the guide? Etiquette says opt for the former and so it is that I ask Dr Jon Craig to state his choices. He comes up with three suggestions and it is clear that he is man who is on intimate terms with good food.
We decide on Certo at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Dubai Media City. The restaurant inspires easy conversation. The setting is relaxed and unpretentious yet elegant. We're welcomed by Giovanni – a true blue Italian – which makes the welcome extremely authentic. I comment on this. "He's not really from Italy," says Craig. "He's from South London." I pause for a moment, my ever-present gullibility expressing itself as a "Really?" A heartbeat later, Craig says, "No. Not really." It's a good icebreaker.
A doc with a wicked sense of humour. Now that's an interesting combination. (Dr Jon Craig works at the American Hospital in Dubai.)
We take our seats and five minutes into the conversation I can see how Craig's the good doctor. Mellow, with an easy air about him, his demeanor helps you relax in his presence and his sharp sense of humour makes it easy to forget that this is an interview. From the get-go, he opens an appreciative registry of restaurants I have to try.
"There are so many good hotels and restaurants in Dubai but occasionally you find these little pockets... that have amazing food, a great atmosphere and are good value."
Why did he choose Italian? "I appreciate the passion that goes into Italian food. It's all about the ingredients – there's no apparent effort to it and there's nothing artificial about it either. You just can't have a pretentious Italian restaurant – it's not part of their make-up!" he says.
It is now his turn to ask me a question. Am I a 'foodie'? I confess that my culinary lingo is somewhat limited.
And before my limitations form the better part of my confession, I steer the conversation into the express lane of eating and enjoyment. To which he says, "Dining for me is a family affair. My wife and I always take our kids along to restaurants. I think in the UK particularly, there's a horrible non-family-friendliness to good restaurants. I've been to several restaurants where we arrive and the waiters and waitresses are in a tizz because they don't have anything on the menu for children. But in parts of Europe as well as in Dubai, we've found that really good restaurants welcome children to dine as well and I think that's great."
Is he a good cook? A smile plays on his face that can be translated as a can-you-guess? Then he reveals, "I'd say I'm a… keen cook. I think I've learnt as I've gotten older that (cooking) is not about messing around by trying to coordinate scores of different culinary processes. I think it's about paying attention to your ingredients and then putting them together carefully. Do simple things but do them well.
"Most of us don't have enough time when we come home from work to spend three hours making a gourmet dish – that's what we go to posh restaurants for! When I come home, I know what I want. All I need to know is how to cook it just the way I want it and I'm absolutely satisfied.
"Now in Dubai, my hours are quite different so I don't get to cook as much. But in a way this is a good thing because it's got my wife, Natalie, back in the kitchen experimenting with cooking again. Unfortunately, eating as a family doesn't happen as often as I would like, but we try to make a point of doing it at least once a week, whether it's at a restaurant or at home.
"I think most people never really learn how to cook properly and that's why they end up eating very processed foods when, in fact, no one has to resort to that." The doctor in him mentions the high rate of diabetes in the region. "Sixty per cent," he says. "And that's from (having) poor nutritional values. So many people who come to me have no idea about what they should be eating. It's really an enormous concern!"
At this point our waitress, who has been visiting our table frequently to check on our orders, reappears. We apologise for being so distracted and turn to the task at hand: deciding on what to eat. Craig chooses tuna carpaccio as a starter and seabass as his main, while I go for the beef carpaccio and Giovanni's recommendation of the mushroom risotto.
I ask the doctor if he's a risotto man. "I love to make risotto. I tend to shy away from carbohydrates as I can put on weight easily.
I try and avoid having too much rice, bread and pasta, even though I love it. Like all Italian food, risotto is just so gutsy. A yellow risotto that is cooked with butter and Parmesan with saffron is really good stuff. Also you just can't beat homemade pasta! My wife and I on our first Christmas together were home alone, so we decided to make that Christmas a whole day of culinary delights.
We started with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs at 10.30am and ended up having Christmas pudding at 10.30pm. Somewhere during our indulgent extravagance we decided to make ravioli with porcini mushrooms and cream. It was beautiful; except for the fact that it was the first time I'd ever tried making pasta. I didn't roll it out thin enough, so the ravioli went in at a normal size and came out the size of large dinner plates! I didn't quite catch on back then that pasta absorbs water," he laughs.
I direct the conversation to his background. "Ah, the good old biography," he says. "I like this! As a doctor I'm usually the one firing questions. It's good to be on the other side for once!" He talks about his growing up in the UK, enrolling at medical school at Manchester University, joining the Royal Air Force and working in aviation medicine for nine years... He has two children – a six-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl. After living in the UK, they moved to New Zealand for two years.
Dr Craig's extended family is based in the UK – a significant part of the reason why they returned there. Then the credit crunch hit. Craig was offered a position at American Hospital and they moved to Dubai seven months ago. "We're relatively sheltered here from the financial storm so we're able to lead a reasonably good life while everyone else around the world is panicking," says Craig. "I also love knowing that being in Dubai means that my kids and my wife are in a safe environment. We feel very safe and secure here in the UAE.''
Craig says that he is more of a country boy and while enjoying Dubai, he knows that he won't live in a city forever. "People come for their reasons and more often than not leave for their reasons. But in a way there is this sense of community because expatriates comprise such a large portion of the UAE's population. Everyone's connected by this commonality of being from somewhere else.
One day I hope to return to New Zealand and own a home by the sea." Have his kids adjusted to all this moving around? "When you move somewhere new you don't have to worry about kids. They will just make the best of their environment. It's adults who have problems. Children have no expectations and no preconceived ideas. My son and daughter study alongside Australians, Dutch, Kenyans, Ethiopians, Iranians... and they don't think anything of it. Everyone in the class brings with them their experiences of the world and the classroom becomes one big melting pot. I think it's wonderful," says Craig.
We're served our carpaccios and they are a sight to behold. "Now isn't that a pretty picture," he says, admiring the thinly-sliced tuna amidst rocket and a golden drizzle of olive oil with a smattering of ground black pepper. There's well deserved silence for the next few minutes as we savour the flavours. I don't normally eat tuna but this time I brave a forkful and let me tell you – I am a changed person.
We move on to talk of the organic movement. "I think there's organic and there's 'organic'," Craig says.
"I think organic is about the honest production of food. In New Zealand, we get everything locally. I try to support local producers as much as possible. The thing with supermarkets worldwide is that they want everything to be so perfect that they often forget that the most important part is the nutritional value of what is going into the packaging."
He has a particular interest in acupuncture: "It's astounding that plain needles inserted into the skin can cure migraines, muscle injuries, addictions and the like. I've been doing it for seven years now and I'm a strong advocate of it," he says.
We're served our main and after the first spoonful of my risotto, I want to stand up and applaud. I wish we could do that in restaurants which serve wonderful food without looking funny. I sensed a similar desire on the doctor's behalf as he savours the seabass.
I decide to ask no more questions till we are done with the main course. The food is worthy of pure concentration. So I tell him I am sorry I am plying him with so many questions.
Perhaps they are interfering with his enjoyment of the food? "Don't apologise," he says. "I usually eat too quickly so you're helping me by getting me to talk so I can slow down! I caught this bad habit of wolfing down lunch when I was in the RAF. Also, being a doctor, I'll have eaten one or two chips and my beeper will go off and then I have to grab what I can and charge off!"
By the end of our main, we've talked and eaten ourselves to satiation. But coffee is a must. But before the caffeine intake comes a delightful surprise – a beautiful (and thankfully small) strawberry meringue surrounded by a ring of golden spun sugar. Mmmmm... It also has our respectives first names spelt out in chocolate sauce. We cannot possibly eat one more bite, can we? But one look at the gorgeous dessert and we both pick up our spoons. "It's just too heartbreaking to leave such beautiful food behind," says the doctor. I couldn't agree more.
– Alex Westcott is Sub Editor/Writer, Friday
