Dubai: At the plush Armani hotel in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, a rabbi switches on the stoves at what is billed as Dubai's first kosher restaurant. With the ink still fresh on the United Arab Emirates' landmark normalisation accord with Israel, restaurants and caterers are rushing to prepare for what they hope will be a flood of Jewish visitors arriving on new direct flights.
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Businesses hoping to cash in on the new market must overcome challenges including building kosher kitchens, training staff and sourcing appropriate foodstuffs. "We have been training our staff for months," said Fabien Fayolle, the chef at the upscale 40-seat Armani/Kaf, one of a cluster of restaurants in the luxury hotel. Until local suppliers begin servicing the new market in the UAE though, "our main challenge will be obtaining the ingredients," he said of the lavishly priced international menu which includes items adapted to make them compatible with kosher rules.
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As well as requiring a Jewish person to switch on the cooking stoves and supervise a restaurant kitchen, the rules governing kosher food prohibit consumption of meat from certain animals and sea creatures, as well as the mixing of meat and dairy products. Rabbi Levi Duchman, who certified the Armani/Kaf, said he has received requests from "dozens of restaurants in the Emirates that want to offer kosher dishes".
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At the Dubai restaurant, the stoves can be turned on by a rabbi remotely using a mobile application, and the cooking monitored by cameras.
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Elli Kriel is the pioneer of kosher cuisine in the Emirates.
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Rabbi Yaakov Eisenstein (L) supervises the preparation of food Elli's Kosher Kitchen, in Dubai.
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She has been running Elli's Kosher Kitchen for the past two years, born out of the need for Jewish travellers to remain observant while in the UAE. Her business got underway in November 2018 when she was asked to provide meals for rabbis attending an interfaith meeting in the capital Abu Dhabi. "From there, word spread and I started getting more and more requests," she said.
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"The challenge of running a kosher kitchen in the UAE is that.. there is high demand" following the normalisation agreement. "But the industry is not really set up for that - it is really hard to get a lot of products, especially the meats and the cheeses," she said. However, import channels are now being established, Kriel added.
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"And in terms of actually opening a kitchen, you can open one but then you need to have a rabbi with you and there aren't many here, so we had to bring one in for this specific task," she said of the rabbi who supervises her kitchen full-time.
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Rabbi Yaakov Eisenstein (R) supervises the preparation of food Elli's Kosher Kitchen, in Dubai.
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