The first time I met Salam Dakkak, we were both reaching for the last canape at the Michelin Guide Dubai unveiling ceremony in June. Despite my protests, she graciously insisted I eat it (“Feeding people is what I do, after all,” she says), admitting she was a touch nervous about whether her restaurant, Bait Maryam, would be acknowledged at the star-studded event.
She needn’t have worried. Not only was Dakkak’s restaurant one of 14 in Michelin’s Bib Gourmand category, but she also took home the Welcome & Service award, a nod to the high level of hospitality she prides herself on.
The next time I met the Palestinian-Jordanian chef, she was on home turf, reigning large as the mother figure at the cosy JLT restaurant that serves Levantine cuisine and that she has been running since 2017. Hearteningly, she had also just been named the Middle East and North Africa's Best Female Chef 2023 by the World’s 50 Best group, a food and beverage award-bestowing body that is, arguably, as popular as the Michelin Guide. The debut list for the Mena region was revealed in Abu Dhabi in February, with the second set to be announced on January 30.
“I am now convinced that hard work pays off,” Dakkak says of her 50 Best award. “It makes me feel happy and accomplished, yes, but with it also comes the desire to do more and the responsibility to be both more successful and more supportive of others in my field.”
Dakkak says F&B awards are crucial for the industry because they bring about a level of credibility and help to put restaurants and countries on the culinary world map. “Most importantly, though, it is the biggest compliment to be recognised for serving Middle Eastern food, which has not yet got the recognition it deserves.
“For most people, Arabic only means Lebanese food, while we specialise in Palestinian dishes alongside a mix of other Levantine cuisine, including dishes from Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Even common dishes like dolma, stuffed vine leaves, are prepared differently in the four countries, not to mention musakhan, makluba and mansaf.”
Dakkak was 54 when she opened Bait Maryam and says she’s had “a long and lovely journey”, which started with her observing her mother, Maryam, cooking the simplest of dishes with love and treating even the most basic ingredients with respect. “This encouraged me to always cook from my heart, and enabled me to change a bad mood to good just by entering the kitchen,” she says.
In 1999, Dakkak moved to Saudi Arabia, where she opened a cooking school with only eight chairs. “It went from eight to 16, and then some people even brought their own chairs with them,” she says. She also consulted with two hotels to train their sous chefs on preparing authentic dishes.
In 2004, Dakkak and her family moved to Houston in the US, where she met a mother-son duo running an Arabic restaurant called Fadi’s. “I admired that lady so much that she sparked in me the dream of one day opening my own restaurant. And so Bait Maryam, or home of Maryam, named after my mother, was born after we moved to the UAE.” The JLT spot is replete with homely touches, including Dakkak’s mother's lace curtains and her sewing machine.
The end game is to serve homestyle meals. “I never wanted a fine-dining restaurant with showy dishes, but rather for every guest, whether Arab or not, to feel like they are coming home.”
It’s why Dakkak recommends sampling the hummus and tabbouleh above all else. “If a restaurant does these right, you know it will serve good food.”
As the recipient of the Mena’s Best Female Chef award, Dakkak follows in the footsteps of Bahraini chef Tala Bashmi, who won the award in 2022. And yet the two could not be more different: where Bashmi — who Dakkak describes as “amazing” — is known for her highly experamentative fusion cuisine (think soft-shell crab with cardamom pickled cabbage, harissa honey, micro herbs, finger lime and mehyawa aioli), Salam is all about simple, home-cooked meals.
“It goes to show that there is room for both styles of cooking at this point in time. I also believe that ours is a restaurant that a person can come and eat in every day; how many other places can you say that about? I am pleased that both the Michelin and Mena’s 50 Best awards acknowledge that this style of food is as important, maybe even more so.”
Scroll through the gallery below to see which other restaurants were included on Michelin's Bib Gourmand list in Dubai
CREW
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European arms
Known EU weapons transfers to Ukraine since the war began: Germany 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Luxembourg 100 NLAW anti-tank weapons, jeeps and 15 military tents as well as air transport capacity. Belgium 2,000 machine guns, 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands 200 Stinger missiles. Poland 100 mortars, 8 drones, Javelin anti-tank weapons, Grot assault rifles, munitions. Slovakia 12,000 pieces of artillery ammunition, 10 million litres of fuel, 2.4 million litres of aviation fuel and 2 Bozena de-mining systems. Estonia Javelin anti-tank weapons. Latvia Stinger surface to air missiles. Czech Republic machine guns, assault rifles, other light weapons and ammunition worth $8.57 million.
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Racecard:
2.30pm: Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoun Emirates Breeders Society Challenge; Conditions (PA); Dh40,000; 1,600m
3pm: Handicap; Dh80,000; 1,800m
3.30pm: Jebel Ali Mile Prep Rated Conditions; Dh110,000; 1,600m
4pm: Handicap; Dh95,000; 1,950m
4.30pm: Maiden; Dh65,000; 1,400m
5pm: Handicap; Dh85,000; 1,200m
MATCH INFO
Sheffield United 3
Fleck 19, Mousset 52, McBurnie 90
Manchester United 3
Williams 72, Greenwood 77, Rashford 79
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Pari
Produced by: Clean Slate Films (Anushka Sharma, Karnesh Sharma) & KriArj Entertainment
Director: Prosit Roy
Starring: Anushka Sharma, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Ritabhari Chakraborty, Rajat Kapoor, Mansi Multani
Three stars
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
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JAPAN SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Masaaki Higashiguchi, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Maya Yoshida, Sho Sasaki, Hiroki Sakai, Sei Muroya, Genta Miura, Takehiro Tomiyasu
Midfielders: Toshihiro Aoyama, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan
Forwards: Yuya Osako, Takuma Asano, Koya Kitagawa
Tailors and retailers miss out on back-to-school rush
Tailors and retailers across the city said it was an ominous start to what is usually a busy season for sales.
With many parents opting to continue home learning for their children, the usual rush to buy school uniforms was muted this year.
“So far we have taken about 70 to 80 orders for items like shirts and trousers,” said Vikram Attrai, manager at Stallion Bespoke Tailors in Dubai.
“Last year in the same period we had about 200 orders and lots of demand.
“We custom fit uniform pieces and use materials such as cotton, wool and cashmere.
“Depending on size, a white shirt with logo is priced at about Dh100 to Dh150 and shorts, trousers, skirts and dresses cost between Dh150 to Dh250 a piece.”
A spokesman for Threads, a uniform shop based in Times Square Centre Dubai, said customer footfall had slowed down dramatically over the past few months.
“Now parents have the option to keep children doing online learning they don’t need uniforms so it has quietened down.”
Muslim Council of Elders condemns terrorism on religious sites
The Muslim Council of Elders has strongly condemned the criminal attacks on religious sites in Britain.
It firmly rejected “acts of terrorism, which constitute a flagrant violation of the sanctity of houses of worship”.
“Attacking places of worship is a form of terrorism and extremism that threatens peace and stability within societies,” it said.
The council also warned against the rise of hate speech, racism, extremism and Islamophobia. It urged the international community to join efforts to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The years Ramadan fell in May
