Nineteen months after taking over Table 9 in the Hilton Dubai Creek, British chef Darren Velvick has moved on to pastures new and launched The Croft, a casual British eatery in the Marina at the Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites.
Velvick was widely recognised for his innovative cuisine at Table 9, but says fine dining is not where his heart is.
“I don’t want to be a strict person in the kitchen,” he says. “I want to loosen up and have fun. I want people to come up and see what we’re doing. This is where I want to be.”
It has taken more than two decades of hard work to get there. Velvick started training with celebrated British chefs Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing in 1998, long before either of them was a household name.
“I watched Gordon and Marcus on the stove,” Velvick says. “As a young chef, I was just in awe of them. They’re just mind-blowing to watch.”
Velvick honed his skills and work ethic under their leadership.
“We’d work all day and night,” he says. “We’d get in the restaurant at six in the morning and go home at two or 3am. Then we’d go in again at six. But that’s what I wanted as a young chef. I had big ambitions to get to the top.”
Velvick’s career as a chef happened quite by chance. Raised by a single mum, his family didn’t have much money. At the age of 14, he landed a job washing dishes at a restaurant a bike-ride away from home.
“They’d give me £1.50 [Dh8] an hour – I felt rich,” he says.
The restaurant’s owners, Richard and Kate Smith, took the youngster under their wings.
“If it wasn’t for them helping me and guiding me, I would have just been a young lad getting into trouble. They really focused me,” he says.
The more time he spent there, the more his love of food grew and evolved.
“The chefs would keep feeding me,” he says. “I started trying all these new foods I’d never tried, such as smoked salmon, foie gras and scallops. I’d never experienced anything like it.” After telling Richard he wanted to be a chef, Velvick trained once a week in the kitchen for seven years.
“I learnt the whole operation,” he says. “Then Richard got me a job in France and I went to work there for a year. I’ve got a lot to thank them for.”
Now, at age 41, Velvick is seeing his dreams come to life at The Croft. Each dish on the menu reflects his signature style. You’ll find traditional dishes such as fish and chips, but you’ll also find beef tongue-and-cheek pie; roast chicken stuffed with truffle, mushroom and brioche crumbs; and ox-tongue chips with pastrami mayonnaise.
“I grew up in England and these dishes have grown with me,” Velvick says. “That’s where I’ve got an advantage.”
His laid-back personality shines when he talks about his new venture. He wants diners to feel at home inside.
“I’m in here talking to the guests,” he says. “It’s just having a laugh with them – we’re not trying to be serious, it’s having a bit of fun.”
Velvick is often asked about notable British chefs coming to Dubai – Jason Atherton, Tom Aikens and Gordon Ramsay, for example, will all open restaurants in the city this year. Is he worried?
“No, not at all,” he says. “The one strength I’ve got is that I’m here. I’m in my restaurant. People are sick to death of all these chefs coming over here, taking a big pay cheque and not actually cooking. They’re only as good as the chefs they put in their restaurant.
“I’ve built up a great following from Table 9. I have guests who invite me round to their houses for barbecues. Diners become your friends here. They’re not guests.”
As for his former home, Table 9 closed at the start of Ramadan this year and will relaunch next month as a bistro concept, a departure from its previous fine-dining focus.
• The Croft is open daily from 6pm to 1am. For reservations, call 04 319 4794
sjohnson@thenational.ae
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
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List of alleged parties
May 12, 2020: PM and his wife Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at least 17 staff
May 20, 2020: They attend 'bring your own booze party'
Nov 27, 2020: PM gives speech at leaving party for his staff
Dec 10, 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary Gavin Williamson
Dec 13, 2020: PM and his wife throw a party
Dec 14, 2020: London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff event at Conservative Party headquarters
Dec 15, 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz
Dec 18, 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
Qosty Byogaani
Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny
Four stars
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
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