"Cuisine is so much more than recipes. It's a lifestyle dedicated to other people." These were the wise words of Santi Santamaria as he addressed an auditorium full of attentive gourmands at the beginning of his eagerly awaited Saturday morning culinary masterclass. The Catalan chef was speaking through his interpreter for the day, Daniel Chavez, who also happens to be Santamaria's right hand man at his Ossiano restaurant in Dubai.
But whether members of the audience had visited his sole Middle East outpost or not, today they were going to get a rare insight into the food that won three Michelin stars for Santamaria's renowned Can Fabes restaurant in Sant Celoni near Barcelona.
Santamaria is nothing if not outspoken. Last year, he famously railed against the methods of his fellow Catalan chef Ferran Adria, whose El Bulli restaurant has won countless plaudits for its innovative and idiosyncratic brand of molecular gastronomy. Santamaria's style is far more traditional, and driven by his passion for seasonal ingredients and family values. "It's a way of expressing yourself, showing your feelings to others," he said before he'd even picked up a pan. "Cooking has so much to do with the state of your feelings. If you're happy, you transmit that through your cooking."
With the scene set, the happy master chef began cooking at a typically relaxed pace. "You should never, ever rush cooking," he told us before demonstrating a classic dish from his homeland called escudella catalana. "Every cook has his own unique pot. It says who we are and where we come from," he explained, as into his unique and rather large pot went veal shanks, ribs and spine, along with a lamb leg, a hen and a whole grocery of seasonal vegetables. "Use whatever vegetables you have at home. Whatever is seasonal."
Escudella catalana is a traditional dish that is ideal for the cold winter weather in northern Spain. The ingredients are mixed to form meatballs, while galet pasta is added to the strained stock, which is then added to the meatballs. It's a rustic dish, passed down through generations, and has different interpretations from region to region. It typifies Santamaria's philosophy.
All of his food has a connection with the local landscape and the people who live on it, and this serves to imbue his recipes with a distinct personality that's impossible to manufacture artificially. It is this sense of tradition that Santamaria is passionately striving to keep alive while retaining an air of contemporary refinement. "Everything is becoming more technological," he said as the rich aromas filled the air. "One day we'll have robots instead of cooks, then the heart goes out of it. And that is when we spoil the profession. Some cooking has no soul. The best cuisine is when you put your soul into it."
If Santi Santamaria's culinary masterclass was a journey for the soul, that evening's gourmet safari at the Shangri-La Hotel was a voyage through three of the world's great cuisines. Yes, you read that correctly: gourmet safari, though any khaki shorts and pith helmets had been replaced by smart yet casual dining attire.
The evening's first port of call was the Shang Palace Chinese restaurant, where the two-star Michelin chef Lee Keung from Hong Kong's Summer Palace provided starters of scrambled egg white with lobster on crispy vermicelli. That was followed by a more traditional stir-fried chicken with bell peppers in black bean sauce. Then the guests were asked to up sticks and set up camp at Hoi An restaurant just a short walk away.
It was at this contemporary Vietnamese restaurant where the main courses were prepared by the resident chef, and a certain star of the future, Kevin Vu. In particular, his stunning Atlantic cod parcel with shiitake mushrooms, dates, ginkgo nuts and grilled sticky rice was well worth switching restaurants for. That was followed up by an excellent dish of grilled lemon grass chicken with a tiny fried quail's egg perched on top of roasted Japanese aubergine.
The third and final leg of our jaunt took us to Pearls and Caviar restaurant, where a Mediterranean treat awaited us. There was a certain familiarity about the Catalan fish and shellfish stew Costa Brava, which yielded some impossibly tender king prawns that were saturated with intense flavour. For dessert, the chocolate truffle fritters burst luxuriously in the mouth to make this particular diner realise what Santi Santamaria's soul food was really all about. And as the instantly recognisable figure of the great Catalan chef entered the restaurant to great applause, I realised that we had come full circle. Cuisine really is so much more than recipes.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Abu Dhabi GP Saturday schedule
12.30pm GP3 race (18 laps)
2pm Formula One final practice
5pm Formula One qualifying
6.40pm Formula 2 race (31 laps)
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
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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LAST-16 EUROPA LEAGUE FIXTURES
Wednesday (Kick-offs UAE)
FC Copenhagen (0) v Istanbul Basaksehir (1) 8.55pm
Shakhtar Donetsk (2) v Wolfsburg (1) 8.55pm
Inter Milan v Getafe (one leg only) 11pm
Manchester United (5) v LASK (0) 11pm
Thursday
Bayer Leverkusen (3) v Rangers (1) 8.55pm
Sevilla v Roma (one leg only) 8.55pm
FC Basel (3) v Eintracht Frankfurt (0) 11pm
Wolves (1) Olympiakos (1) 11pm
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Cracks in the Wall
Ben White, Pluto Press
Brief scores:
Liverpool 3
Mane 24', Shaqiri 73', 80'
Manchester United 1
Lingard 33'
Man of the Match: Fabinho (Liverpool)
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 bio
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite travel destination: Maldives and south of France
Favourite pastime: Family and friends, meditation, discovering new cuisines
Favourite Movie: Joker (2019). I didn’t like it while I was watching it but then afterwards I loved it. I loved the psychology behind it.
Favourite Author: My father for sure
Favourite Artist: Damien Hurst
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKinetic%207%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Rick%20Parish%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Clean%20cooking%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Self-funded%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
