Gorgonzola, mushroom, guacamole, tomato chilli, courgette and coriander. Together, they sound like ingredients in a rather unusual salad. But these are actually some of the ice cream flavours found in Dubai resident Vasco Valenca de Sousa's freezer.
The Portuguese national, who moved to the UAE in 2013, has more than 30 years of experience as a food engineer, earning him the nickname Dr Ice. In fact, his experience in research and development in ice cream has led him to work with some of the biggest names in the industry. He spent more than 20 years with Unilever, during which, he was part of the team behind the world-famous Magnum ice cream bar.
Sousa moved to the UAE when one of his clients asked him to join as a consultant. Since then, he has worked with a number of well-known brands in the region, including Kwality, Jelly Belly and Magnolia Bakery, for which he has developed ice cream flavours. Recently, he worked on the vegan range launched by low-calorie ice cream company The Brooklyn Creamery.
While most people might not appreciate having to bring their work home, Sousa can't seem to get enough of it. The food engineer is constantly thinking up creative new flavours, and his need to experiment finally led him to create what he has nicknamed the "Ice Cave" – a space within his kitchen, filled with ice cream-making equipment. It is here that he experiments with flavours ranging from unique to just plain bizarre.
“I’m a social guy, I like having friends over. Sometimes, when I invite people, we discuss what kind of ice cream we would like to have. If I have the ingredients, I start the preparation immediately, and then after the meal, when everybody is socialising, I whip up that ice cream and serve it to my guests,” he says. The entire process takes about an hour.
“Most of them think it’s crazy that I do this for a living,” he adds. “Many have asked me how much I had to pay to get this job!”
Some of the eccentric flavours he has created include the aforementioned vegetable medley. The savoury ice cream flavours of mushroom, guacamole, Gorgonzola and tomato chilli, can be combined, spread on toast, and enjoyed as a starter. Other flavours he has created include Parmesan, ketchup, and buckwheat and cinnamon.
Sousa says that it was a love for the sweet stuff that led to this offbeat career. With a sweet tooth from a young age, he dreamt of working in the food and beverage industry. However, since his father was a pediatrician, he contemplated a career in the medical field before realising that his passion lay with food. He completed a course, and, as he puts it, “was lucky” to be picked up by Unilever for its ice cream division.
Today, Sousa credits his food engineering experience with helping him create such eccentric flavours. “Food engineering is about understanding ingredients in a more detailed way. While a chef deals with fine-tuning the flavour of a dish to make it appealing, a food engineer needs to understand how ingredients react with one another, how they react to the outside environment. It’s a more scientific approach, and that’s why I can build the recipes inside my brain, because I can figure out what kinds of ingredients will work well together.
“Creating that perfect ice cream is about finding the right balance in texture and flavour,” he adds. “In the end, I need to be pleased with the final product to the point where I can’t find anything around me that tastes better."
That being said, taste can be a relative thing, and flavour profiles vary from country to country. In the Middle East, some local flavours that are popular include dates and nuts (such as pistachio), while deserts combining baklava and Umm Ali always yield interesting results, he says.
In the end, I need to be pleased with the final product to the point where I can't find anything around me that tastes better
“This is a very open-minded region for new flavours,” says Sousa. “Dubai is an innovation jewel. People here are ready to experiment with new things from all over the world. I’ve introduced flavours like dates and chocolate in the past and it has worked very well.”
Meanwhile, his mantra for the time being is to keep on experimenting, and to take up new adventures. With the recipe for traditional ice cream already being tried and perfected, Sousa has now set his sights on a new challenge – to make ice creams that are "healthier".
“The world is changing,” he says. “Nowadays, you have more people who count calories, and this drives demand in a different way.”
Changing consumer demands is also what led him to work with The Brooklyn Creamery to develop its new vegan range, made using coconut milk and almond milk. “My goal was to create an ice cream that’s so indulgent and creamy that people don’t even notice that it is vegan.”
Boulder shooting victims
• Denny Strong, 20
• Neven Stanisic, 23
• Rikki Olds, 25
• Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
• Suzanne Fountain, 59
• Teri Leiker, 51
• Eric Talley, 51
• Kevin Mahoney, 61
• Lynn Murray, 62
• Jody Waters, 65
RESULT
Manchester City 5 Swansea City 0
Man City: D Silva (12'), Sterling (16'), De Bruyne (54' ), B Silva (64' minutes), Jesus (88')
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Wonka
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Abu Dhabi World Pro 2019 remaining schedule:
Wednesday April 24: Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, 11am-6pm
Thursday April 25: Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, 11am-5pm
Friday April 26: Finals, 3-6pm
Saturday April 27: Awards ceremony, 4pm and 8pm
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
More on Quran memorisation:
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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SPECS
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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
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
The specs: 2018 Ducati SuperSport S
Price, base / as tested: Dh74,900 / Dh85,900
Engine: 937cc
Transmission: Six-speed gearbox
Power: 110hp @ 9,000rpm
Torque: 93Nm @ 6,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 5.9L / 100km
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
more from Janine di Giovanni
Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
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Ain Issa camp:
- Established in 2016
- Houses 13,309 people, 2,092 families, 62 per cent children
- Of the adult population, 49 per cent men, 51 per cent women (not including foreigners annexe)
- Most from Deir Ezzor and Raqqa
- 950 foreigners linked to ISIS and their families
- NGO Blumont runs camp management for the UN
- One of the nine official (UN recognised) camps in the region
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
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BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
ICC T20 Team of 2021
Jos Buttler, Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, David Miller, Tabraiz Shamsi, Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mustafizur Rahman, Shaheen Afridi
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Three ways to get a gratitude glow
By committing to at least one of these daily, you can bring more gratitude into your life, says Ong.
- During your morning skincare routine, name five things you are thankful for about yourself.
- As you finish your skincare routine, look yourself in the eye and speak an affirmation, such as: “I am grateful for every part of me, including my ability to take care of my skin.”
- In the evening, take some deep breaths, notice how your skin feels, and listen for what your skin is grateful for.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
