YANNICK ALLENO
The Frenchman, who oversees three dining concepts at the One & Only Palm Jumeirah - Zest, 101 and Stay by Yannick Alléno - has three Michelin stars in Paris for Le Meurice.
VINEET BHATIA
Bhatia, of Indego at Grosvenor House in Dubai, became the first Indian-born chef to win a Michelin star for his Rasoi restaurant in London, following a star for his Rasoi By Vineet restaurant in Switzerland. He is only the second British chef to hold Michelin stars in more than one country.
PIERRE GAGNAIRE
The Frenchman who brought Reflets Par Pierre Gagnaire to the InterContinental Dubai Festival City has earned nine Michelin stars during his career, most notably three for Pierre Gagnaire in Paris.
GIORGIO LOCATELLI
Responsible for the Italian cuisine eatery Ronda Locatelli at Dubai's Atlantis, The Palm, Locatelli has won two Michelin stars for his London restaurants, one for Zafferano and one for Locanda Locatelli. His family also ran a Michelin-starred restaurant at his home in Northern Italy.
NOBU MATSHUISA
The Japanese chef responsible for Nobu at Atlantis, The Palm, and more than 20 other restaurants across the globe has received a Michelin star for Nobu Las Vegas, one for Nobu London and one for Nobu Berkeley Street, London.
MANSUR MEMARIAN
From Al Mahara, Burj Al Arab, Memarian is the first Iranian chef to receive a Michelin star, one for managing the kitchen of Jagdhof Glashutte in Germany and two more for the Pavillon restaurant in Innsbruck, Austria.
GORDON RAMSAY
The Scotsman of Hilton Dubai Creek's Verre has attained six Michelin stars including three for his restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London.
GARY RHODES
The Briton of Rhodes Mezzanine at Grosvenor House and Rhodes Twenty10 at Le Royal Meridien has six Michelin stars in a 30-year career.
MICHEL ROSTANG
The Frenchman behind Rostang at Atlantis, The Palm, won two Michelin stars for his restaurants in France and two for a family restaurant.
SANTI SANTAMARIA
Responsible for Ossiano at Atlantis, The Palm, the Spaniard has been awarded three stars for his restaurant Can Fabes and two for Santceloni, both in Spain.
MARCO PIERRE WHITE
The Brit behind Abu Dhabi's Marco Pierre White Steakhouse & Grill at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr and Frankie's in Dubai and Abu Dhabi had three Michelin stars by age 33 but renounced them when he gave up day-to-day cooking. He is M's cooking columnist.
... and some notables who aren't here (at least yet):
HEINZ BECK
The German-born chef runs the world-famous three Michelin-starred La Pergola at the Cavaleri hotel in Rome and recently opened a restaurant at London's Lanesborough Hotel.
HESTON BLUMENTHAL
The self-taught British chef is responsible for the three Michelin-starred Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire, England, which is renowned for its scientific and quirky approach to food with menu highlights such as Flaming Sorbet, Crab Ice Cream and Mock Turtle Soup.
EMERIL LAGASSE
The American TV chef spent the formative years of his career mastering the art of French cuisine before launching 12 award-winning restaurants across the United States.
THE ROUX FAMILY
The French family began its revolution of British cuisine after Michel Roux and his older brother Albert opened Le Gavroche in Sloane Street, London in 1967 followed by the Waterside Inn in 1972 - the only restaurant outside France to keep three stars for 25 consecutive years. Today their sons are in charge, with Albert's son Michel Roux Jr at Le Gavroche and Michel's son Alain as the chef patron of The Waterside Inn.
WOLFGANG PUCK
The Austrian-born chef is synonymous with culinary art, having worked in some of the best restaurants in France before launching the celebrity haunt Spago in Los Angeles in 1983, which just gained two Michelin stars.
CHARLIE TROTTER
The self-taught chef's Chicago restaurant, Charlie Trotter's, is regarded as one of the finest in the world. The American is also the author of 14 cookbooks.
JEAN-GEORGES VONGERICHTEN
The French chef fell in love with the aromatic flavours of the East working in Asia and now has a range of quality restaurants in the US, the UK, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
- Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
- Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
- Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
- For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
- Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
- Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
- Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz
School counsellors on mental well-being
Schools counsellors in Abu Dhabi have put a number of provisions in place to help support pupils returning to the classroom next week.
Many children will resume in-person lessons for the first time in 10 months and parents previously raised concerns about the long-term effects of distance learning.
Schools leaders and counsellors said extra support will be offered to anyone that needs it. Additionally, heads of years will be on hand to offer advice or coping mechanisms to ease any concerns.
“Anxiety this time round has really spiralled, more so than from the first lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic,” said Priya Mitchell, counsellor at The British School Al Khubairat in Abu Dhabi.
“Some have got used to being at home don’t want to go back, while others are desperate to get back.
“We have seen an increase in depressive symptoms, especially with older pupils, and self-harm is starting younger.
“It is worrying and has taught us how important it is that we prioritise mental well-being.”
Ms Mitchell said she was liaising more with heads of year so they can support and offer advice to pupils if the demand is there.
The school will also carry out mental well-being checks so they can pick up on any behavioural patterns and put interventions in place to help pupils.
At Raha International School, the well-being team has provided parents with assessment surveys to see how they can support students at home to transition back to school.
“They have created a Well-being Resource Bank that parents have access to on information on various domains of mental health for students and families,” a team member said.
“Our pastoral team have been working with students to help ease the transition and reduce anxiety that [pupils] may experience after some have been nearly a year off campus.
"Special secondary tutorial classes have also focused on preparing students for their return; going over new guidelines, expectations and daily schedules.”
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo
Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua
Based: Dubai, UAE
Number of employees: 28
Sector: Financial services
Investment: $9.5m
Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors.
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
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.”
Top%2010%20most%20competitive%20economies
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Afro%20salons
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Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013