“I cannot believe the Michelin inspectors did not find a single restaurant in Dubai worthy of a three-star rating,” said one guest when the debut Michelin Guide DXB was unveiled at Dubai Opera on Tuesday.
Food — and culinary awards — are, by their nature, polarising. One foodie’s paella passion is another’s pet peeve. There will always be those who believe a particular restaurant did or did not deserve an accolade, be it a place on Mena’s 50 Best Restaurants list, a Gault Millau toque or a star from the latest and, arguably, most prestigious F&B rating to come to the UAE, the Michelin Guide.
Case in point: the shocked hush that fell upon the audience at the opera house when it was announced that Ossiano was the recipient of but a single Michelin star. The Atlantis, The Palm restaurant, run by chef Gregoire Berger, was a favourite contender for at least two, if not three stars.
Despite the objectivity my job demands, I was admittedly surprised by Ossiano’s single-star status, as well as by the non-inclusion of L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in the line-up of star-worthy venues (although the restaurant has been given an honorary mention in the Dubai guide alongside dozens of others).
What I am wholly unsurprised — and even somewhat relieved — by, however, is the lack of any tri-starred restaurants in Dubai.
Allow me to explain.
When Michelin first started its guide, in the year 1900, it was so the tyre company could get more people to drive longer distances and visit the restaurants its reviewers deemed worthy of travelling to.
The guide defined a one-star establishment as a restaurant “worth a stop”, two stars as “worth a detour”, and three stars represent “exceptional cuisine that is worth a special journey”. That journey, mind, has come to span continents, as air travel became more common and several jet-setting gastro-tourists started planning trips specifically to cities that have Michelin-starred restaurants.
What started out as an aspirational sales strategy (the more you drive, the faster your tyres are likely to wear out) has come to represent reliability. If Michelin says it’s good / great / exceptional, chances are it is.
That, perhaps, explains why in every conversation I’ve had with Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides, he has emphasised the painstaking responsibility that underlies a Michelin reviewer’s delicious-on-paper job.
“The inspectors are required to travel the world and familiarise themselves with all cuisine types. They need a minimum of three years in the field and to eat 300 meals a year. Given how quickly the food scene evolves, it is a never-ending process. And this is why a restaurant that has even just one star, it means a lot to the industry,” Poullennec says.
What it all boils down to is this: getting three Michelin stars is a rarity, one that the guide obviously hands out very sparingly. Of the 3,272 restaurants worldwide that have a Michelin star, only 137 have three stars; that’s less than 5 per cent. Without committing to specifics, Poullennec tells me the percentage of cities that have been honoured with a three-star restaurant the first time a guide was introduced there, too, “is negligible”. Even France, which was the country in which the first Michelin Guide was published, got its first three-star restaurant only in 1965.
Dubai’s food scene may have gone from budding to burgeoning in a very short time, but it has some way to go before it makes a long-lasting mark on the global culinary map. Given a choice between chef Yannick Alleno’s Stay in Dubai (which won two stars this year) and Le 1947 in Courchevel (which has retained its three-star status since 2017), I am more likely to be tempted by the latter.
Furthermore, the city may have more than its fair share of Michelin-lauded restaurateurs opening outposts here, but very few of these award-winning chef patrons actually run day-to-day operations in the emirate.
The one thing chefs and restaurateurs agree on is that having a dedicated Michelin Guide for Dubai will push restaurants to up their game. “The arrival of Michelin will ultimately set higher standards for the city,” Berger says, while Ce La Vi executive chef Howard Ko says the guide will “encourage restaurants to push boundaries and make chefs more adventurous”.
“Will”; future being the operative tense here.
As with the hundreds of hours the Michelin inspectors put in, a restaurant, too, needs to deliver plate after plate of perfection, day in and day out for it to get even a single star, forget three. And while I’m sure a Dubai venue (or two) will ultimately attain this benchmark of culinary perfection, we’re obviously not there just yet, according to Michelin. Even Ossiano will have to contend with a single star — for now.
Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
Directed by: RS Prasanna
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar
The biog
Favourite food: Tabbouleh, greek salad and sushi
Favourite TV show: That 70s Show
Favourite animal: Ferrets, they are smart, sensitive, playful and loving
Favourite holiday destination: Seychelles, my resolution for 2020 is to visit as many spiritual retreats and animal shelters across the world as I can
Name of first pet: Eddy, a Persian cat that showed up at our home
Favourite dog breed: I love them all - if I had to pick Yorkshire terrier for small dogs and St Bernard's for big
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Scoreline
Bournemouth 2
Wilson 70', Ibe 74'
Arsenal 1
Bellerin 52'
More on Quran memorisation:
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
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The Kingfisher Secret
Anonymous, Penguin Books
Salah in numbers
€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.
13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.
57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.
7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.
3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.
40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.
30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.
8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.
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.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
