Category Archives: Food for Thought

Hot Hotelier Recipe – Seared Prawns and Chilled Soba Noodles

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q: sounds good, tell me what do I need?

a: ok, first you’re gonna wanna get all your ingredients and supplies together. You’ll need a skillet and a pot, tongs, a mixing bowl and a whisk. For your ingredients, you need to get coconut milk, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, grape seed oil, soy sauce, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, green onions, red onions, red chilies, buckwheat soba noodles, sea salt, regular salt, black peppercorns… oh, and the prawns.

q: ok, most of it sounds pretty normal, but where would I find buckwheat soba noodles and sea salt?

a: Really in just about any grocery store. I found buckwheat soba noodles in the organic section in Geant- they also they sell sea salt flakes.

q: cool, that’s settled. So what do I do with all this food now?

a: It would be easiest to measure and separate it all as follows for each piece of the dish… First get the prawns marinating (6 jumbo prawns / 100ml grape seed oil / 20gr of garlic sliced thin / freshly ground black pepper to your taste); then you’ll cook the soba noodles so they can get cool (2 liters of water to a boil / add 240ml of coconut milk / add sea salt to your taste – I recommend to where the boiling water tastes just a bit salty / add 100gr soba noodles and boil for about 5-6 minutes until cooked like spaghetti / strain, toss with grape seed oil and cool); then you’ll make the coconut soy vinaigrette while the noodles are cooling (put the following in a bowl and mix: 30ml coconut milk / 5ml rice vinegar / 15ml grape seed oil / 5ml sesame oil / 10ml honey / 5ml soy sauce / 5gr freshly grated ginger – and season all with salt and pepper to your taste); now you’ll toss the noodles with all the vinaigrette, 30gr of red onion sliced thin, 8gr of green onion sliced really thin, and 5gr of red chillies sliced really thin(more or less to your liking depending on how spicy you want it!); at this point you’ll pull the prawns from the marinade and season them to your liking with salt and pepper, put them on a skewer and sear them in a hot skillet. Now add those prawns to your noodles

q: looks really good, what now?

a: eat it, silly!

thomas-gagliardi

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Hot Hotelier Recipe – Pan Roasted Chicken with Sesame Watermelon and Spinach

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q:  so… what do I need?

a:  you’ll need a chicken breast, about 200 grams of cut watermelon, half of a small thai red chili, a handful of chopped spinach, a green onion, a teaspoon of toasted sesame seeds,  a couple teaspoons of sesame oil, a teaspoon of rice vinegar, a little nub of fresh ginger and some salt and pepper

q:  well, what do I do then?

a:  first, you’ll need to turn your oven on about 200 degrees C… oh, and start heating your pan.  it’d be a whole lot easier too, if you use a pan with a metal handle, so you can put it in the oven.

q:  ok, I got it goin,’ so what next?

a:  alright, now that everything’s nice and hot, get your chicken breast and drizzle it with some sesame oil.  sprinkle it with some salt and pepper and place it skin side down in your pan.  once it’s nice and golden brown, turn it over and put the whole pan straight into the oven.

q:  sweet!  it’s smellin’ good, but what do I do with all these other things now?

a:  ok, this part’s easy too, so no worries!  first, take that half of a red chili and slice it up as thin and small as you can.  then, get all the rest of the ingredients, except the green onion and the ginger, and put ‘em in a large bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper, depending on your own tastes…  now toss it all together a few times and put it on a plate.  take the green onion and slice it up to sprinkle on top of everything when the chicken’s done…  speaking of which, do you smell that?  I think you’re just about ready to get that chicken out of the oven now!

q:  oh yeah!  it’s done!  I cut into the middle, just to make sure.  It really looks good, and I’m really hungry, so can I just eat now, or what!?

a:  but of course!  just slice it up into 5 or 6 slices and place it on your salad.  sprinkle those green onion slices on top and grate just a bit of that fresh ginger nub on top and…

BON APPETITE!

Food for thought – Chef T’s first Post

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Dubai is this incredible city built on sand, which is a feat in itself.  a city which has proven everything possible, from insanely luxurious hotels, structures which defy physics and man made islands just because they can!  so now, why not the world’s top restaurant and culinary scene, too?  i think it is well on its way.

The explosion of hotels and tourists to dubai has now brought more than just some young chefs looking to make a name… this scene is now including restaurants bearing the names of some “greats” like Gordon Ramsay, Pierre Gagnaire, Santi Santimaria, and soon even Guy Savoy with many others to follow, i’m sure.  attracting young talent to this market is no longer an issue.  it’s not really hard to see why this scene is developing more and more.  the current culinary capitals of the world like new york city, paris, tokyo, etc. are extremely expensive and very risky to open a new concept, even with an established name.  dubai seems to be giving these chefs a solid fiscal reason to open their next great place here…

As a professional in the industry, i think the excitement of living/working in yet another great culinary scene in my own personal experience is grand.  i wake up every morning only to hope for more news of another michelin starred chef to make their way to the dessert.  the only downside i believe is the opportunity shrinks a bit for those new, fresh, and creative chefs trying to make waves for themselves. eh, but with the right work ethics and determination coupled, of course, with a bit of skill and raw talent, they should be just fine, right?  i am sure we will shortly be witness to the answer.

For now, may i just say, “thank you and bravo, dubai.”  there’s not enough traffic, dust, or stinky cabs in the world to keep me from being part and playing first hand in the growth of this, now infant, culinary giant of the future.

CT