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    Emirati co-founders of Mamafri on seamlessly merging hospitality and aesthetics

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    Emirates Man

    by Camille Macawili
    12 seconds ago

    Emirati co-founders of Mamafri, Saif Al Romaithi and Rashed Belhoul, looks to the east to bring a cosy dose of this homegrown dining concept that seamlessly merge hospitality and aesthetics.
    What do the first 30 minutes of your day look like, your morning routine?
    Saif Al Romaithi (SAR): In the first 30 minutes of my day, I enjoy Arabic coffee with a few dates and spend some time catching up on WhatsApp messages and reading the news to ease into the morning.
    Talk us through your background and what first evoked your interest in the f&b space.
    SAR: My foodie interests led me into the food and beverage industry during my study years in New York. Inspired by my dad, who owned a restaurant in his younger years, I immersed myself in the city’s vibrant hospitality scene, shaping my journey.
    The interiors evoke nostalgia. Can you define the inspiration behind the design of the restaurant?
    Rashed Belhoul (RB): The interiors evoke nostalgia, drawing inspiration from design legends of the 70s and the vibrant aesthetics of the 80s. This blend creates a warm and inviting atmosphere, incorporating wood and earthy tones that enhance the overall design.

    Tell us more about the ambiance of the restaurant. What sort of dining experiences can visitors expect?
    RB: The ambiance of the restaurant is warm and inviting, with a nostalgic design inspired by 70s and the 80s. Customers can expect a unique dining experience featuring a cozy main area that gives a private dining feel. The private space offers a tailored atmosphere complemented by smooth house music, making it perfect for special occasions or gatherings. Overall, it’s a place where great food and an inviting atmosphere come together to create lasting memories. The menu transports guests to East and Southeast Asia.
    What are the key standout dishes to try at Mamafri?
    SAR: Mamafri, our Southeast Asian menu showcases a vibrant array of flavors and dishes that celebrate the region’s culinary diversity. Guests can indulge in authentic favorites, from curries, rice dishes to fresh noodles and salads. Each dish is crafted with care, using modern recipes and fresh ingredients, offering a true taste of Southeast Asia that delights the senses and invites exploration. Here are some of our best selling items: Crispy Beef, Tom Yum Fried Rice, Crab Salad, Wagyu Sando, Malaysian Curry, Mie Goreng, and Dragon Roll.

    As you both bring different sets of expertise to the table, how do you manage your roles between yourselves?
    SAR: In our partnership, we divide our roles based on our strengths. I focus on managing finances and enhancing the overall front-of-house experience, ensuring that operations run smoothly and efficiently. Rashed, on the other hand, excels in the design aspects of our branches, carefully curating the ambiance with thoughtful choices in decor and music. While we each have our primary responsibilities, we collaborate closely on food research and development. We regularly hold tasting sessions together to decide on new menu items and conduct quality checks on our current offerings, ensuring that our food consistently meets our high standards. This collaborative approach allows us to combine our expertise and create a well-rounded dining experience for our guests.
    Rashed Belhoul and Saif Al Romaithi, Co-founders of Mamafri
    What have been the key milestones during your journey?
    SAR: Key milestones in our journey include opening our branch in Abu Dhabi, which expanded our reach, and winning dining awards consecutively every year, reinforcing our reputation for quality and excellence. We successfully expanded our menu to include sushi and robata dishes, enhancing our culinary diversity, and we also marked a significant step in our growth with the reopening of our DIFC branch. These achievements highlight our commitment to continuous improvement and providing an exceptional dining experience.
    What is the greatest risk you’ve faced in growing your business?
    SAR: The biggest risk for a growing restaurant is keeping things consistent as it expands. When opening new spots, it can be tough to make sure the food and service are always on point, which is key to keeping customers happy and the brand strong. Plus, managing supply chains and staffing can get complicated as you scale up, so planning ahead is crucial to avoid any hiccups. There’s also the risk of delays in projects due to finding materials and logistics challenges, which can push back openings and increase costs. Financially, it’s important to keep cash flow in check because expenses can rise quickly.

    What is most important to you when building a new restaurant?
    SAR: When opening a new restaurant, prioritise location for visibility and accessibility, recruit and train a skilled staff to enhance service, and design an inviting space that aligns with your brand while optimizing workflow for a seamless dining experience.
    What’s next for Mamafri?
    RB: Next for Mamafri is an exciting new beach location called Beach Balcony by Mamafri, situated in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island. This restaurant will serve our classic dishes alongside a diverse selection of mouthwatering Asian seafood recipes, each thoughtfully crafted with Asian sauces. It’s a fantastic opportunity to blend our signature flavors with a refreshing beachfront atmosphere, offering guests a unique dining experience by the sea. We’re also working on sister Asian concepts that are in the plan for the next year.
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      How Chef Dani Garcia showcases artistry at Leña/Smoked Room

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      Globally renowned for his culinary genius, Dani Garcia who hails from Andalusia brings his signature flair to Dubai with Leña and Smoked Room. His deep respect for tradition, combined with a bold approach to modern cuisine, has made these venues standout destinations for food enthusiasts.
      Here, the renowned Spanish chef shares his culinary journey and the creative process behind his two dining concepts in Dubai that has earned him a star in the Michelin Guide.
      Talk us through your daily routine, the first 30 minutes of the day.
      I always wake up before the sun rises and open the window, because it appears right in front of my house. I play music on a record player I have and drink a coffee, sometimes vanilla and other times hazelnut. I sit down and read the news of the day. Those are always my first 30 minutes.
      When did your love for food begin?
      My love for food and the world of gastronomy really began very early, but the ones to blame were my mother, my grandmother and my father. My mother and grandmother cooked from Monday to Friday since my father worked. And I would go with my father early on Saturday morning to the market to buy fresh ingredients for cooking: clams, spider crab… anything that caught our eye… cuttlefish, cuttlefish broth, and things like that. Then on Sundays, we would usually go out to eat at a restaurant. It’s true that my family has always, not in a professional way, but has always lived closely with cooking and gastronomy. So, it was impossible for me not to love it. There were times when we would grind olives in a mill to have oil for the whole year at home, and we would also pick more olives to season them ourselves, snails… Honestly, all those activities we did at home revolved around gastronomy.
      You’ve had an incredible career and have earned plenty of accomplishments. How did you get your start in the culinary space?
      Well, once I finished my studies at high school, I didn’t want to go to university, and to be honest, gastronomy, hospitality in general, and restaurants… really caught my attention. Living in a place like Marbella, where a large part of our lives was tied to tourism, was the driving force behind it. It was a mix of both things— not wanting to continue my studies at a university and my interest in the gastronomic world around me. Suddenly, at that time, a brand new hospitality school opened in Málaga, and it was gaining a lot of fame. I went there to give it a try, and here I am years later.
      As a highly accomplished Michelin-starred chef, is there pressure to constantly innovate revolutionary gastronomy concepts?
      I did feel the pressure for a while, but that has also faded a bit. Not so much that pressure, but especially during the time when Spain broke through and became a leading force in the field of culinary innovation, etc. Nouvelle cuisine started to become a bit less important, and Spanish cuisine began to rise, thanks largely to the influence of chefs like Ferran Adrià. During that period, mainly from 1998 to around 2000–2015, those were truly years where there was much more creative pressure, especially in terms of creating new concepts and techniques that could contribute something. I think that’s what all the chefs of my generation opted for and, driven by Ferran, that’s what we did during that time. Then, of course, times have changed, and I believe there isn’t as much creativity as there used to be.

      The culinary experience at the Leña/Smoked Room is exceptional. What is the recipe to this success in such a location?
      They are two concepts that I love. I believe that in the end, the secret to success can be a good price-quality ratio. One way or another, the price and what you offer for it are vitally important. The restaurant’s interior design, the human team, the hospitality, giving as much care as you can, and making people truly feel that they’re receiving the attention everyone wants when they go to a restaurant. As for the cuisine, it’s very focused on grilling, on direct heat, whether it’s vegetables, seafood, fish, or meat. Meat obviously has a greater presence, but for us, it’s still a grill-based restaurant. With the same DNA, Smoked Room was suddenly created inside Leña, with that same style and DNA where the grill and direct heat are very important. It’s much more focused on a smaller audience and on pure high-end cuisine, as opposed to Leña, which is much more casual.
      To you, what are the must-try standout dishes at Leña/Smoked Room?
      From Leña, I think the foie apple, the grilled avocado, maybe the leek, the oxtail, the Porterhouse, and the Tarta di Rose are my favorite dishes. At Smoked Room, since it’s an omakase, the chawanmushi with sea urchin and crab, the Motril prawns with butter, or the white nitro tomato with smoked eel are also my favorites.”

      With an international culinary empire, how do you approach scaling without compromising quality?
      The only way to grow with quality is basically by growing with quality people by your side. The team is absolutely essential; it’s more than obvious that I can’t be everywhere, and I can’t be overseeing every dish that comes out of each restaurant. We serve hundreds of thousands of people a year, and it’s obviously unfeasible for you to directly control everything. But that’s where your ability to communicate how and what should be done comes in. Then, it’s about conveying this to people who truly have exceptional talent. That’s what really matters to me and the only real secret: surrounding yourself with people who are not only capable of conveying your message but also improving upon it.
      Being a chef-entrepreneur, what did this teach you about yourself, professionally and personally?
      I’ve learned a lot about myself, both personally and professionally, over all these years. I’m not sure if I can highlight anything specific, but if I had to point something out, it would certainly be the ability to fight for something I truly believe in. I mean, for me, that is fundamental—being strong, and no matter how many people try to trample on you, tell you the opposite, or remind you of a bad phase in your life or a failure… you keep believing in yourself. And for me, that is essential.

      What would be your advice to budding chef-entrepreneurs looking to earn a Michelin star?
      The advice is basically not to get obsessed. I always say you should cook with the guides in mind, but not for the guides. Cook for the customer and to make them happy, and everything else will follow. It’s all a matter of time and doing things right. But what I would say is that you shouldn’t become obsessed. Reaching three Michelin stars is the result of many years of work and countless hours spent in the kitchen, the dining room, and the restaurant. There’s really no shortcut—you have to work to improve day by day, challenge yourself to be better, and, of course, work for the customer. Everything else will come. The guide and Michelin will come when the customer is happy, and that’s when you get rewarded. So truly, think about the customer.
      What’s next for Dani Garcia?
      The goal is to consolidate the Leña brand around the world. I would love to be part of that group of brands that are recognized worldwide, the ones I admire and have tremendous respect for, like Nobu, Zuma or Gaia. I mean, these are brands that I’m passionate about because of what they represent, and they are pure inspiration. The day I feel that any of our brands—most likely Leña—joins that group, I’ll be happy.
      – For more on how to look smart and live smarter, follow Emirates Man on Facebook and Instagram
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      in lifestyle and culture

      How Chef Izu captured the relaxed charm of Southern France for his latest concept

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      Life

      by Camille Macawili
      7 seconds ago

      Chef Izu Ani on his gastronomic adventures and how he’s captured the relaxed charm of South of France at Maison de la Plage.
      Maison de la Plage adds to your growing culinary portfolio. What sets this apart from your other concepts?
      Maison de la Plage is our home by the sea. I wanted to create a space where people can let go, breathe, play, share fresh, light dishes and truly connect with the elements. The ocean connects us all, it encourages our playful sides and allows us to unwind. The space flows from the sea to comfortable sunbeds, daybeds and cabanas, a beach bar, swimming pool, and restaurant, to provide a haven for all.

      The restaurant transports you to Côte d’Azur. Can you define the inspiration behind its free-spirited design it evokes and the elements that add to the ambience?
      The South of France is one of my favourite places in the world, its breathtaking nature and inviting energy invigorates me every time I visit. Our aim is to bring the laid-back elegance of the Côte d’Azur to Dubai, with elements from the quaint, idyllic villages and the sun-drenched shores woven throughout Maison de la Plage. We wanted to create a romantic, yet lively ambiance, where mount.
      We partnered with London-based design studio FirstWithin to bring our vision to life. The interior is adorned with bespoke rattan furniture, featuring unique prints that seamlessly blend with the natural beauty of the beach landscape. Every part of Maison de la Plage was curated to enhance the connection between our guests and their coastal surroundings, with a fun, contemporary French touch. One of the key elements in our design is the playful use of patterns and colours. Throughout the space, you’ll find dotted yacht motifs, which serve as a delightful reminder of the picturesque villages in the south of France. These patterns were designed to evoke a sense of coastal tranquility.
      What does the culinary journey experience look like?
      A home from home, Maison de la Plage is somewhere friends and families can enjoy at all hours. From serene breakfasts overlooking the sea, to long lunches in the sunshine and dinners with loved ones. We wanted to create a space that feels welcoming and wonderful at any time of day. Our dishes are a constant flow of evolution and information. When developing new dishes and creating menus, we always start with the inspiration – we ask ourselves who is this dish for, why are we creating it, how and when will it be enjoyed. We aim to create a seamless transition between the outdoor oasis and the indoor dining area, to ensure a flexible and comfortable experience.

      The menu encapsulates the seaside sophistication of the French Riviera. What are the key standout dishes?
      One of my favourite parts of the menu is the selection of fresh market crudités. We serve crisp, seasonal vegetables in a beautiful basket alongside a selection of dips. It is the perfect dish to share with the table, and a lovely start to a meal. I also recommend choosing fresh fish from La Poissonerie and having it cooked exactly to preference alongside baked vegetables. The beauty of the menu is that it caters for different experiences, so if I’m spending the day by the beach and want to eat on the sunbeds, we will order a selection of Pizzas, a few Izu Burgers to share and end each meal with ice cream. The menu was designed to be shared between friends and loved ones, whether they would prefer a light bite or a nourishing meal.

      “To this day, my travels and experiences continue to shape my understanding of cuisine and have enabled me to translate this through the menus I work on”

      Where did your flair for French-inspired culinary creations begin? How deeply connected are you in terms of influence?
      When I was at the beginning of my career, I spent a lot of time in France and absorbed everything I could about the culture and cuisine. It is where I met my wife, and it gave me a wider spectrum of knowledge and understanding.
      I believe that in life, we do have to invest our time, effort and dedication to ourselves and our passions. To this day, my travels and experiences continue to shape my understanding of cuisine and have enabled me to translate this through the menus I work on. It is important to respect the culture that each dish takes inspiration from, to take our time to learn and understand their traditions. Food is at the core of every country. By understanding the culture, we have the privilege of knowing how to extract the experience and tell each story from the source. My aim in life is to keep adding to my life journey through food and to be able to share this with people who are as keen as I am to explore how we can push the limits of creativity.

      “My aim in life is to keep adding to my life journey through food and to be able to share this with people who are as keen as I am to explore how we can push the limits of creativity”

      Chef Izu Ani

      At the heart of it is Le Marché, inspired by the bustling French market – tell us more about this space.
      Le Marché is one of my favourite parts of Maison de la Plage. When I was first starting out as a Chef, I moved to a lovely little town in France. Every morning, I would visit the market to choose fresh ingredients to prepare that day, and I loved every moment. It was such a beautiful start to the morning. There is something so exquisite about sourcing fresh produce, and choosing our ingredients before we prepare and enjoy them. I first met my wife at that market over 20 years ago now. For an entire year, I continued to visit the little shop she worked in, hoping to see her. Finally, on my birthday, I mustered up the nerve to ask her out on a date. To my delight, she agreed, and that moment marked the beginning of our journey together.
      Le Marché is my heartfelt homage to that pivotal encounter. It serves as a reminder of the incredible power of chance meetings and the profound impact they can have on our lives.

      You’re very hands-on and built everything yourself from the outset. What did this teach you?
      Having the freedom to create is really important to me, it allows me to keep expanding and growing without the fear of stagnation. When we work with passion, we can enjoy the art of dedication and practice. By focusing on improving every single day, we can see how much there is to achieve and really embrace the process. I believe that the milestones are often found in the small moments. I find the most pride and pleasure when I am consistent and striving towards my goals every day.
      What have been the biggest challenges you’ve encountered and how did you overcome them?
      If we look at our circumstances as opportunities instead of obstacles, we can positively impact our mindsets. Experience cannot just be about ‘what went right’ – success is what we celebrate, mistakes are what we learn from – in all aspects of life. There is a lesson in every situation, and challenges give us valuable knowledge that we may not have been aware of otherwise. The trick is to pay attention. It is all information, and information is everything. The more we know, the greater our spectrum of understanding, which leads us to better opportunities and experiences.
      This is The Summer Escape Issue – where are you escaping to this summer?
      This year, one of our goals was to expand internationally and take our home-grown concepts from Dubai to the world. This summer, I am so excited to spend time in our latest restaurants in London, Marbella, and Monaco, and truly embed ourselves within the local communities there. This summer will also see the launch of GAIA in Miami, which I am really looking forward to. It is so humbling to see our concepts in different countries around the world. My focus is to ensure we provide the same level of service in every location and ensure everyone enjoys their experience.
      – For more on luxury lifestyle, news, fashion and beauty follow Emirates Woman on Facebook and Instagram
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      in lifestyle and culture

      Netsu by Ross Shonhan offers a contemporary approach to authentic Japanese cuisines

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      Lifeby Camille Macawili2 hours ago Japanese restaurants are aplenty in Dubai’s highly competitive dining scene.With more than a handful to choose from in the city, Netsu faces stiff competition. But with a prestigious address that comes with stunning beachside and city views, a line up of mouth-watering gastronomy, and chef Ross’s incredible attention to detail, both in food and in decor – there’s a plenty of reasons to choose this lively Japanese steakhouse every time.We’re giving you five –1. The usual suspects (sushi and sashimi) are beautifully presented, fresh and hits the spot. Beyond that, you can savour different melt-in-your-mouth wagyu variants – from Japanese to Australian – seared in front of you by the restaurant’s grill masters. Its premium standards and an unfussy marinade mean that you get all the deliciousness with the perfect marbling and luscious fat, without any downsides leaving you craving for more. Let’s not forget one of the many stellar highlights: the truffle wagyu sando, probably one of the best in the city.2. Dubai has a fondness for Japanese restaurants however, not many are helmed by an acclaimed chef such as Australian-born Ross Shonhan. Through his culinary wizardry, the ex-Zuma and Nobu head chef takes a contemporary approach to authentic Japanese cuisines.3. Netsu is rooted in the ethos of straw fire cooking called Warayaki which originated from the Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku to give meats and seafood a unique flavorful taste – a first-of-its-kind concept in Dubai and the largest outside of Japan.4. Netsu’s design is as spectacular as its menu. The interior impresses with a vibrant design with a Kabuki indoor setting plus, beachside expansive outdoor terrace for al fresco dining during cooler months, and lastly, front-row counter seats to witness a theatrical spectacle of fiery flames and skills of Chef Ross’s hardworking team.5. Beyond the food, the service was also impeccable. The Netsu staff delivers best-in-class hospitality and warm service to ensure the dishes are up to par.For bookings and reservations, visit mandarinoriental.com/netsu or call +971 4 777 2232– For more on luxury lifestyle, news, fashion and beauty follow Emirates Woman on Facebook and InstagramImages: Supplied More