A taste of Tribes

FoodFund International credits Tribes, Mall of Emirates Fashion Dome's success to its 62-strong team of enigmatic servers and chefs

Focus on food
Tribes’ DNA may be all-encompassing but there are two elements that deserve a special focus: firstly, the food and secondly, the people.

Like the rest of the Tribes team, FoodFund International executive chef — Middle East Roy Soundranayagam started with a blank sheet.

“The brief for me about two and half years ago was the name ‘Tribes’ —‘chef here is the name, come up with the menu. Take the African continent and do it’,” recalls Soundranayagam. “So you have Arabic, French, Indian, English, and Portuguese influences, that was enough for me.”

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Van Jaarsveld expands: “Because Africa was colonised, you had these European influences that came into certain parts of Africa, Arabic influences that came into the northern part of Africa, we were able to take those influences and looking at the essence of our DNA, celebrating modern tribal life, we were able to take those influences and bring them into today’s cooking.

And that was Roy’s challenge — he had to take the traditional and look at putting a modern spin on it with that colonisation.”

One of the opportunities, explains the chef, was to work with different parts of the animal, aside from the premium cuts used in FoodFund International’s steakhouses.

“I got the opportunity to use the oxtail, the tongue, the cheeks, the different parts of the animal that people work with less because it takes a lot of braising, poaching or confiting,” says Soundranayagam.

Produce is sourced from all around the world and each dish is created with one main aim — to be tasty.

“People don’t just say the food is quality and exceptional, they say it’s tasty,” says Ibrahim.

Oxtail has become the most popular dish, says Tribes general manager Majdi Romdhani.
“The majority of our customers want to try all of our menu,” says Romdhani. “We have some unusual mocktails too, the most popular is the Brainwash.”

In addition, he says many people will opt for two or three courses, thus doing away with the preconception that mall dining has to be fast dining.

“What’s happened at Tribes is the experience that you get makes you want to linger a little longer, that means we have our in-and-outs but what we are creating as well is a place in the mall where people can come and relax, and enjoy,” adds Van Jaarsveld.

“While we have discussed the DNA and great food and the décor, what makes people linger longer is an overall experience that is accentuated by people. We recruited from the GM down for personality, for the ability to make you feel comfortable…and this makes Tribes a destination,” he says.

“I interviewed over 20 individuals for the GM’s position but I picked Majdi not based only on what he could do operationally... it was about an inner quality that we needed here to produce the atmosphere.”