Celebrity chefs cook off at Date Palm Festival

The organising committee of the Emirates International Date Palm Festival (EIDPF) today announced the participation of celebrity chefs in the cooking area.

Chefs Manal Al Alem, Khulood Saeed, Suzanne Husseini, Nada Jaber Ali and Tomas Reger will provide live cooking demonstrations for visitors themed as ‘date cuisine’.

Visitors will have the unique opportunity to interact and learn culinary secrets from the professional chefs.

Chef Manal Al Alem, said: “At the date palm festival cooking area, visitors can witness preparations of a wide variety of quick and easy recipes rich with nutritional values that we obtain from dates. Throughout the festival we will showcase interesting and professional cooking recipes that preserve the heritage of the Gulf along with its culture and traditions. They are recipes that combine the past with the present.”

Qaboos Khalid, event director of the festival from Turret Media, said: “National cuisines are significant features of cultural identity, regardless of the commercial food industry. We strive to promote our indigenous food traditions to a global public with an aim to widen knowledge about the traditional importance of the date fruit in Arabian hospitality; and how we can cherish its cultural legacy in a contemporary society. It is exciting to collaborate with celebrity chefs of the highest caliber in the region.”

The date palm festival will take place from November 21-26, 2011 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.