With high-end French cuisine flourishing in the UAE, regional chefs hope it won’t be long until the effects are felt across the whole of the GCC
French cuisine – so revered by gourmands that it has been added to the UNESCO intangible heritage list – has always been difficult to do well in the Middle East. It relies on using the finest, freshest produce, which has not always readily available here.
Recently in the UAE improved supply chains and high profile chefs and restaurant concepts like Pierre Gagnaire, Yannick Alléno, La Petite Maison and Traiteur have entered the market pushing French cuisine to international standards. However, elsewhere in the region it still lags behind, despite increasing demand.
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At the end of 2011, Euromonitor reported that in Saudi Arabia, European full-service restaurants (FSRs) saw the strongest current value growth in 2010 over the previous year, with sales rising by 12%.
This was despite the channel seeing the lowest outlet volume growth in the year at just 1%. European FSRs benefited from their sophisticated and premium image, ‘with French cuisine proving particularly popular’, the report said.
Saudi supply
Despite the growing demand, Alexander Stephan, sous chef at Cristal restaurant Al Faisaliah Hotel Riyadh, says there is a problem in Saudi in that diners are not properly educated on what true French cuisine is.
“Many customers are mixing up opinions of French food with other European cuisines,” he reveals.
“A popular thinking is also that French cuisine means smaller portions, which it doesn’t. You’ll only be served smaller portions if you are ordering three or four or more courses so you can enjoy them all.”
Stephan believes it is the regional chefs’ duties to “show customers real French cuisine, wherever possible”, but laments the fact that there are as yet no strictly French restaurants in Saudi Arabia.
It’s a similar case in Doha, Qatar, where there was no category for French restaurants at the recent Time Out Doha awards.
Instead, Le Mer at Ritz-Carlton Doha, which serves French seafood, picked up the award for best romantic restaurant.
Pastry patterns
Even though one of the most famed French exports is its pastries, pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton Doha, Jerome Bertoumieux, says this area of the cuisine is one that chefs are happy to fuse with international influences.
“Before I moved away from France I thought French pastry was the best in the world,” he admits. “But now I work with so many different nationalities and see so many different things that I am not so sure.”
Bertoumieux says that the pastry offerings from the US, like cheesecakes and cupcakes, are having a big impact in Doha. “And I have to say, I think they’re pretty good too.
“The customers love them, so there’s no way I can stick to creating French pastries.”
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