Home-grown brand Okku swept the board at last night’s Caterer Middle East Awards taking home no less than four awards.
The Japanese restaurant walked off with the much coveted ‘Bar of the Year’ and ‘Restaurant of the Year’ awards; while chef Hugh Gardiner took home ‘Chef of the Year’ in a standalone restaurant and Garth Beer won the ‘Sommelier of the Year’ award.
Bartender Brett Bell was highly commended in the ‘Bartender of the Year’ category.
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Okku co-founder Markus Thesleff was beside himself with excitement at the achievement.
“It feels insane, awesome, I love it, look at my smiles, it is ridiculous!” he said.
Thesleff said the success was down to the brand continually trying to innovate and push the envelope.
“Everybody is pushing to win these awards and it’s about what are we doing to be different. We were the first to come in with the heavy mixology here, we were the first to get all the fresh fruit. We are always pushing the boundaries and this year we really focused on our wines and being different, getting the Japanese whiskies and really going strong on them which no one had done before.”
Okku is set to open a branch in London soon, becoming the first SME out of Dubai to expand into London.
“Dubai is not known for its culinary innovation, here everybody just grabs brands and opens them and no one really cares – but we started here and we are the first SME to go to London. It’s exciting and it’s scary we are going to go play with the big boys now.
“The fact that our names is being talked about in the same sentences as – Nobu and Zuma - for us it’s just a huge honour. You dream but you never think you’re going to do it.”
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