Media Rotana's Daniele Capobianco cooks up a storm

Devina Divecha, October 30th, 2014

Media Rotana Hotel's speciality chef - Italian cuisine Daniele Capobianco - walked away with the title of Chef de Cuisine of the Year at the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2014.

The category was sponsored by Meinl Julius, and Capobianco beat stiff competition, with Stefano Viola from St. Regis Abu Dhabi named as the highly commended nominee.

He stood out for the judges as being the driving force behind the success of his Italian restaurant, Prego, despite its slightly awkward location.

Capobianco has been instrumental in driving the success of Media Rotana, a solid Italian restaurant that does exceptionally well. The restaurant scored 100% for hygiene last year, and the chef has effectively reduced Prego’s restaurant costs by 5% without compromising the quality of the food.

Speaking to Hotelier Middle East on the night of the Awards, he said: "I deal directly with suppliers and try to avail some offers that the supplier has. We never, ever compromise on the quality because it’s what brings the guests back."

Showing his committment to Italian cuisine, his pizza won the title of best pizza in the UAE 2013 at the Italian Cuisine World Summit. He then inspired colleagues from the hotel to increase their knowledge and creativity of Italian cuisine whereupon cross trainings are regularly requested.

He said: "When it comes to training in my outlet, you have to make the staff understand the real concept of Italian food."

The Hotelier Middle East Awards 2014 was held at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City. The event was supported by Du, A. Ronai, Restonic, MLA, Diversey, Arecont Vision, Canon, MMI, TCL, Horeca, Patchi, Pulsar Foodstuff Trading, Amir, and Julius Meinl.

Below is the full shortlist for the Chef de Cuisine of the Year Award, while full details including why each were chosen can be found here:

Bronzon Luis Murzello, JW Marriott Marquis Dubai
Daniele Capobianco, Media Rotana, Dubai
Manoj Aswal, Kempinski Hotel Ajman
Quinten Lauder, Conrad Dubai
Stefano Viola, St. Regis Abu Dhabi