However, he’s appreciative of the choice available in Dubai. “You’re quite fortunate in the fact that you’ve got Europe, Asia, Australia and the US. So I’m not going to say the word local, but in essence of the world ‘local’, you can tap into pretty much every food market.”
Aikens opens up a bit more about his relationship with his Dubai team. He says: “I keep in touch with a lot of the chefs who worked with me. Ibi was thinking of leaving the Westin and I told him about the concept. Obviously from a chef’s point of view, it’s much easier to have someone on the ground, someone who knows the system and the suppliers.”
The duo worked together to create the menu offering, which includes a mixture of English, French and Mediterranean cuisine. Aikens reveals he shared all his ideas and plans with Musleh. He then asked Musleh to send back ideas of his own, after which he created the menu. “Part of the menu has developed since we started doing tastings. We did five days at the last tasting; we did almost 60 dishes in five days,” he says.
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I point out that it sounds like a party in theory, but stressful in practice. He agrees. “It was intense. It’s almost like doing a cooking marathon non-stop. Just ploughing through it… and then we obviously had to make it all. And then you have to finish it off and taste it all!” laughs Aikens.
“In that way, we started pinpointing what dishes we were going to use. We have a backlog of others which aren’t on the menu, and did other tastings [with] his ideas and tweaked my dishes.”
It’s interesting that he’s happy to let his head chef share the reins on the project. Aikens notes: “It’s definitely something that we’ve done together and it’s important to involve the senior staff, so that they can embrace it as much as me. As I said, he’s here on the ground and he knows what’s good. Obviously there isn’t as much of a seasonality here as in the UK, but he knows more than I do of what’s good and what isn’t, and that will stipulate what is and what isn’t on the menu.”
Not just the menu, but the interior was carefully thought about as well. Led by Aikens and designed by Michaelis Boyd Associates, the restaurant fit-out has been inspired by an old-fashioned rustic home kitchen, with a range of hanging copper pots and pans, old kitchen knives and large heavy cleavers stuck into antique kitchen wall tiles. Large communal size sharing tables made from reclaimed wood join areas for individual diners and smaller crowds, with bar stool seats alongside the marble kitchen counter and restaurant, where they can witness action in the open kitchen.
Aikens admits the concept was “all me”, having personally picked every item that decorates the restaurant, which he collected from various markets on his travels in the UK and France. He says: “Down to every detail, the tiles, the floor, the chairs, the lighting, the banquette, all of these I bought myself. I went to different markets and bought them all.” He points to five chandeliers constructed out of 15-20 copper pans each, and proudly tells me he bought them too.
“I chose the stations, the tables, the reception desks. It’s funny when you have an idea or concept and you see it on paper or PowerPoint, and you actually see it come to life… It’s a lot better than what I imagined,” he adds.
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