Back of house
The menu at Intersect Be Lexus was created by its executive chef Tomas Reger, who has worked for a number of kitchens in the region, and is the man behind ‘Dubai’s Secret Supper Club’, ‘From One Chef To Another’ and ‘Bloomie’s Kitchen’. His dishes on the Intersect By Lexus menu, such as beet and barley risotto; Chilean seabass with yuzu glazed turnips and slow cooked beef short ribs with celeriac purée, are intended to be wholesome, relatively light fare, leaving diners satisfied but not uncomfortably full.
“To best describe the cuisine... I like to call it ‘feel good food’ because none of the dishes are heavy or overcomplicated so they leave guests feeling nourished and invigorated. The cuisine is cosmopolitan with the main focus on ingredients, and their natural flavour is enhanced by modern cooking techniques,” Reger remarks.
Nicholas adds: “The chef has tried to be organic where possible and wants to connect with Middle East food items and products, so he really wants to connect with farmers growing vegetables in the UAE. Our menu, wine and coffee will constantly develop, depending on the time of year and temperature.”
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“Intersect By Lexus fits into the type of people that we have here [in DIFC] — young, stylish people who want to have healthy food but are on the go. I like the concept of organic, fresh, simple yet tasteful and flavoursome. We are offering a style of food in a place you can feel comfortable. You can just come in and have a nice cup of coffee, make yourself at home, look at beautiful design books, and have great food and drink at the same time,” comments head sommelier Sarah Belanger, who was the winner of Caterer Middle East’s Sommelier of the Year Award in 2013.
She adds that the wine selection and the food menu work in unison. “We have a philosophy of offering organic products and with the wine list we are 100% organic. It fits with the food and chef Tomas’ vision — to have good quality wine that doesn’t affect the price, we are supporting the wineries that follow that philosophy. It [our wines] gives you the true expression of the grape variety to have organic wines showcase actual grape, the soil and the climate. We worked closely with A&E and MMI to handpick organic wines from their portfolio. We offer all of our wines by the glass and the wines are from all over the world — we picked them because they match the food.”
Discussing the glassware, Belanger continues: “We have great glassware, great food and great wine. We utilised the sommelier range [of glasses] — hand-blown, crystal glass that someone has spent time making. Every single glass we have can be matched with a specific wine; if this type of glass has this particular shape I will purse my lips a little bit more when drinking so then the wine will go more to the back of the throat and hit a specific area of tastebuds, or the amount of oxygen that is mixed in [is a factor in taste]. We chose beautiful glasses for wine — Riedel is an Austrian company and we imported it from its factory. The brand is very well known for its quality and especially the sommelier collection because of the crystal quantity in the glass and the fact they are hand-blown.”
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