Outlaw was in for a surprise — when he visited the hotel, he found a box of oysters from Ireland, which are the same kind he uses at his London restaurant, and a box of fish from Cornwall.
“I thought,” he says, “we can do something here! From that point, I got excited.”
Another deal-breaker for Outlaw would have been the people who would work at the restaurant — especially the head chef and restaurant manager. “I got back to London and [spoke to] Pete Biggs, who’s my head chef and has been working for me for the last 15 years, and Sharon McArther who will be the general manager.”
Biggs and McArther were immediately sold, and flew out to Dubai with Outlaw on his next trip to get a feel for the project themselves. “They both got the same vibe, and thought it was a good challenge. If they had said no, I wouldn’t be here, and if the ingredients weren’t good enough I wouldn’t be here.” He says the team is especially important because “they are the ones who are going to carry my name on the front of the restaurant”.
Committed to the restaurant, Outlaw plans to visit his Dubai restaurant at least six times a year. And he doesn’t want to do much other than cook with his team. He says: “I’m not the sort of chef that will be swanning around Dubai and going to shindigs and drinking champagne. I’ll come here and work with the guys and raise the standards because that’s what I like doing.”
He muses: “People sometimes look negatively at chefs who have lots of restaurants but what they don’t realise that the fun bit is that we get to cook in all these places. When it does go wrong is when you do start swanning around and you get celeb-spotted rather than being the kitchen.”
Outlaw says this is not the first time he’s been asked to collaborate on a project, and says, without any trace of arrogance, that it’s become a weekly affair. However, he will never, he stresses, take on a project unless he is convinced he will be able to give it his all. “I wouldn’t have even accepted if I didn’t think I could do it. I know when I can’t do something but I feel this is right for me and my style could fit very well in Dubai,” he adds.
Now that the Burj Al Arab collaboration is official, it’s down to the logistics of changing the interiors and executing the new menu. While Outlaw has not necessarily been involved in the “yes and no” decisions, he reveals his opinion has been carefully considered — which he appreciates. “That doesn’t happen sometimes, and I’m very happy with what’s going to happen and what it looks like. It’s going to be a brighter space, it’s going to be more accessible, a more comfortable place to sit in, which is all the things that tick the boxes in my cuisine.”
Outlaw says he has “total carte blanche” on the food, and has taken advice from the team that has worked in the restaurant for the last 16 years. The menu, which leans towards to the French fine dining style of cuisine, will now follow a British style of cooking.
He goes back to the ingredients: “I’m very lucky that Maxime (Luvara), who’s the executive chef here, has got very good suppliers. And the ingredients he’s got… as you can imagine for the Burj Al Arab, they’ve got some good stuff! I know there will be a lot of work to do, but a lot of the hard work is done. But because it’s got all the support… it’s as easy as it can be. I’m sure it won’t go all plain sailing but there is a big support.”
One thing Outlaw hopes to achieve is to increase the number of local products and suppliers. “I’m going to get out and try local cuisine and find local ingredients, which is something that hasn’t happened over the last 16 years in this restaurant. Which is no fault of theirs, it’s just something that wasn’t in fashion then. Now people are more aware of supporting local people and sustainability, and that’s what I do in the UK. The relationships I’ve got with my fishermen in Cornwall have taken me 13 years to establish.”
He concludes: “I probably am in danger of taking too much on my shoulders, because I do take on a lot, but it has to be done especially when you’ve got your name on the front of the restaurant.” And come Q3 2016, Dubai will see the results of his efforts.
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