Okku Dubai, located at the H Hotel, Sheikh Zayed Road, took home the Restaurant Team of the Year - Independent award at the Caterer Middle East Awards 2016.
Okku has managed to thrive for seven years in the Dubai F&B sector, having opened its doors in February 2009.
Speaking to Caterer Middle East at the awards, Okku founder Markus Thesleff said: “Winning at the Caterer Awards is an amazing feeling. We are very surprised for this award; for some of the other awards I thought we had a change but this one was a surprise.
"It’s been a while since we were recognised like this for our achievements, and we really appreciate it – we work very hard in the past 36 months and it has paid off.
He continued: “The reason we are so successful is because we are a family, if you look at everything we do , we are one big family, and it goes across all our brands, all the teams, there is 400 of us and we operate as one, there is no secret, this is just what we do, its passion.
“We realise that we are only as good as the last dish we served, and that’s what it is all about for us, and we use our guests as our ambassadors, so for us it is a total commitment and focus on being able to give them an experience and we it that really personally, and really, truthfully – is all thanks to this team, they work day in and day out and they give everything to it – we are there only to open the doors to them.”
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The judges commended the team's 0% staff turnover, and 1,986 cross training hours completed which has resulted in 26% of their staff internally promoted during the last two quarters.
Judges also recognised additional accomplishments such as a 6% decrease in food costs, a tripling of brunch numbers have over the past year, an increase of 11.3% in business lunches.
Highly commended in this category was awarded to Asia Asia Dubai.
The shortlist of nominee’s for the Restaurant Independant Team of the Year Award also featured Mint Leaf of London, Seven Sands, Trader Vics Souk Madinat and Zero Gravity.
Sponsoring the category was TSSC, and presenting the award was business development manager Rashid Bahar from TSSC.
The Caterer Middle East Awards was held at the Conrad Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road, 1 June 2016.
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