It’s no secret that the barriers to entry for independent restaurateurs in the UAE include, but aren’t limited to — rents, sizes of spaces available for lease, and of course, finances. So when a chef/restaurateur strikes it out alone in the market, there’s always a story to tell. John Buenaventura is the chef and owner of Cuisinero Uno, a concept that has leased a space on the second floor of the Steigenberger Hotel, Business Bay.
The cuisine is hard to pin down, and Buenaventura calls it “Dubai cuisine” with a mix of Emirati, Mediterranean, Spanish and Asian flavours, using as much as organic, locally sourced and seasonal produce as possible. The space is industrial, with graffiti on some walls of the space — created by Buenaventura himself. It has a high ceiling, with LED and pin lights illuminating one of three bars, with 14 chef counters. The restaurant leads out to a terrace where the outdoor bar and a shisha corner is located. It’s also home to an aquaponics greenhouse, which Buenaventura installed very recently. The young chef comments: “I’m trying to do a farm-to-table experience; it’s not going to be enough to sustain the restaurant but at least you’re teaching something to the public about sustainability, and about respecting the ingredients.” The final bar is a certified Jack Daniel’s Room — a multi-functional space for private gatherings and special occasions.
The journey to getting the restaurant open has been fraught and filled with obstacles. Yet, Buenaventura keeps smiling. He started his career when he was 17 years old, and went to culinary school in the Philippines. Soon after, he opened his first restaurant, and failed. He says honestly: “I was too young, I was too naïve. I was fresh out of culinary school, I took up a master’s degree in entrepreneurship in the food industry so I thought I could do it. One-and-a-half year afterwards it closed, just because I didn’t have enough experience. So I went back to basics.”
Buenaventura kept at it, and then arrived in the UAE in 2007 as a commis in InterContinental Dubai Festival City, after which he moved to the Four Seasons Explorer in the Maldives. One year later, the young chef moved to Raffles Dubai and then the Monte Carlo Group. After a brief stint at Fairmont the Palm, he moved to Seafire Steakhouse and Bar at Atlantis, The Palm. Drawing on these memories, he cites John Cordeaux and Sascha Triemer — both well known in the regional F&B industry — as great influences and mentors in his path.
But he was still restless, and in July 2016, resigned. He told Triemer that he wanted to open his own restaurant, which the Atlantis veteran encouraged him to do. It took Buenaventura six months to work on a solid business plan, and as part of the process carried out an extensive study on Business Bay and DIFC, and also the Marina and JLT. He also had to worry about recruitment, but all of Buenaventura’s team members are ex-colleagues from different jobs. He tells Caterer that when he told them about his plan, they decided they wanted to join him.
While Buenaventura reveals more off-the-record, he does commit to saying that he had a difficult time pre-opening, with the first investment vehicle disappearing soon from the scene. After he got new investors, Buenaventura also committed to supporting his team with the venture, with team members getting 5% of the total net income, “so everyone is a stakeholder”, he says.
Buenaventura admits: “The one year to build this was a struggle. It was hand to mouth. It was not continuous build. There were days where there was zero in the bank account. But it’s a good thing, because I think if I didn’t struggle that hard, I’d be the most arrogant guy in the world. It kept me grounded.” The main challenge, he notes, are the finances. Buenaventura loves the location, and says that initial scouting led him to DIFC but nothing ever worked out. He stumbled on this space by chance, and it all clicked. “They [the hotel] weren’t looking for a franchise, they were looking for something quirky, something new,” he says happily.
And so after a year of uncertainties, the restaurant soft opened on July 14, with the grand opening taking place on September 29. Buenaventura says that while it’s a food-driven establishment, there will be a 60/40 split for beverage and food.
Talking about the food, Buenaventura says: “It’s a place where you go for personalised cuisine. I call it Dubai cuisine because we don’t have a specific cuisine to work from. We mix a lot of Emirati cuisine and ingredients, a lot of Spanish and Mediterranean cuisine.” Here, chefs themselves, Buenaventura included, serve the guests.
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