Is regional cuisine under-represented?

The Middle East is not sufficiently in touch with its own gastronomic roots, according to one Arabic TV personality.

Suzanne Husseini — presenter of Arabic Food Network cooking show Fatafeat — said Arabic food was not “justly represented” in the region.

“It’s part of the Mediterranean cuisine that people often ignore and don’t recognise; they just lump the Middle East into one mysterious group. They know hummous, they know tabouleh, and everything in between is just a mystery,” she said.

Cravia’s Zaater w Zeit senior brand manager Mahmoud Harb agreed: “If you look at the brands around you, Zaatar w Zeit was the leader in this kind of business when it started because we were doing something that no one else was doing.

“We need to have more brands representing food from the region,” he asserted.

Kiran Kureshi, marketing manager for Intercat Hospitality, added: “We talk about tourism and the dynamic global population that visits the Middle East — and they want to try authentic Arabic cuisine. What would be the point of coming all the way from United States and only eating burgers?”

However Radisson SAS Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek director of kitchens Uwe Micheel said he did not entirely agree that local food was under-represented.

“We have a lot of Arabic restaurants in Dubai, especially Lebanese, and quite a few good ones as well. All hotels have Arabic dishes on their room service menus, coffee shop menus, buffet restaurants and catering menus in dhow and outside.

“But I strongly believe Emirati cuisine does not get enough attention,” he added. “The Emirates Culinary Guild has already done competitions featuring Emirati cuisine and DTCM launched an initiative during Ramadan; but all this is not enough. More hotels should get involved in discovering Emirati cuisine in my opinion as well.