On Friday 4 March, chefs from three restaurants came together to take part in Dubai Food Festival’s Worldwide Cook-off at the Etisalat Beach Canteen, the central hub of the event.
Alessandro Miceli, head chef of Roberto’s, Kiichi Okabe, chef de cuisine from Okku Dubai, and Cesar Bartolini, chef de cuisine of Bread Street Kitchen by Gordon Ramsay created seafood dishes at the event.
Italian, Japanese and British guests partnered up with each of the chefs to prepare a similar dish.
The concept of the ‘Worldwide Cook-off’ was created for the Etisalat Beach Canteen by Alice Scuratti, founder of Dubai-based Italian cooking class company, Fatto in Casa.
Scuratti said: “As Dubai is home to people from different nationalities, we thought it would be great to bring together people from various communities with chefs from iconic restaurants around Dubai so that they could cook for us live at the Etisalat Beach Canteen.”
Italian guest Chef Amanda Roselli made her own home-cooked version of risotto with peas while Chef Alessandro from Roberto’s did a gourmet version of the risotto.
Chef Kiichi Okabe from Okku Dubai used a 7kg fresh tuna that was shipped in from Japan. With him was Sachiko Saito, a member of the Japanese community in Dubai, who wanted to learn how to replicate the tuna sesame dish he prepared.
The last in the cook-off series saw Chef Cesar Bartolini, chef de cuisine, Bread Street Kitchen by Gordon Ramsay.
British Rebecca Hall helped him slice the stone bass fish while he prepared a simple avocado and lime zest purée to go with the fish.
Chef Cesar Bartolini said: “The dish involved the use of simple ingredients because I wanted to show people that cooking is not hard or time-consuming. It is possible to simplify dishes according to your taste and the time that you have.”
The Etisalat Beach Canteen is open from 12pm – 10pm on weekdays and from 10am – 10pm during the weekends of Dubai Food Festival 2016, which runs until 12 March under the theme Celebrate Taste’.
