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Authentic, affordable slice of Italy

The Naked Chef — which is one of Jamie Oliver’s sobriquets — is coming to Dubai. No, this is not a sartorial statement you have to get worried about; it’s a celebration of a cuisine that is typical of one of the world’s best-known chefs. Oliver’s ‘nakedness’ has to do with simplicity — and a veneer-less style of cooking.

Jamie’s Italian is being brought to your city by the Jawad Business Group and in a freewheeling interview with Khaleej Times, Tapan Vaidya, general manager of the group’s restaurants division gives us a peek into what lies ahead on Dubai’s culinary platter.

It is always a challenge to open yet another restaurant in Dubai since it is already so filled with world-class dining-out options. What will be the USP of Jamie’s Italian?

It is indeed challenging to open an investment-intensive restaurant and then make it work in Dubai. Jamie’s Italian is, however, a concept where Jamie Oliver has delicately managed to create true Italian cuisine with his own tweak. There is no doubt all Jamie’s fans will have a wonderful time but I am confident those who may not know of Jamie will also follow suit soon after the opening.

When and where is it being opened?

Jamie’s Italian will open in Dubai Festival City’s Marina Pavilion, by the canal. It is a beautiful setting. We expect to open soon in the New Year — I recommend Jamie’s fans to watch this space for the exact date as we ready the facility and finally decide on the most appropriate date of opening in the New Year.

Most celebrity chefs who’ve opened restaurants in Dubai — for example, Gordan Ramsay’s Verre (at the Hilton), Nobu Matsuhisa’s Nobu (at The Atlantis), Vineet Bhatia (at Grosvenor House) — cater to the high-end clientele. Jamie’s Italian calls itself ‘Authentic affordable Italian restaurants’. Comment.

Jamie’s Italian is absolutely an affordable and authentic restaurant. Let me give you some examples without giving away too many secrets of our closely guarded menu. We have appetisers starting from Dh24; pastas from Dh40; entrées from Dh59 and starting from Dh26. Jamie’s Italian truly believes that everyone should be able to enjoy healthy and sometimes indulgent but good, original and delicious food and we have done our best to ensure our menu items and prices will be loved by one and all in Dubai.

Why did you, as a group, pitch for Jamie Oliver? Was he excited at this opportunity? Is this the first Jamie’s Italian outside of the UK?

At Jawad Business Group, we have followed Jamie Oliver’s progress right from the time he worked at the River Café — a restaurant which brought to London authentic Italian food, some new dining concepts including an open kitchen and a happening dining area. Jamie’s progress since his River Café days is history. Once Jamie’s Italian was successful in the UK high streets, it was a no-brainer to approach them to come to the GCC.

However, I admit it was not at all easy to win their approval. Jamie Oliver is such a wonderful and humane personality; the Jamie’s Italian brand expects the same qualities with every entity they work with. This took many months of visits to the region by Jamie’s Italian International personnel and finally they were happy — and so were we — to sign off the agreement to develop Jamie’s Italian in the GCC.

This restaurant in DFC will be the first Jamie’s Italian outside the UK. All 15 restaurants in the UK have done so phenomenally well that it was an easy decision to go abroad for Jamie’s Italian International. Dubai was a natural choice given its vibrant and cosmopolitan nature. Global recession did not stand anywhere in between! Jamie Oliver is excited at working with us and we, at Jawad Business Group, can’t wait to open more restaurants in the region after Dubai — in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Doha followed by the rest of GCC.

Tell us more about Jamie: he’s known as The Naked Chef — because of his love for simplicity, nothing else! — he’s known for his disregard of rival chef Gordan Ramsay’s swearing, he’s been an active campaigner for nutritious school food in the UK, doesn’t believe in processed food, does a lot of charity work, is a television star, an author in his own right... He comes across as being an incredibly cool person: will his restaurant be a representation of his cool quotient?

Jamie Oliver is indeed an incredibly cool person and I believe Jamie’s Italian will, in more ways than one, personify his persona. The menu will reflect his culinary persona; the staff will reflect his social persona but more than that each member of our team will have his/her own persona, which will shine through during interactions with our guests.

The menu and all raw food materials sourced are as simple, original and ‘naked’ as they can be. This process has been long and arduous but certainly worth it because our guests will get to taste what they are unlikely to eat at any similar restaurant.

Richard Drake, our operations manager for Jamie’s Italian in the region, has worked with Jamie’s Italian in the UK and knows exactly how to make every visitor to our Dubai restaurant feel that he or she is indeed in a Jamie’s Italian restaurant. Alyson Humpleby, our general manager for the DFC Restaurant, did exceedingly well during her training at multiple Jamie’s Italian restaurants in and around the UK. She will no doubt ensure a genuine Jamie’s Italian culinary as well as social experience for all our guests.

Did you conduct a market research before deciding to launch Jamie’s Italian? If yes, what kind of broad findings did you come across?

Yes, a market research was indeed in order before an investment of such high magnitude could be made. It established that Jamie Oliver was certainly the chef of choice over some of the names you have mentioned in this interview and everyone felt they needed a restaurant that served ‘real’ and simple food, which tasted great. This is what we will serve at Jamie’s Italian.

Give us a peek into what lies in store on the menu. Will it be the same menu served in the UK (with some regional tweaks) or will it be different?

The menu in the GCC is naturally not the same given the difference in local tastes and customs but the menu is not entirely different either. Giving the menu away now would be akin to showing the climax in the trailer of a suspense movie but I assure you and your readers that each menu item has gone thorough the careful hands and eyes and more importantly, palates of Jamie Oliver and his team of chefs, one of whom — Abs Patil, head chef at the DFC restaurant — will be personally involved in all culinary activities at the restaurant on a daily basis.

With the Jawad group having a stake in such a vast number of eateries), what have you learnt about the restaurants market in Dubai?

I have been in the region for 21 years now so I have had the benefit of observing the Dubai restaurants market since the early 90’s when Bur Dubai and some parts of Jumeirah had the best restaurants apart from the then Intercontinental Hotel on the Creek having a great mix of concepts on their mezzanine floor. The somewhat unchecked growth of the restaurants scene in Dubai during the last decade and a half unfortunately needed a correction, which happened in the shadow of global recession. What I saw was that restaurateurs who had a genuine offer with a product that was original and which tasted great at a price that was fair worked, and those restaurants are doing well. I believe that people in Dubai want food prepared using original, fresh and healthy ingredients, which also must taste great.

Apart from Jamie’s Italian, you’re also planning to bring Brooklyn Diner to the GCC. How do you plan to replicate the all-American diner experience in Dubai? Is there a market for it? What will be its USP?

We will be opening the first Brooklyn Diner outlet here in the Marina Pavilion at Dubai Festival City around the same time as Jamie’s Italian. We can’t wait to showcase it in Dubai — nor can founder and chairman Shelly Fireman, who will personally attend 
the opening of this fine diner, which is known to regularly host celebrities such as Richard Branson and Paul McCartney.

There will be something for everyone including those who want to catch a live sporting action on multiple large format screens. The centrepiece would be a special painting of a baseball game at Brooklyn’s famous Ebbet’s Field baseball park near Flatbush in Brooklyn. Ebbet’s Field was demolished in 1960’s but continues to live in the hearts of all who knew its prominence during the first half of the 20^th century! Brooklyn Diner is a fine diner where one would find the man in-charge in a tuxedo with sneakers — a harmony of different cultures so true of Brooklyn.

sushmita@khaleejtimes.com