Bring home the party

Dubai-based Amrita Dhar and her husband Arijit love having their friends over. In summers, they entertain them at least twice a month, but that number goes up easily during winters when they also like to make use of their garden. If the guest list exceeds 10 persons, Amrita, who works as a management consultant, says she usually outsources the meal preparation. "It's important to us to serve excellent food, so if I know I'll have trouble balancing work schedules with cooking up a storm, I'd much rather opt for caterers I know will do the job well."
The Indian expat is quite representative of the upscale lifestyle for many in Dubai, who are behind a burgeoning market for caterers in the city. No longer do celebrations, by default, mean you'll be heading out to the swankiest restaurant in town. Over the last decade, the number of catering companies has swelled, running the gamut from your choice of cuisine to servers, from sit-down feasts to stand-up gatherings, and from intimate dinners for two to a mini event of 250.
Marta Yanci, who founded Marta's Kitchen as a private chef in 2009, notes that back then, there were probably just a couple of outfits similar to her own. By 2012, however, she had to open a kitchen and hire some staff because business was really picking up. "There is certainly a market for this kind of service here," she says. "People in the UAE like to entertain guests at home, but like having someone taking care of the hassle. I am from Spain, and over there, we would cook for days [when we entertained at home] - so going for catering is probably a smarter choice!"
That doesn't mean you have to compromise on any element of indulgence either. "You can make it a fabulous occasion at home as well," asserts Marta, who fields about 30-40 events on average every month. "Plus, let's not forget about social media and people posting about everything nowadays - it would actually be as if you'd gone out." Repeat customers are at the heart of Marta's business, and she loves to tell of the client who she has seen through the engagement party to the wedding and two baby showers!
Everything revolves around what the client wants in this business - and sometimes, that may even include some stealth and secrecy! "Some people just want the food delivered and set for them, but don't want their friends to know they ordered catering, so they ask us to leave before any of the guests arrive," shares Marta, jovially. For her team, that's no problem at all.

(from left to right): Marta Yanci, David O'Brien, Amrita Dhar, and Tomas Reger
David O'Brien, managing partner at Ghaf Kitchen, who has been in the industry over 30 years, sheds some light on what is clearly the result of a change in lifestyles. "A lot of people have beautiful homes here, but don't have the skills to offer experiences that they'd normally go out for," he observes. "Many have house help too, so while they may be accomplished professionals, they may not necessarily be able to cook the way their grandmums used to, because they're not in the habit of doing so. And cooking, like any other art form, requires practice."
Yet, David adds their clients are also people who like hospitality done a certain way, so their job as caterers is to mirror those ideas or projections. "People in this sector are looking for a restaurant-quality experience that doesn't mean having to go to Zuma every time. But, naturally, you don't open your doors to just anybody. You want to know people will treat your home and your guests as you would, and leave your home as they found it. So, there's also a lot of trust involved."
Amrita echoes the sentiment, noting that while quality of food is the key determining factor in how they choose their caterers, the level of service is also just as important. "We prefer to go with folks who are intelligent about catering at home," she says, "who are warm and friendly, and interact with guests to find out their preferences - instead of mechanically dumping food on everyone's plates or shoving chicken lollipops under the noses of vegans who have vociferously made it clear that they don't eat meat. Caterers who don't meet those standards get dropped from our books immediately."
The case for home catering is even stronger if, like Amrita and her husband, you're crazy about your pets - or if, like many of their friends, you have small kids. "Taking your pets to any fine dining place in Dubai is always a big problem, as they aren't pet-friendly. We don't have children, so our dog [a black Labrador they've cheekily named Snowy!] is our kid, and we obviously want him to be part of all our special occasions. It's so much easier to make a party of it at home, so he has a good time too."
Despite how much they entertain people at home, Amrita assures their dining out has not suffered as a result. "Arijit and I are very big foodies, and one of our biggest fears when we moved to Dubai from Bombay in 2016 was that we may not be able to eat out as much as we liked." The couple were delighted to discover that Dubai only satiated - if not, fuelled - their appetite for a good meal out.
How much do these parties set them back? It varies widely, depending on the kind of party it is, says Amrita. "We're not very chuffed about cost, if it's a party of over 10 people, because I know I wouldn't be able to handle it at home. Indian food, for example, can range from Dh80-110 per plate, while a European caterer we tried recently for a more sophisticated do charged about Dh200 per plate."
All the industry experts we spoke to agree that their price points may put some people off, but add that sorting out the logistics of a bespoke restaurant experience justify those costs. Says David of Ghaf Kitchen, "When you go to a restaurant, you pay for the plates you order, and not the chefs, napkins or lightbulbs. But when you have a private chef executing the same experience for you at home, in many ways, the restaurant is coming to you. What's more, some clients require more than the menu, and will ask for lighting, furniture, flowers and music to be taken care of as well." They do, however, have a variety of menu plans for clients to choose from, as per their budget, and customers can choose from as little as Dh45 per head for a six-course meal of three canapes or as much as Dh250 per head for a six-course, sit-down signature dinner.
How far are clients willing to go to make a statement? Well, in the case of personal chef Tomas Reger, quite a way. The F&B consultant has, in the past, been booked for intimate dinners for two [the standard minimum head count is 10] - and even been flown out to Beirut, Bahrain, Kuwait and parts of Europe for culinary commissions. "These are people who like food, but are bored with the restaurant set-up, or who would like a more intimate meeting with business partners or friends," says Tomas, who, after nine years in the business, is better known as 'Chef Tomas' than for the many restaurants he's helped open or his company, Cruet Cooking Consultants.
Prior to the big day, Chef Tomas, who originally hails from Czech Republic, likes to head out to the farms and local markets to source ingredients; he also grows his own herbs and microgreens. The preparation goes beyond procuring food though, as he also needs to understand the equipment clients have. "I've worked in a lot of kitchens and often bring my own knives and chopping boards," he says. "Many, especially in the Marina area, only have a microwave and two burners, so that may be challenging to work with. For big events, I'd definitely need to see the kitchen beforehand, just to gain an understanding of the space and figure out if it has everything I'll need."
He's flexible during the meal service, being the chef that introduces each dish and answers questions for the couple during intimate dinners, or being discrete if he senses they'd like to be left alone. "But, most people like to show off the chef," says Tomas, "and I often have guests walk over to the kitchen during the meal preparations, which is really nice."
Across the board, the experts' advice to potential customers is the same: please give us as much time as you can. "Dubai is LastMinute.com," says David, not without humour. "Last year, we had 10 requests on New Year's Eve - to do New Year's Eve! We had to politely decline, but would've loved to have heard from them two weeks before." Sourcing ingredients in the country isn't always a cakewalk, which is why some lead in time would be helpful. "We'd need at least four days to (comfortably) cater to a party of 50, because it takes two days to order produce and get it delivered" says David. "We could do it in 48 hours at a crunch, but it will be really tight."
Of course, sometimes, no matter how much you plan, there are always factors you cannot control. David tells of an event he did recently for a French fashion house, which was launching a new collection on the rooftop of Yas Marina Mall with about 150 people in attendance, when, suddenly, the power failed. "There was some French exchanged," he quips, narrating how the team had to move their entire kitchen to another part of the mall, 500m away, in the space of 30 minutes."
Marta shares a similar story of improvisation of the time she did a small event at a client's home while pregnant with her second child. "I was exhausted and perhaps not as focused as usual, but arrived at the venue only to realise I hadn't packed our homemade pesto. I quickly improvised with some of the ingredients the client had in her fridge and prepared a pesto rosso!"
It takes experience to stay cool when things go belly up, and that's what a good caterer promises: top-notch service, no surprises, and bon appétit.
karen@khaleejtimes.com