Long gone are the days when big name chefs popped to Dubai, put their name above a restaurant door and departed, considering their work done.
Today, the city is home to a wide range of top industry talent. And increasingly, many of its boldest stars are looking to build upon their success in the UAE and branch out internationally.
It’s a mission that’s increasingly important to chef and restaurateur Reif Othman who, after 13 years of raising the profile of Asian cuisine in the UAE, recently expanded into Cairo and Saudi Arabia. Now, fresh from inclusion in the Gault&Millau UAE 2022 guide, he’s setting his sights on Europe, with an exciting collaborative pop-up event taking place this weekend in Copenhagen.
“I’m going to host a collaboration dinner with Kristian Baumann at his new restaurant JUJU,” Othman smiles. “He is an ex-Noma chef with amazing knowledge and experience.”
Together, the chefs will be preparing a Korean-led menu using entirely Danish ingredients, capitalising on Copenhagen’s wealth of sustainable produce as well as the city’s love of Asian flavours.
“I have a strong desire to connect with the people and culture of Copenhagen,” Othman says of the event. “The Danish F&B industry is different from the UAE. They are very strict about using local produce. They take sustainability very seriously. It’s all about supporting the farmers. So it will be very interesting to see how we can create my kind of food with Danish ingredients.”
While the dinner is a one-night-only affair aimed at the city’s most influential media and hospitality names, for Othman, it’s an opportunity to test the water for future expansion.
“Apparently, Asian cuisine is huge there, so I wanted to explore the opportunity of potentially launching Reif Japanese Kushiyaki but with Danish ingredients. It’s a fantastic opportunity for me to get the Reif name out there and see if I could potentially expand to Copenhagen.”
It’s not the only expansion Othman is planning. In addition to new Middle Eastern markets, the restaurateur and his business partner Ahsan Kahlon have also been busy increasing their footprint locally, with a licensed 80-cover Reif Japanese Kushiyaki restaurant in Dubai Hills and a TERO Chef’s Table outpost next door both due to open this autumn.
Othman is already planning that kitchen’s collaborations with Bauman to bring his Danish expertise to Dubai. “By that time our Dubai Hills locations will be open, so I will bring him there to collaborate on a chef’s table dinner with me,” Othman explains, saying he views collaboration, both at home and abroad, as critical to his brand’s development.
“Although my focus right now is the Middle East, I believe that collaborations are an ‘in’ for many Dubai chefs who want to break into another region. Done well, collaborations can offer intellectual endeavours for both chefs. It’s about adapting to and working with another chef’s style while staying true to your own.
“Chefs in Dubai love to host collaboration dinners. However, I would love to see more of them connecting with chefs abroad.”