Multi-award
winning Chef Benjamin Whatt launches new culinary menu and concept as
own signature defining cuisine at Quest restaurant, Abu Dhabi
Dubai, August 15 2013:
Chef Benjamin Whatt, Chef de Cuisine at Quest restaurant, Jumeirah at
Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi, has launched an entirely new menu and culinary
concept under the title of “Inspirational Asian Fine Dining”. The
multi-award winning chef and recipient of numerous awards and accolades
including “Chef of the Year, Abu Dhabi, 2012” by What’s On, developed
the cuisine concept to both engage and excite cuisine connoisseurs and
food lovers alike with modern interpretations of Asian classics that
gastronomically play with both one’s taste buds and minds through
culinary illusions and new epicurean experiences. The launch of the new
cuisine genre is part of Chef Benjamin asserting himself as a culinary
visionary within the UAE, Middle East and beyond, as a new breed of chef
whose cuisine is self-assured, at times comical, thoughtful and above
all, passionate, generous and sensory.
Says Chef Benjamin: “My passion and goal is to provide true dining experiences where people
feel just as they might at the end of a great play or film, concert or
exhibition. My dishes are a composition of drama, intrigue, comedy and
fantasy on each plate, with plot and sub-plot. I want guests through my
cuisine to remember what it was like to see things again through the
eyes of a child, where imagination and interpretation sparkle and shine,
innocence is rekindled and frolics in their minds and on their taste
buds. Through my cuisine I want people to reminisce, regain a youthful
outlook and feel alive.”
While
each dish on the menu clearly bears Chef Benjamin’s unique signature a
couple of notable highlights include; “California Maki”, based on the
Japanese international favourite, Chef Benjamin presents the dish as an
edible wafer thin card depicting am image of a maki roll. The dish
doesn’t even appear as “food”, but bite into it, and all the traditional
flavours of a California Maki are there, confusing one’s eyes and mind,
but not the tastebuds. Another notable dish is “Breakfast at
Tiffany’s”, a dessert inspired by the movie of the same name, providing
an illusion of being served a sachet of muesli cereal, egg and ham
croissant and a cup of café latte.
Vegetarian
options feature heavily within the new menu and as part of the new
“Inspirational Asian Fine Dining”, not necessarily to fully appease
vegetarian foodies but because of the more difficult challenge it
presented. Says Chef Benjamin: “To come up with a vegetarian dish that
can create the same sensation and level of satisfaction for both a meat
eater and vegetarian is a serious challenge that immediately attracted
me. Choosing the obviously tougher option is in my nature.”
Representative of one of the vegetarian dishes is “Aubergine”, which
provides the illusion of being served charcoal over a bed of hot ash,
complete with its own heat flavours.
For further information, enquiries and bookings for dining at Jumeirah at Etihad Towers contact:
Tel: +971 2 811 5666
Fax: +971 2 811 5588
E-mail: JADrestaurants@jumeirah.com
Website: www.jumeirah.com
