In celebration of its strategic partnership of the ongoing Dubai Food Festival, Emirates has collaborated with friend of the Festival and celebrity chef, Silvena Rowe, to create a signature menu for its six airport lounges in Dubai. Emirates’ premium customers can experience a customized menu of Chef Silvena’s distinctive modern Emirati cuisine.
Heavily influenced by traditional Arabic-Emirati cooking and by modern haute cuisine, Chef Silvena’s innovative approach to cooking will resonate with Emirates’ global customer. In Dubai’s three First Class lounges, customers can choose from an a la carte menu comprising some of Chef Silvena’s most popular dishes including an appetizer of Seared prawns with warm sumac vinaigrette, Hammour shawarma tawook, grilled succulent cubes of locally caught hammour marinated in shawarma spices as well as a 12-hour Lamb, slow cooked and pulled with golden Emirati bezar spice blend as main course options, and a dessert of Passion fruit curd and mascarpone. As a buffet selection in both Business Class and First Class Lounges, customers can enjoy Roasted free-range chicken with sumac and za’atar, and a pomegranate glaze.
On an average day, Emirates lounges expect to serve upwards of 1,350 portions of Chef Silvena’s dishes to their customers between their Business Class and First Class lounges. The new dishes will be adding unique new flavours, to an already diverse menu that on its own, includes over 150 different meal offerings from different international cuisines. Chef Silvena’s dishes will be served through the remainder of the Dubai Food Festival, the 28th of February.
“We are always looking to innovate and offer an enhanced customer experience. This culinary collaboration is a great way to delight our customers while showcasing local talent and our support for the Dubai Food Festival,” said Mohammed Mattar – Divisional Senior Vice President, Emirates Airport Services. “We never compromise on quality and pay as much attention to the on-ground experience, as we do to the onboard product and service. I am confident that our customers will enjoy Chef’s Silvena’s creations, which capture so well the traditional, yet fast-paced and modern flavour of Dubai.”
“This year’s Dubai Food Festival is a city-wide celebration of the menus of the 200 nationalities that reside in Dubai; the internationally-recognised chefs who are located here; our collection of homegrown restaurants; and Emirati culture and cuisine,” said Her Excellency Laila Mohammed Suhail, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment (DFRE), organiser of the Dubai Food Festival said. “We are delighted to be working with our partner Emirates, and friend of the Festival, Silvena Rowe, to provide a sample of the Festival, Arabian hospitality and Emirati food to the thousands of visitors who experience Emirates lounges every day. This is the ideal platform to showcase the tastes of Dubai to our guests from the region and beyond.”
Award-winning Chef Silvena Rowe appears regularly on the BBC and as a guest judge on popular TV show ‘Chopped’. A globalista in her own right, Chef Silvena’s multi-cultural heritage is a huge influence in defining her culinary style. An author of eight cookbooks, she has entertained a host of world famous personalities during her career at her London restaurant, Quince. Now, she is taking on Dubai’s vibrant restaurant scene with her distinctive menu that supports organic, locally-sourced ingredients, with her restaurants Omnia Gourmet, Omnia by Silvena and Omnia Blue.
Emirates operates 37 dedicated lounges around its six-continent network including lounges in Auckland, Bangkok, Beijing, Birmingham, Brisbane, Colombo, Delhi, Dubai (x6) , Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Los Angeles, Manchester, Melbourne, Milan, Munich, New York – JFK, Paris – Charles de Gaulle, Perth, Rome, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Zurich.
Dubai Food Festival showcases the Emirate’s emergence as a gastronomy destination through a 23-day programme of food-related consumer and trade events, activities, promotions and appearances by food celebrities. The Festival promotes the diversity, creativity and multicultural nature of Dubai’s culinary offering – from five-star gourmet dining to everyday restaurants and cafés for all budgets; international brands to a burgeoning scene of home-grown concepts influenced by traditional Emirati cuisine and the flavours of the 200 nationalities that live in Dubai.
While Emirates does provide a great deal of attractive menu to its customers, they have very little consideration for vegetarians. Emirates has a big business from India, and a huge population of Indians are vegetarians. Unfortunately within the GCC sector, there is no option for vegetarians because their menu is fixed with some kind of meat or fish. I have complained several times, but so far it has fallen on deaf ears.