Dubai dines out on its delicious new reputation

Michelin has just launched its first guide to the emirate’s tastiest restaurants – and Sarah Hedley Hymers can’t wait to tuck in

Culinary history was made in the Middle East in June when Michelin launched its first-ever guide in Dubai. Michelin’s international director Gwendal Poullennec revealed that the guide’s anonymous inspectors have been secretly reviewing Dubai restaurants for years and, finally, the destination has been deemed delicious enough to have its own little red guide book.

While there wasn’t a restaurant judged to be “worth a special journey”, the criteria for the maximum three-star rating, two places received two stars for “excellent cooking worth a detour” and nine restaurants were awarded a star for being “very good”.

Emotions ran high as Poullennec announced the winning restaurants and invited the head chefs to join him on stage at Dubai Opera. I watched as some cried with joy and others battled to hide their frustration. There was more than a soupçon of disappointment that some of Dubai’s homegrown one-star winners didn’t score more highly. Dubai’s dedicated foodies had anticipated two stars apiece for Trèsind Studio, led by Indian chef Himanshu Saini; Hoseki, helmed by sushi master Masahiro Sugiyama, and aquarium-facing Ossiano at Atlantis, run by French chef Gregoire Berger.

Proving that Dubai is ripe for investment in culinary outposts, both of the top-scoring restaurants, Stay by Yannick Alléno and Il Ristorante – Niko Romito, are fronted by chefs already running Michelin-starred restaurants overseas. Niko Romito’s Reale flagship restaurant in Italy’s

Castel di Sangro holds three Michelin stars. Over in Paris, Yanick Alléno has his own Michelin constellation; three stars for Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen, two stars for L’Abysse and one star for Pavyllon.

Paris is, of course, a mature market for gourmet travellers. Michelin was born in France in 1889, the brainchild of two tyre-selling brothers, André and Édouard Michelin, who wanted to increase sales by guiding motorists on road trips to restaurants so they would wear down their tyres more quickly.

Today, Paris is home to 119 Michelinstarred establishments compared with Dubai’s 11. While Dubai failed to scoop a three-star rating anywhere, Paris has 10 restaurants that hold the lauded trio. By comparison, Italy only has 11 three-starred restaurants across the entire country. Meanwhile, Tokyo has maintained the accolade of being the city with the most Michelin stars for more than a decade with 212 Michelinstarred restaurants, 12 of them threestar champs.

Regardless of location, any Michelin star rating is game-changing for a restaurant and the chef running the pass. Lives were changed overnight for Stay’s chef Renaud Dutel and Il Ristorante’s Giacomo Amicucci, who have become the culinary kings of Dubai. They each carry the weighty burden of maintaining two stars, while the one-star winners are on a mission to earn a second star in 2023. As a result of the intense effort being made in Dubai’s kitchens, there’s never been a better time to dine in the emirate. Here’s exactly where to eat this season...