When a kitchen blooms
Memories of the legendary fire that shuttered its doors evidently still haunt Khyber, going by a chat with kitchen designer Naresh Shahani, who proudly shows off the misty hoods above the charcoal tandoors in the 1,850-sq-ft kitchen of the Dukes Dubai restaurant. With eight people from his firm BHS Design World, he’s spent the better part of a year designing and sourcing equipment to comply with Dubai’s stringent hospitality regulations, he says, talking to tabloid! at Khyber Dubai launch party earlier this week. “The municipality code is 300 pages,” he exclaims, “and I spent six months just reading it, with printouts all over my office!”
The emirate’s authorities changed the fire code recently, and facilities management firms everywhere have scurried to comply.
Based in Mumbai, BHS designs and fits out professionals kitchens. Its Dubai association goes back to the BurJuman food court in the 1990s.
The biggest challenge, Shahani says, was getting approval for charcoal tandoors. “Every other Indian restaurant in Dubai has gas tandoors, but they just don’t give the same taste. So we asked and asked and finally got approval,” he says. Those extractor hoods, along with several other state-of-the-art pieces, are part of the reason why, he explains, since the continuous flow of water both cools the air and works to deter fires.
“You build a good kitchen, you get good chefs. And if you get good chefs, you get good food coming out consistently. That brings the customers back,” he explains. “When I do it my way, the kitchen just blooms.”