Dubai Opera gets its first restaurant
Chef Sean Connolly launches Dubai Opera’s first restaurant as the venue celebrates its one-year anniversary. Plus, the theatre’s top 10 moments so far
In a food-obsessed city, it’s entirely appropriate that Dubai Opera’s first birthday present to itself — and the city — is a sprawling new restaurant, complete with a celebrity chef attached.
Sean Connolly Dubai Opera opens today, in perfect time for the Eid Al Adha holiday, and after a select preview last week, we advise ordering the roast lamb. Connolly’s take on the traditional star attraction for the Feast of Sacrifice is a slow-cooked lamb shoulder with raspberry vinegar, star anise and redcurrant jelly for a result that, quite in keeping with the story behind the occasion, strikes a delicate balance between sweet and sour notes. It’s also spoon-tender, buttery soft and a party in your mouth. “I think it’s pretty awesome but I love my own cooking,” Connolly (not to be confused with a certain superspy-playing actor) told tabloid! in an exclusive interview last week. But we get ahead of ourselves. The British-born celebrity chef helms the playhouse’s newest permanent show, an oceanic brasserie that sprawls 12,000 square feet across the top level of the dhow-shaped building and can accommodate up to 350 people. Connolly promises an “all-singing, all-dancing floor,” with a relaxed steak-and-seafood menu that is simple, pared-back and produce driven, and set to a soundtrack of blues, disco and funk.
“Food is probably fourth on the list of priorities for me when opening a restaurant,” he shrugs, likening his role to that of a Broadway producer. His priorities vary in order from day to day. “Today, they’d be the light and sound, the music, the ambience, then food. It’s about a good time — if you’re having a good time, the food will follow.”
Jasper Hope, chief executive of Dubai Opera, described Connolly as a partner that completes the Downtown Dubai venue’s customer experience. “In Sean, we have an outstanding chef who knows exactly how to create a fantastic atmosphere using the best quality and variety of ingredients, a sense of fun and contemporary style and, essential to complement Dubai Opera’s unique dhow shape, a consistent and proven delivery of incredible seafood,” he said in a statement.
Outside of Australia and New Zealand, where he runs five restaurants, the Yorkshire-born chef is best known for the TV series, My Family Feasts. In it, he ex- plores the lives and culinary traditions of Australian migrant families, cooking everything from Congolese pumpkin leaves to English Uppey Pudding. Connolly is a migrant himself — he began his career at Astral restaurant in Sydney’s Star Casino during a working holiday in 1988. With success on TV, he bet his livelihood on an independent career, launching The Grill in Auckland in 2010.
More TV and restaurants followed, but the Dubai Opera venue, his first international venture, materialised after years of refusing to expand into the UAE. “I discussed a lot of different opportunities, but nothing was really right. Nothing was a big enough risk,” the chef, who turns 50 this year, confides over an elegant sparkling beverage. “I’ve got my family in Australia — it’s a long way to come. And I’ve already got five restaurants. So the next lesson would have to be something quite special for me too. I think a lot of the time it’s about putting a value to the
“My restaurants are not about formal dining or being avant-garde, I don’t want to serve just the one per cent.”