Reif Othman hits play at Billionaire Mansion
Award-winning Dubai chef tells tabloid! why he closed his successful signature restaurant and how you’ll see a lot more of him internationally
On the face of it, a partnership between an artist-chef and a controversial businessman seems an unlikely combination. Go past initial appearances and the reason why Reif Othman teamed with Flavio Briatore begins to make sense. At the end of an evening at Dubai’s Billionaire Club, however, I’m still not sure who has the better end of the bargain.
Last year, Othman closed the doors of The Experience, his dozen-seater celebrity hangout at the top of the H Hotel, sending hardened food fanatics and everything-on-expenses executives scurrying for new places where they could win business and influence people. Word at the time was he was regrouping to launch something bigger.
Instead, he turned up on the other side of Shaikh Zayed Road, posting on Instagram recently that he’d joined former F1 team boss Briatore’s Billionaire Mansion to run the sushi bar Sumosan. The move prompted many dining scene regulars, myself included, to ask if he’d sold out. Had the dream become a nightmare?
“No, no, no, not at all,” the new Executive Chef and Business Partner at Sumosan Twiga says passionately. It’s a Wednesday night and he’s sitting next to me at a corner table in the Mansion’s high-ceilinged dining room, which serves Japanese and Italian fare, two restaurants in one so to speak, with diners able to order from either or both, as they please.
Following two years at the helm of The Experience and its sister act Play, which is part-lounge and part-restaurant, Othman confides that he had had enough, and that he needed something bigger, a springboard that lets him compete on international turf.
“After six years at Zuma, I wanted to create a homegrown concept
— and we achieved that with Play. It was a trigger for me, culinary-wise and F&B wise, but now it’s time to move on.”
The 40-year-old Singaporean’s job with the Billionaire group, then, is to revitalise the Sumosan brand across three of its four branches and
ready it for expansion. Since he joined recently, he’s launched a new menu at Sumosan Dubai, which he takes to London over a week-long stint next month, and then on to a summer residency in Monte Carlo, where his wife and children will join him (Othman’s other reason for the move is to spend more time with his family). He isn’t involved with the original Moscow flagship for now, but will spearhead any new openings. “I’m more an entrepreneur now, in terms of looking beyond the kitchen. I’ll be looking at how we can beef up the dining experience for Sumosan,” he says, explaining that he will be involved in front of house operations almost as much as overseeing menu development. “I’m an active partner now as opposed to being a silent partner earlier. Who would say no to that?”
If his new menu at Sumosan Dubai is any indication, Briatore made the right choice. A starter of Pillow beef with truffle mayonnaise impresses straight away. A light, crunchy wisp of charcoal pastry filled with heady truffle cream and topped with a slice of wagyu for a dense, savoury finish, it’s all I can do to stop myself from ordering — and inhaling — a dozen more.
His new-wave maki rolls are unlike most available in Dubai. One, the fried Otoro ten features gloriously fatty otoro or tuna belly paired with soy-marinated wasabi root and the