Three celebrity chefs will host demonstrations, challenges and more during the Gulf News Ideal Home Show Exhibition next month.
Dubai's first Gulf News Ideal Home Show Exhibition will be held from December 15 to 17 at the Dubai Airport Expo, and for those who will have overdosed on designs and furnishings, a tasty treat awaits.
Celebrity chefs Lesley Waters and Antony Worrall Thomspon, stars of the BBC's famous show Ready Steady Cook, along with Sanjeev Kapoor, star of the Khana Khazana cooking show in India, will entertain visitors in an area dubbed the Taste Temptation Theatre.
Game shows, recipe ideas, questions and answers and culinary challenges are all on the menu.
Antony Worrall Thompson |
Worrall Thompson opened a restaurant in 1981, Ménage a Trois that became known as a favourite of the late Princess of Wales.
In 1987, he won the most prestigious culinary accolade, the Meilleur Ouvrier de Grande Bretagne, the chef's Oscar.
Worrall Thompson became perhaps even more popular when he appeared in ITV's 2003 reality series I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
Lesley Waters |
In 2004 Waters started her own cookery school based in her Dorset country home after having lived in bustling London for 40 years.
Waters has written a number of books and has worked in television since 1989.
Throughout her career, Waters often represented British food at international cookery displays, taking as her theme ‘good food for health's sake.'
Sanjeev Kapoor |
His hugely successful cookery show Khana Khazana began in 1993 and gathered an enormous fan-base over the years.
Kapoor operates a restaurant chain, Khazana, in India and Dubai, and will soon expand to London and New York.
With a dynamic and laid back attitude to food, Kapoor strives to help people bring out the best in Indian cooking.
The celebrity chefs spoke to Tabloid about the Gulf News Ideal Home Show.
Are you looking forward to your visit to Dubai?
Lesley Waters: "Absolutely! I've never been to Dubai before, but my brother-in-law has just come back from there and he's said such wonderful things about it. I'm really looking forward to it now, it looks great."
Antony Worrall Thompson: "I am definitely looking forward to experiencing Dubai. I've never been there before, but I have been to Oman. It should be fun, we are planning on keeping it very lively."
Sanjeev Kapoor: "I'm really excited about coming to Dubai for the show. It's something new to me, which is very exciting. I've been to Dubai before quite a few times since we have a restaurant franchise over there, Khazana. It's a city that amazes me, as you can find something new all the time. I think the whole world should learn from Dubai, the city moves at lightning speed."
What do you have in store for the Taste Temptation Theatre challenges?
LW: "The challenges with Antony and the others will be fun. We are all doing our signature dishes and I'm still putting mine together. It's hard because I have so many dishes that I love, so it's challenging! I am a big believer in keeping things simple. I love to make dishes that are impressive yet doable."
AWT: "I am hosting the challenges at the Taste Temptation Theatre but I will be cooking in other parts of the show. I am looking forward to working with Lesley, she's a lot of fun."
SK: "I'll be doing something exciting for sure. I don't want to kill the suspense by revealing the signature dish that I'll be doing though. I do live cooking, where I'll take someone on board and create something with them. I ask people what they think we should put in a dish, so it's very interactive. I try to create a dish that will surprise me, and it's really good fun. Otherwise, a show will appear staged and not dynamic, which is not what cooking is about. If you know the basics of food, nothing can go wrong."
What is your signature dish?
LW: "I live in the country, in a historical county called Dorset, and one of the things I've really gotten into is using local produce as we have lots of farms around here. It's very important for me to use food that is in season and at its best. I don't like what I call ‘tortured food', which is food that's been too messed around with. I love food where you can taste all of the ingredients, otherwise you lose the purity of the food. A bowl of mussels cooked in olive oil, garlic and herbs and served with fresh bread is fantastic to me."
AWT: "One of my signature dishes is an Asian tuna salad, and apparently you like your fish over there. I also have a great repertoire of meat dishes. I've done some Lebanese food and Moroccan food in my restaurants, so I'll definitely be putting a Middle Eastern twist on my dishes while in Dubai."
SK: "Obviously I make a lot of Indian food, with a slight difference. For example, a typical Indian dish is garnished with coriander, but I'll use mint instead. It's a very simple change, but it may transform the dish completely. Also, if I make a dish that is usually made with red chilli, I use black pepper instead. It turns out to be the same dish, but it looks and tastes different, but not so different that people can't relate to it. It gives a dramatic effect. I like to think I make Indian food of today and tomorrow. What I do is not difficult, not chef-like. My cooking is definitely approachable and not threatening at all."
How do you prepare for an event such as the Ideal Home Show?
LW: "What I'd love to put across while in Dubai are three important things in cooking: good ingredients, simple foods, and enjoy what you cook. I'm interested to see what foods I can get in Dubai. Meanwhile, I've
