Coffee mushrooms, beetroot ketchup and ugly soup: Inside the wild world of Flavour Fields

The Dubai restaurant builds its menu around what is grown and produced in the UAE

Flavour Fields uses oyster mushrooms grown out of discarded coffee grounds. Photo: Flavour Fields

Dubai loves a “concept dining” experience, and restaurants work hard to stand out in a crowded market, often turning to opulent tropes in the name of dining. Some smother food in gold, others enlist award-winning international chefs. Flavour Fields, however, is doing something entirely different, declares co-founder Paul Noujeim. The National goes down to the restaurant, located in Galleria Mall Al Wasl, to test the claim.

After creating their menus, many restaurants in the UAE continue to source even the most basic of ingredients from overseas. Flavour Fields has flipped that on the head and instead first scoured the UAE to narrow down what is being grown, then crafted its menu accordingly. The result is an array of tantalising dishes, which are big on taste and low on waste.

The search for locally produced tomatoes, for example, unearthed a farm growing heritage varieties, luscious enough to be served as carpaccio. Arriving as slivers of red, green and yellow, marinated in balsamic vinaigrette and served with pickled watermelon rind and feta cheese, it looks and tastes like summer on a plate.

Elsewhere, the team discovered an artisan bakery making sourdough so good, it is now the only bread the restaurant uses.

Put to several uses, it arrives as the base for the menu section Toasts, with toppings such as free-range poached eggs, oyster mushrooms, truffle, plant-based Hollandaise sauce and coconut bacon, as well as with local candy tomatoes, house-made plant-based feta cheese and basil.

It also accompanies the hummus, along with chunky tomato puree, mint salsa verde, roasted pistachio and a drizzle of olive oil. It is utterly delicious, with the sourdough bringing a firmness to the rich, creamy dip. “Our goal was to create a flavour bomb,” says Noujeim. “Usually we recommend our guests to mix it all together, and then dip, as it’s the best way to get the mix of flavours.”

The humble beetroot also serves many roles. It is made into a tangy ketchup that accompanies hand-cut sweet potato fries, along with plant-based aioli and coriander, and appears in a raw choco-velvet cake as an avocado-beetroot buttercream topping. Soft and naturally sweet, the earthy vegetable is used in lieu of processed sugar.

The team has even found a novel way to reuse the coffee grounds, by teaming up with a local farm to grow oyster mushrooms in the spent coffee grinds, with the mushrooms then served fresh in the restaurant. Some may be put off by the idea of mushrooms grown in coffee, but Noujeim is confident the taste will help everyone look beyond that.

“We usually tell people about it after they have tasted it, but everyone loves them. Good food is good food,” says Noujeim. We can attest that, with no hint of coffee, the mushrooms have a tasty nuttiness and a firm, almost meaty texture.

The quest to be more sustainable is ongoing, he explains. “I can tell you the best learning is just talking to customers. One who works in sustainability gave us an idea, and said: 'Why don't you create a soup out of your vegetables at the end of the day?' So, we're looking to launch the ‘Ugly soup' in the winter when we change our menu. I think it gives a bit of warmth for the season.”

Freshly delivered each morning, the savoury ingredients are laid out in a chiller cabinet for customers to see when they order their food. This is very deliberate, says Noujeim. “I'm proud of the ingredients I'm getting, and want my customers to go through this journey.”

For drinks, Flavour Fields has ditched plastic bottles and instead invites customers to buy a glass and help themselves to still, sparking or herb and fruit-infused water. The drinks are also bottomless. The coffee bar meanwhile, provides the coffee grounds that help grow the mushrooms, in a nice piece of circular thinking.

It is a win-win situation Noujeim believes, which keeps ingredients the focus. Not everything is grown locally obviously, he admits, but it is a critical first step. “One thing I've learnt is that sustainability is not a destination, it's a journey – and we've only scratched the surface. And two, never underestimate what you can find locally,” he adds.

Launched by the team behind Kitopi, Flavour Fields has been created with a clear objective – to deliver fresh, imaginative food while supporting local farmers and artisans. These are big words, and would mean nothing if the food did not hold up, but Flavour Fields has achieved this without compromising on flavour.

Customers who arrive early will spot the fresh products being delivered each morning. “If you get here in the morning, you will see 20 or 30 different suppliers coming in and out, delivering boxes of freshly grown produce. Sometimes they are late and come at peak hours, but I think it's part of what we are doing. We are proud to be imperfect in some way.”