The British are coming: meet the 5 big-name chefs setting up restaurants in the UAE

Courtesy Pots, Pans and Boards

Razan Alzayani / The National

Courtesy Jumeirah at Etihad Towers

Sarah Dea / The National

Gordon Ramsay

Foodies in Dubai are eagerly waiting for Ramsay to return to Dubai to open his latest restaurant. Bread Street Kitchen will launch some time in the next two months at Atlantis, The Palm, where La Brasserie used to be. Ramsay already has three Bread Street Kitchens in London, Hong Kong and Singapore, and this is his second attempt at a restaurant in Dubai. He opened Verre at the Hilton Dubai Creek in 2001 with another chef on our list – Jason Atherton – as the executive chef. Verre closed in 2011, a casualty of the global economic downturn. Bread Street Kitchen is a casual restaurant that will dish up modern British-European cuisine. We’ll be watching this one closely. “Working with the Gordon Ramsay Group to bring his restaurant to Dubai is only the beginning of an incredible partnership,” says Serge Zaalof, the president and managing director of Atlantis, The Palm. So there’s a chance Bread Street Kitchen won’t be Ramsay’s only venture in the UAE.

Tom Aikens

This notable British chef will bring his innovative restaurant Pots, Pans and Boards to The Beach in Dubai. Each dish in the casual restaurant will be cooked and presented in a pot, a pan or a board, as you may have guessed. Aikens’s eponymous restaurant in London’s Chelsea earned two Michelin stars during its run, making him the youngest British chef awarded two stars. That restaurant closed permanently for relocation last year, but Aikens has three farm-to-table concepts in the UK, and one in Istanbul, called Tom’s Kitchen. His new restaurant in Dubai will focus on English, Mediterranean and French cuisine. It is scheduled to open next week.

Darren Velvick

Velvick arrived in Dubai 20 months ago when he took over the kitchen at Table 9, renamed Table 9 by Darren Velvick, at the Hilton Dubai Creek. But he left the fine-dining venue to open The Croft, a British casual-dining restaurant of his own. Now in the Dubai Marina at the Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites, Velvick says he’s more at home at The Croft, where he dishes up his signature modern British cuisine to guests he refers to as friends. The Croft is already in its soft-opening phase. The official grand opening is on September 15. ≥

The Croft, Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites, 04 319 4794, www.thecroftdubai.com

Michael Caines

The only chef on our list who chose to open in Abu Dhabi over Dubai. Caines will open his first Pearls by Michael Caines this month at Jumeirah at Etihad Towers in the capital. Replacing Scott’s restaurant at the hotel, this will be the chef’s first restaurant outside of the United Kingdom. Caines is the celebrated chef behind Gidleigh Park in Devon in the United Kingdom, a restaurant that has held two Michelin stars for 16 years. Don’t worry, though, Caines assures us Pearls by Michael Caines won’t be another stuffy fine-dining venue. He says: “This will be casual fine dining. It will be very informal.”

Jason Atherton

Atherton is a rising star on the global culinary stage. Since parting ways with Gordon Ramsay in 2010 and starting his own company, Atherton has opened 16 restaurants around the world. Number 17, called Marina Social, opens at the InterContinental Dubai Marina on September 4. On the first level of the hotel, the restaurant has an outdoor terrace with impressive views of the marina. Atherton calls the concept behind his ‘Social’ brand of restaurants “deformalised fine dining”. It’s innovative, fine-dining food that’s meant to be shared. Marina Social will be open nightly for dinner starting at 6pm and will also be open for lunch on Fridays and Saturdays.

Marina Social, InterContinental Dubai Marina, 04 446 6664, www.marinasocialdubai.com