Every February, Canadians celebrate Black History Month which consists of festivities and events to honor the legacy of Black Canadians and their communities. The theme for 2022 Black History Month is: ‘February and Forever: Celebrating Black History today and every day,’ which focuses on the daily contributions that Black Canadians make to Canada.

I am a big fan of farm-to-table or farm to fork. I believe in food security, proximity, self-reliance, and sustainability. It is important for us to have a healthy relationship with food. Food is important for us as human beings.

A family that eats together stays together. Eating together allows conversations to happen, it sets a routine, it helps with assigning tasks and allows parents to influence what their children eat. I have known Michelle Marshall for more than a quarter-century. I am proud when my friends do well. Michelle Marshall has raised 5 children, continues to work full time, and runs an amazing catering business. I want to know a little bit more about her and her philosophy. I strongly recommend her for any of your parties.

Michelle, an honor to have a chef, mother, wife, and a woman of faith on my blog. Tell my audience something important about you?

I love listening to people’s stories, especially over a great meal. I also love rainstorms.

What inspired you to become a chef?

To be honest for a long time I did not consider myself a chef. That is a title that others have given me for the work I have done. My first choice of career was to become a psychologist, but at the time my family couldn’t afford that education. Instead, I went to school for Culinary Management because I really enjoyed cooking. I cook because that is my expression of love and care for others.

Name three ingredients you consciously avoid or eliminate even when the recipe calls for it?

Margarine, all vegetable oils, and flour. These ingredients each cause inflammatory responses in the body, and there are natural health-supporting alternatives.

Name three things you have to use in most recipes?

Coconut oil, scotch bonnet pepper, and lemon zest (and juice). A heart-healthy fat; flavor and fire; and that added ingredient to brighten up the flavors in most dishes.

How important is eating meals together as a family to you?

Eating together as a family is a key to helping us stay connected. Our meal times are very loud with lots of teasing and joking. The challenge that we face is making time with all our different schedules. But we are fighting to make it happen as often as we can.

What are your favorite regional cuisines or specific foods?

Indian food certainly, followed by Hakka. The love and care that go into Indian food flavors are beautiful. Similarly, the combination of Indian and Chinese influences in Hakka is addictive.

I should also mention that I love Caribbean food – especially Jamaican food because of my roots.

Over the years, I have catered events that have required me to prepare Ukrainian, Korean, Chinese, Canadian, Trinidadian, Jamaican, Portuguese, Italian Greek, and Ecuadorean dishes for very discerning audiences.

One of my new pursuits is to learn traditional cultural dishes from various elders. This summer I had a great education in Indian cooking from a mother and daughter team. I recently blogged about that exciting experience. 

If you could have any four people, from anywhere over for dinner, who would they be and why?

Firstly, my Grandmother has passed. She was the best cook and the kindest person.

Maya Angelou, because I would love to cook with – and listen to – her.

Michelle Obama, because she is a great mother and I would love to learn from her.

Nelson Mandela, because of his humility and forgiveness of others were so inspiring.

If you could just banish any one food, from the earth, what would it be?

I would banish hydrogenated fats because they have no redeeming nutritional qualities. They mainly exist because factory-produced foods require cheap fats to extend their shelf-life.

What’s the one superpower wish you had?

The ability to heal.  Of course, that would lead to lineups around the corner and very little sleep. I have also always wanted to be able to sing well.

I have been dying to ask you this one question. How did you manage five kids in the home?

I would like to say that we are super-organized and it is easy, but the truth is that it is really hard to meet the ever-changing needs of 5 very different people. We do our best, but the pressures of raising children in the digital age (where everything is available to them on their cell phones) is challenging. We try to be vigilant, present, and open with our kids. On the practical side, they all have their responsibilities around the house, and everyone cooks and can help with meals. That helps a great deal with the daily tasks because both my husband and I work full-time. We are grateful for the 5 beautiful souls that we have gotten to grow alongside for the past 18 years.

I want you to give my audience three tips on how to be a great loving mother, an awesome humble wife, how to cook a quick meal for a family?

My new goals, because they have changed over the years, are to learn to give unconditional respect, communicate openly (even if I have to write in a journal to get my thoughts across), and seek ways to be lovely to my husband.

3 quick meal tips:

• Start with what you have
• Reinvent leftovers
• Use fresh vegetables, not meat, as the star of your meal

How did you have time for yourself?

Time for myself is best spent in the company of good friends. Whether it is a walk or a cup of tea, being with people who I love fills up my emotional cup.

What was your greatest failure and what did you learn from that?

My greatest failure has always been trying to be what people want me to be, instead of being who I really am. No one wins in those situations. People deserve the choice to love me for who I am, rather than the person I think they want me to be.

Walk me through something challenging you have been through in life and what did you do to overcome it and thrive on the other side of the tunnel?

18 months ago, my father-in-law had a life-altering stroke. During his recovery, I felt helpless to do anything to support both him and my mother-in-law. Calling to check in on them, or suggesting snow removal services wasn’t enough.

At that time, I started to explore the healing properties of food. That began my journey into the field of culinary nutrition. With the support and encouragement of my husband I researched and signed up for an intensive culinary nutrition course. In the 18 months since my father-in-law’s stroke, we have moved them into a condo from their home of 35 years, and I have gone back to (and finished) school. We then renovated our home and moved 3 times in 6 weeks. That renovation was to allow me to teach culinary nutrition cooking classes. I will also be doing catering from the new space with a focus on using whole foods to promote better health.

The learning curve to begin this new endeavor is huge, but it has been worth it. What once was a situation that felt hopeless is now filled with possibilities. I can now help people to find food solutions for their health challenges.

Although I have been in the food industry for decades, coming through this challenging period is the story behind Michelle Marshall’s Food Solutions.

If I want you to cater to 20 guests who are vegans, have allergies, and are on the Atkins diet, can you pull it off for me?

[Laughs] Admittedly, you might want to have them over on separate nights! Yes, I can pull it off, but that dinner party would be a tough one. The vegans might be offended by all the meat the Atkins guests are eating, and nuts would be out of the question if some guests are allergic.

Personally, I would start by excluding everything that causes an allergic reaction, and then find out what foods people love. It would probably be a vegan menu, but it certainly can be done.

We have covered food; the family now let’s talk about faith. I believe we need more unconditional love in this world and less judgment. Do we have something in common?

Unconditional love in practice is a beautiful thing. We all need it, but it is hard to give. It is the one thing that is able to cross every boundary and bring peace both to the giver and the receiver.

Forgiveness and gratitude go a long way in this life and being joyful. Please comment?

Forgiveness frees us from the bondage that is always threatening to enslave us. Around every corner, hate is trying to grab a hold of us, but forgiveness is freedom.

At the heart of every truly joyful soul is gratitude. The amazing thing is that gratitude goes beyond our circumstances and sees the beauty in even the smallest kindnesses and gestures.

Peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, compassion…. universal qualities. What does your faith say about these things?

My faith says that peace, patience, kindness, gentleness are all attributes of love. Not a feeling, but actions that we take into our daily lives to protect our hearts – and the hearts of those we encounter. Love is a choice we make to treat others as we would desire to be treated.

The post Michelle Marshall: Chef listening to People’s Stories appeared first on Four Columns of a Balanced Life.

Julia is the Pastry Chef at Eden at the Rimrock Resort in Banff Alberta Canada, 5 Diamond BCAA rating, one of three 5 diamond restaurants in Canada. She grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, and started cooking at 19 years old. She did a 4-year apprenticeship while completing her Culinary Certification at the Hotel Grand Pacific in Victoria’s downtown core.  She has lived in 3 different provinces and worked in luxury hotels across Canada, as well as training under a Michelin star pastry chef in Ontario.  When not in the kitchen, you can find her at the CrossFit gym, or at home working on whatever project that she is momentarily obsessed with. At the moment she is taking some online courses in food journalism and Adobe Photoshop to build her skills and improve a baking blog she started last year.  To honor all the employees who have lost their jobs in the hospitality sector due to COVID, I want to highlight some of these talented people.

Julia welcome, what made you decide to become a pastry chef?

I started my career as a cook. I spent 5 years working my way up through the ranks of the restaurant – prep cook, garde mangier, entremetier, and saucier. I finished my culinary red seal and did a few competitions – Chaine de Rotisseurs and Hawksworth Young Chefs scholarship. I decided to leave the line and switch to pastry because I liked the creativity it offered. Generally, a pastry chef gets to create their own menus, whereas line cooks and sous chefs do not. It is also a totally different skill set in regards to technique and that was something I wanted to learn. 

As a pastry chef, where do you get your inspiration from when making desserts?

I get a lot of my ideas from memories – things I would make with my family as a kid, a dessert a person I know loves, or a place I have been and I try to recreate that memory with flavors. I made one dessert entirely out of corn when I was in Ontario to reflect the farmland that was near the restaurant. Another example is a chestnut mont blanc with gingerbread ice cream because we always play “the Christmas song” while making gingerbread cookies as children. I also get ideas for recipes and presentations from the previous chefs I have worked with and books like “The Elements of Dessert” and “So good magazine”. And there is always Instagram. Instagram is a stellar tool to get some ideas going. 

Name me some of your favorite ingredients you like to work with as a pastry chef?

At the moment my favorite ingredient to work with is Ruby Chocolate – It is quite unique as it is a newly discovered chocolate that is naturally pink with a light, fruity flavor profile. It is relatively new to the Canadian market and I am quite excited about this new type of chocolate to play with. 

Walk me through a day in the pastry kitchen?

The first thing I do is get bread going. I pull any dough made the previous day and let it rise for service. I feed the sourdough culture and make the starter for our sough dough and multigrain bread that needs a 24 hr fermentation period. Then I make raisin bread that will rise for at least 8 hours before continuing the fermentation in the fridge overnight. After that, the sourdough and whole wheat doughs are kneaded from the previous days’ starter for the next day’s service. 

Next, I check our take-home gifts – a hand-made Twix bar made with shortbread & salted caramel and enrobed in chocolate. I usually make 60 – 120 bars at a time depending on business levels. 

After that, I start topping up our desserts and make any components that will be needed before assembly. This includes a hazelnut cake, praline caramel and hazelnut mousse for the hazelnut entremets, lemon fluid gel and honey parfait, sweet pastry, cheesecake, mirror glaze all need to be made before assembly. I make ice cream and sorbet a day in advance as it needs to freeze solid before being put through the paco jet. 

Next is petite fours – we serve each guest 3 petite fours at the end of their meal and I like to have a rotating, seasonal menu for this that changes often. Sometimes I make hand-painted bonbons, a variety of pat de fruit, fudge in rotating flavors, toffee, and other confections. We also serve a selection of coffee service items that I rotate as well. Gingerbread and mincemeat tarts for Christmas, ruby chocolate dipped shortbread, Financier, and other treats. 

Lastly, I top up the garnishes for each dessert as these take the least amount of time. Poached fruit, fluid gels, tempered chocolate work, creams, and crumbs. 

On days that I have a bit of extra time, I sort out and test ideas for upcoming menus. 

In short, pastry takes a lot of planning. Start with the jobs that take the most time, like bread, then anything with a multi-step process. Next are items that need time to set overnight before being processed or cut, and lastly, jobs that are quick. 

Help me understand how the mentality is changing toward women in the kitchen?

Honestly, it really depends on who you’re working with and how you decide to present yourself. I believe it is both parties’ responsibility to influence change. I find with the younger generation of chefs, there is equal opportunity for men and women, hard work is rewarded and promotions are given to those putting in effort regardless of gender. But in saying that I have also worked with some older chefs that refuse to put a woman on the hotline, touch meat or move out of a commis position. There was one chef that called me “sweetheart” instead of learning my name, but even then, I still had every opportunity to advance if I worked hard. I think some of the certain behavior is used to test people, see what they are made of. The boys get yelled at, and the girls are underestimated. Kitchens are high-stress environments and if you can’t take being treated poorly sometimes it probably isn’t for you, and that goes for both men and women.  At the end of the day, the kitchen needs hands, and nobody cares what gender those hands are attached to. 

Talk to me about what women empowerment means to you?

Empowerment is allowing yourself and others to pursue what is meaningful for personal success.

To empower another person is to encourage them to try new things, make mistakes, learn something and celebrate their success. It is a process of trying, failing, refining, and trying again. 

What are your future goals?

This is a tough one, there are a lot of things I would like to do. For now, I want to continue building my skills as a pastry chef, as well as working on my food writing and photography skills through Instagram and blogging. I would love to work abroad, and maybe write a book down the road.  

How do you cope with the long hours in the kitchen?

There was one job I worked at last year, it was a brand new hotel opening with a full-service restaurant. That was probably the hardest job I have had when it came to long hours. In my first few weeks, I worked from 9 am to 11 or 12 pm for 13 days straight. When things settled down we all continued to work 12 hour days 5 days a week. I learned a lot about myself and others, and we really bonded as a team. A good team definitely makes the long days easier. Right now I am at a new restaurant and the hours are much better, still long days here and there but not every day. I think the most important thing for me when it comes to dealing with long stretches is making time for myself. I do my best to stick to a weekly schedule of going to CrossFit a few days a week before work as well as having a project or two on the side so I feel like I still have a life, and that I am working towards my personal goals as well. Over time, a person gets used to the long days in some respect. There is a flow to the season; work hard in the summer and chill in the winter. 

Can you also talk about something challenging you have been through and how you dealt with it?

I think my biggest challenge was dealing with my own lack of self-confidence and the depression that went with it. It controlled my life for quite a few years and stopped me from doing what I wanted and experiencing life in a happy way. At that time my life was just working (5 am shifts) coming home in the afternoon and sleeping, I basically did nothing with my life outside of work for like, 3 or 4 years. Its probably going to sound silly, but I started watching youtube videos with themes around living your best life, and Jordan Petersons 12 rules for life and started applying those principles to mine, one at a time. Eventually, I started setting goals and actually accomplishing them and over time it has completely changed my views. 

If you had a choice to get rid of a few ingredients in the pastry kitchen what would those be and why?

As a pastry chef, I make everything from scratch, so each ingredient serves a purpose in a recipe and to simply omit one would yield a different product. The trend these days leans to vegan and gluten-free baking, and if thoughtful swaps are made to replace eggs, butter, and flour, a product can be made, but it will never be the same as the original. Baking is a series of formulas and each ingredient is there for a reason because someone has tested it and found that this recipe was the best way to make it. 

If I had to get rid of something, it would probably be convenience products like fake flavored syrups. It is easy enough to make your own infusions. 

Any special music you listen to you while working?

I don’t usually listen to music when I am working – sometimes I’ll listen to chill step, electronic music and sometimes I listen to podcasts. 

Some Rapid Fire Questions:

Favorite food – Any type of fresh seafood – oysters, scallops, salmon, and sushi. Sushi is the best. 

Favorite drink – A latte from discovery coffee.

Favorite dessert – Cheesecake, but I think most people love cheesecake. 

Tequila in dessert – I’m not really a tequila person, If I use alcohol in desserts I usually go for rum or Grand Marnier.  

The post Julia Palfrey: Milk & Honey appeared first on Four Columns of a Balanced Life.

Recently, I was a judge at the Pickering Buttertart Festival. As I was heading out, someone offered me a piece of cheesecake in a beautiful bag. The cheesecake was made by Hip Hip Gourmet. I got home and, after dinner, tasted the cheesecake along with my wife and daughter. I am not a big fan of cheesecake. This was the best cheesecake I have tasted in my life. I got in touch with Andrea Lagana the owner of Hip Hip Gourmet. Andrea is smart, intelligent, makes everything from scratch, cares for the environment, and is socially responsible. Please order your cheesecake and support her. Andrea Lagana is the future of the hospitality industry in Canada. A day will come when she will change the landscape of the industry and be its voice, conscience, and leader.

Andrea, you are a connoisseur of good food and a person with a discerning palate. Tell me a little about you and what does a connoisseur mean?

An expert in something! I know my food. I love my food. I love that life revolves around food! A connoisseur to me is knowing something inside and out. Not necessarily knowing all there is to know about a certain topic or subject, per se, but really immersing yourself fully into all aspects of that thing you might be a connoisseur of. There are wine connoisseurs, art connoisseurs, car connoisseurs, cheesecake connoisseurs…. A person who believes they know enough about something to have a pretty good opinion on it is what I think a connoisseur means.

The little about me that you should know right off the bat are I make delicious cheesecakes for a living (pretty decent gig, huh?). I am well on my way to achieving a goal that means a lot to me: really and truly traveling and experiencing 30 different countries under 30 years old! (woot woot!) and I absolutely love furry four-legged friends and can’t wait to finally own at least 2 very big dogs one day!

Talk to me about your experience growing up in an Italian family. How did that influence you?

Ah, it was THE best! Our lives and traditions – everything we did, every event, special occasion, holiday…heck, even funerals – called for large family gatherings which only really means one thing in the Italian language: FOOD. Everything revolves around food!  My sisters and I really came to love and be proud of our culture – we didn’t care that our parents would often send us to school with paninis stuffed with what looks like the weirdest green vegetable on the planet to any other kid in class but to us was a family staple that we loved so much: rapini.

Growing up in an Italian family, fortunately, meant never going hungry but beyond that, just eating some of the greatest tasting foods around. We were always able to help keep up with the traditions, still to this day, and learned from a very young age that home-cooked everything is simply a way of life. Let’s just say that Nonna didn’t really approve of McDonald’s. All these things really helped shape me into the cook I am today because homemade, for me, is just part of who I am and was raised to be. Further than that, our family lost our greatest cook back in 2014, and I have a part to play in keeping my grandmother’s memory alive through her all-time favorite thing to do: feed people! And I’d be damned if I let her down in that category.

I like that you cook everything from scratch. Do you also try to do ethical sourcing?

Oh yeah, cooking from scratch is an essential part of my life. I really try to stay on top of meal planning (not so much prepping) just simply jotting down my meals for the week at which time I pick apart each dish and see what can be homemade instead of store-bought in terms of sauces, pastes, marinades, etc. I’ll even be starting to make my own cream cheese for my cheesecakes starting very soon! THAT’S what I mean when I say from scratch…I live by it at home so bringing that feature to my business only seems fitting!

I always try and do ethical sourcing wherever possible. I do think it’s important where our food is coming from and the process it took to get to the table but I will admit, I’m not the type to watch a video on this and become vegan because of it, for example. I try and buy grass-fed and organic when possible and would say I’m pretty aware of what makes a diet healthy (and do think, for the most part, I have one!) but like anything else, I’m certainly not perfect.

What makes your cheesecakes different from something I would find somewhere else?

If you put one of my cheesecakes next to one from, say, the grocery store or your local bakery, you’ll likely be able to see the difference yourself. All of my cheesecakes are carefully handcrafted by yours truly, not a machine and definitely not factory-made. Some of my crusts may not look perfectly straight and no cake will be exactly like the next, as I’m literally doing everything by hand, but I think that’s the beauty of what really sets me apart from the next guy! People love the homemade factor because my cakes still not only look like they’ve come right off the dessert menu in a high-class restaurant but you can absolutely taste the quality fresh ingredients that are carefully chosen to use in each recipe.

I’m also super adaptable when it comes to making people’s cheesecake dreams come true! Don’t see your favorite flavor on my website? Just let me know, there’s no flavor I’ve turned down yet! On a special diet? Have an allergy? Are you vegan? No problem!

What does woman empowerment mean to you?

When I read those two words together, I automatically think fierce, strong, support, love, POWER towards a woman or as a woman. Woman empowerment to me means rising above and standing tall, feeling independent and proud in her role in this world and not being afraid of who she is….ever!

Name me some of your favorite ingredients in the kitchen and least favorite ingredients?

I love using anything with spice – I like heat in my dishes – scotch bonnets, chilies, jalapenos, you name it!

Some of my favorite ingredients in my kitchen honestly didn’t even come from here! I’m a huge traveler and a mandatory part of every trip is hitting up as many markets as I can before having to buy a new suitcase to fit all the goods (almost always food-related). I once spent a year traveling in South America and I KID YOU NOT, carried around a whole separate suitcase (the BIG ones, too!) solely for spices and cooking equipment. I had over 50 spices in that bag so needless to say spices are my all-time fav ingredient(s) in the kitchen!

I don’t have a least favorite – I try to make something new every day! I’m not a picky eater but there are some ingredients you’d never catch in my kitchen (simply because I don’t like them)….cilantro, avocados, and watermelon are among the very few!

You have a vegan, vegetarian, someone who is on a keto diet, a diabetic, and someone who is allergic to dairy. What dessert would you serve them?

Cheesecake! The answer is always cheesecake! That’s the beauty….it can be made any and all of these ways and still taste delicious!

Walk me through your shoes of being a female entrepreneur… The good, bad, and the ugly?

I’m still pretty new at this! It all started as a fluke for me, quite honestly. My life up until a few months ago consisted of serving drinks at a busy bar 5 nights a week…working long and late hours, something I had done for nearly 15 years! I had extra cream cheese in my fridge the Halloween before last (don’t ask) and decided to make a pumpkin pie cheesecake for some odd reason (which by the way, was my first cheesecake EVER!) I brought it into work to share with my fellow colleagues and almost immediately my boss (owner of the restaurant) said we had to put it on the menu based on how good it was. Who knew my life would actually change forever at that time?

I went on to continue to work at that restaurant for the next year, serving my own cheesecakes on the menu…daily. It was a rewarding and incredible experience to have been given that opportunity. From there, it kind of just snowballed – I picked up a few more wholesale clients and a ton of regular clients and here we are, only three months into doing this full-time, still grasping the concept of what being a female entrepreneur actually means! I’m so thankful to have amazing support around me from family and friends cause let’s be honest, I’m not even ashamed to admit, I don’t know the first thing when it comes to being a businesswoman. But, you gotta start somewhere, and that’s really what it’s been about so far!

Are there any chefs you admire?

I really like Bobby Flay and would love to have my chance to beat him one day on his show!

Talk to me about somethings that you are very Italian, somethings you are not?

I guess it depends on who you ask! My boyfriend would tell you I’m loud and as stubborn as it gets (a known Italian trait). My mother would tell you she has no idea where this travel bug of mine came from cause it’s certainly not from how she or my Italian father were raised. I’d say I’m pretty Italian when it comes to some of my all-time favorite foods – salami and prosciutto but not when it comes to knowing how to speak it (ashamed to even admit I don’t speak it fluently). Obviously, my love for cooking and feeding people an overwhelming amount of food is influenced by my Italian background. I am extremely shy and quiet, love to be alone and don’t like small talk – one could probably argue that’s not very Italian.  

Finally, tell me what you’d do if you won the lottery right now…?

Literally put my life on hold and head to the airport (extend the invite to my family and friends but they have to be willing to leave with me immediately) with a blindfold covering my eyes as I spun a globe to see the destination. I always wanted to do that. Then I’d probably just keep going until I found a spot I could maybe open a little (cheesecake) shop or something in. Likely somewhere hot. On or near a beach. Now you have me dreaming…

The post Andrea Lagana: Cheesecake Queen appeared first on Four Columns of a Balanced Life.

Ravi  Chandran has 35 years of extensive experience in Europe and the Middle East in the hospitality industry, executing multiple start-ups, creating new concepts, and leading multi-brand operations and has spearheaded 24 food & beverage brands, turned around loss-making businesses, restructured acquired businesses, and sustained success through new business model innovation.

Ravi Chandran currently leads Liwa Minor based in the UAE, and operates The Coffee Club for the MENA region, an All Day Dining Café from Australia with 18 outlets in operation in the UAE and one each to open in KSA and Qatar in 2018. Since joining in August 2016, Ravi Chandran has set the strategic direction for the MENA region for The Coffee Club brand with a steadfast and robust roll-out plan of 100+ outlets to be opened in the Middle East in the next five years, along with entry to five new markets. Ravi is also working on expanding the company’s portfolio with plans to make an acquisition of an existing F&B concept and franchise an International F&B brand as part of its growth strategy.

Ravi Chandran graduated with a GMP from Harvard Business School, USA, and also holds an MBA from the University of Bradford, UK, and a Diploma in Hotel Management from Les Roches, Switzerland.

Ravi, a pleasure to have you doing this. Please tell me a little about yourself.

I was born in Qatar. I studied in Qatar, India, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. I have worked in Switzerland and am presently working in the Middle East.  I have traveled to 54 countries, and this has made me a global citizen and has shaped my personality. I believe in living in peace and harmony. I live in this vibrant city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and have enjoyed every moment of my 28 years here and at the same time staying truly Indian.

What does your job as a CEO with Liwa Minor entail?

Liwa is a UAE based company in a joint venture with the Minor group of Thailand and hence Liwa Minor. It is the Master Franchise for a café called The Coffee Club. I lead my talented team and my job entails following the vision of the founders, strategically grow and expand the brand in the region, and to be the most preferred All-Day Dining Café in the region and we are on track to achieve it. 

Congrats. Tell me a little bit about The Coffee Club and how it plays a role in the UAE?

We are the Master franchise in the Middle East and North Africa for The Coffee Club, a 28-year-old Australian All-Day Dining Café. In four years, we have opened 23 outlets in UAE, 1 in Qatar, and 1 KSA and continue to grow to 100+ outlets in the Middle East region. The Coffee Club competes on two categories and that is our unique selling proposition, with premium coffee we compete with the likes of Starbucks, Costa, and Caffe Nero and with the food we compete with Paul Café, Shakespeare & Co and Café Bateel, the latter two being homegrown all-day dining cafes. We are a lifestyle café where people come to have good food, great service, and excellent coffee in a relaxed atmosphere which is our brand promise.

Dubai is the Mecca of food. What are some exciting trends?

Dubai is now one of the leading food capitals of the world, along with San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Singapore, and Melbourne. Every top brand and every Top Chef have set up shop in Dubai. Dubai leads the way in being the entry for global brands in the region, especially with a cosmopolitan population comprising of 210 nationalities and 15 million tourists every year. The trend today has totally changed. The leading chains and leading names are taking a back step. The homegrown local brands, created and opened by Dubai residents, especially by UAE nationals and particularly by young and talented UAE national women, who have been bold, creative and innovative in their café designs and concepts, and food and beverage creations from food trucks to café’s and restaurants, they are ruling the roost and particularly supported by their fellow citizens. Dubai is also gearing more towards healthy food, street food, regional cuisines, and home delivery has taken over in-premise dining with the majority of the population being young and using smartphone technology to order food. 

Do chefs keep this trend in mind or keep the consumer in mind when designing food?

It is always the balance of what trends arise from the West and can be introduced to the market and what the customers are looking for, as the people of this multinational Multicultural city are adventurous in exploring new food concepts, new cuisines and today’s food has to be instagramable, delivery friendly and above all wallet-friendly in a soft economy. Chefs today work with fresher ingredients, new spices, and herbs that were never used before, organic food, local produce, and apply sustainable practices.

What are some disruptions in the restaurant business?

Technology has been changing consumer behavior and home delivery has disrupted the in-dining experience.  Food concepts with the best experiences will survive the ever-growing competition.  Convenience stores like 7-11, selling hot and cold food are gaining popularity as consumers look for value and convenience whether they are at work or driving around. At the end of the day. whatever the latest technology and AI one can have in their restaurant, what will make a restaurant successful will be the core basics – quality and consistency of food.

How do you stay balanced with your hectic schedule?

I always used to ask my former boss, the head of a large organization, why he is the last person to leave work, and why he also worked on a weekend being the big boss. He said when you reach the top you will know, you will be alone, you won’t like it at times, but it’s the challenge and accomplishments that will keep you going. How true it was!! I wake up at 5 am every day and read a book on management or self-development for 30 minutes and go to the gym and head to work. I need to keep very fit and fully energized to face the day dealing with various people, meetings, and issues and one needs to be physically and mentally fit. Evenings I relax at home watching the news, reading newspapers, cooking something light and try and sleep early.

You run marathons, how important is food to your regimen?

I was an athlete in my school and college days and 40 years later still continue to run and cycle. I do 5 K and 10 K runs every year and train for it. I also do the 92 K cycling challenge. Food plays an important, even though I run a food business, I tend not to eat outside and cook my own food. I am disciplined in my eating habits, avoiding sugar and flour, and eat more vegetables, fruits, chicken and fish, avoiding red meat, junk food, and sugary beverages and eat 5 small portions a day. My cheat day is on the weekend.

Name me three of your favorite restaurants in Dubai?

I am not a fan of celebrity chef restaurants and over-priced glamorous concepts. I love to eat authentic national cuisines and regional cuisines and my favorites are Al Hallab for Lebanese Cuisine, Sri Krishna Sweets for South Indian cuisine, Sultan Baba Iskander for Turkish Cuisine.

How does faith finance family and food help you stay grounded?

Finance – 18 years ago I got into charity work and I learned money can’t buy you health and happiness, and one needs only a certain amount of money to live a comfortable lifestyle with no excess. Savings are my strength to help me for the rainy day.

Family – In every 10 years of your life, some family member is more important and some do not care enough, and when we reach 40’s and 50’s suddenly we love and care for our parent’s more than ever, especially when I lost my mother at 59 and realized I never spent much time with her and now I spend more time with my dad at 84. That’s the circle of life.

Food – I have already written. I believe in the words: Eat Sensibly and Exercise Regularly. Apart from that running a Healthy Meal business 8 years ago as General Manager, opened my eyes to eating healthy and controlling my portion size which is often neglected.

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