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Winning Jamie Oliver’s approval

Tuesday, Dec 28, 2010

Gulf News

Local foodies will be able to enjoy italian cuisine, but it took work to get it here

Dubai Gordon Ramsay’s been here a while, and it was just a matter of time before Jamie turned up as well. So it is with the confirmation that the first Jamie’s Italian location in the region will open in Dubai Festival City early in the new year.

As a celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver has developed a cult status that has gone well beyond his primary skills. And with seeming ease, Jamie has managed to take on any platform available to him to let the world know what he thinks of food and eating habits. There are currently 15 Jamie’s Italian outlets in the UK, and now, a taste of what it represents can be had by aficionados in Dubai, courtesy of Bahrain-based Jawad Business Group .

The group plans to have a GCC-wide footprint for the brand over a three-year period. Tapan Vaidya, general manager for restaurants at Jawad Business Group , talks about what they did to finally get Jamie here.

Gulf News: When did you initiate the first contact over an alliance?

Tapan Vaidya: Signing Jamie’s Italian for GCC is indeed a coup. However, it was not at all easy to win their approval — Jamie’s Italian brand expects the same standard and quality with every entity they work with.

Our chairman, Faisal Jawad, made the initial contact in early 2009. I was asked to curtail a work trip to India and dash off to London for our first meeting in February of 2009. The whole process took multiple visits to the region by Jamie’s Italian International personnel and finally they were happy.

And so were we, to sign off the agreement to develop Jamie’s Italian in the GCC.

Between initiating talks and signing the agreement, how much time did you take?

A full year passed between the initial contact and the final sign-off. It was an agreement of significant importance to both parties and we want to ensure both were very happy with the contents.

Under the terms, how many outlets is Jawad contracted to launch in the near term? Does the alliance extend to only the GCC markets?

We are excited with the opening of the Dubai Festival City restaurant in early 2011. We also expect to open in Mall of the Emirates towards the middle of the year. We plan to open at least eight restaurants in the GCC over the course of the next three years.

We are actively negotiating prime locations in Abu Dhabi and hope to close that soon. We have also earmarked some great locations in Doha and Bahrain. I think the Jamie revolution will cover the GCC very well over the next few years.

Given the brand’s standing you could have gone for a standalone location. Would you consider the possibility for future locations?

Each Jamie’s Italian restaurant is uniquely designed and built. Martin Brudnizki has designed this Dubai Festival City restaurant using bold features in original forms. He has done well to convert this very roomy restaurant into a cozy, warm and inviting space. We would certainly consider a free-standing restaurant — it is likely we will have one in Bahrain during the course of 2011.

Was Italian the only preference where Jamie was concerned?

To that I will paraphrase Jamie who once said, “I should have been Italian. There is such diversity in lifestyles, cooking, traditions and dialects. This is why as a chef I find this country so exciting and what inspired me to create Jamie’s Italian.”

Food and beverage represents a sizable component of the Jawad portfolio. Could you represent it in actual percentage terms?

It’s a very important mix in the variety of business activities Jawad Business Group is involved in. This year we hope to see food and beverage contribute over a quarter of the Group’s annual turnover.

With some important openings next year in Dubai including Jamie’s Italian and Brooklyn Diner, we hope to push food and beverage contribution over the 30 per cent mark.

Jamie has been a vocal critic of high-fat diets. Can we expect more of the same here?

Jamie Oliver is indeed an incredibly cool person and I believe Jamie’s Italian will, in more ways than one, personify this. The menu will reflect his culinary persona.

The menu and all raw food materials sourced are as simple, original and ‘naked’ as they can be. This process has been long and arduous, but certainly worth it because our guests will get to taste what they are unlikely to eat at any similar restaurant. I am confident of Dubai’s discerning clientele’s approval of our menu.

Each menu item has gone through the careful hands and eyes and more importantly palates of Jamie and his team of chefs, one of whom, Abs Patil, head chef at the DFC restaurant, will be personally involved in all culinary activities on a daily basis.

You already have a roster of leading food and beverage brands. Any more to come?

Brooklyn Diner is another concept we will bring to the GCC. The first restaurant will open in the Marina Pavilion at Dubai Festival City around the same time as Jamie’s Italian.

It’s a fine diner where one would find the man in-charge in a tuxedo with sneakers – a harmony of different cultures so true of Brooklyn. That is precisely what is recreated in our menu at the Brooklyn Diner. Truly a worldly menu.

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Expansion plans

Vaidya says the group plans to open at least eight restaurants in the GCC over the course of the next three years.

With some important openings next year in Dubai including Jamie’s Italian and Brooklyn Diner, we hope to push food and beverage contribution over the 30 per cent mark.”

Tapan Vaidya

General manager for restaurants at Jawad Business Group

By Manoj Nair?Associate Editor

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