2018 shows the skyline of Dubai with the Burj al-Arab in the
foreground and Burj Khalifa (L) in the background.GIUSEPPE CACACE /
AFP
At the plush Armani hotel in the shadow of the Burj
Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, a rabbi switches on the stoves
at what is billed as Dubai’s first kosher restaurant.
With the ink still fresh on the United Arab Emirates’ landmark
normalisation accord with Israel, restaurants and caterers are
rushing to prepare for what they hope will be a flood of Jewish
visitors arriving on new direct flights.
The city-state welcomed more than 16 million visitors in 2019
and expected to reach a record 20 million this year, although that
was before the coronavirus hit.
It reopened its doors to tourists again in July after a painful
four-month shutdown, but business is slow.
Under the normalisation deal, the Emirates and Israel will
establish air links — likely to begin in January — and a visa
regime that will allow residents to travel for business and
pleasure.
But before then, businesses hoping to cash in on the new market
must overcome challenges including building kosher kitchens,
training staff and sourcing appropriate foodstuffs.
“We have been training our staff for months,” said Fabien
Fayolle, the chef at the upscale 40-seat Armani/Kaf, one of a
cluster of restaurants in the luxury hotel.
“In this kitchen we teach them what they can use and what they
can’t do.”
“The idea for us to open this restaurant is to be able to
provide a five-star experience to Jewish people or anyone who
wants to try kosher food. It didn’t make any sense to make ‘home
cooked’ food. We wanted to give more of an experience,” he told
AFP.
Until local suppliers begin servicing the new market in the UAE
though, “our main challenge will be obtaining the ingredients,” he
said of the lavishly priced international menu which includes items
adapted to make them compatible with kosher rules.
– Hi-tech kosher – As well as requiring a Jewish person to
switch on the cooking stoves and supervise a restaurant kitchen,
the rules governing kosher food prohibit consumption of meat from
certain animals and sea creatures, as well as the mixing of meat
and dairy products.
Much like halal rules for Muslims, animals must be slaughtered
in a prescribed way.
Rabbi Levi Duchman, who certified the Armani/Kaf, said he has
received requests from “dozens of restaurants in the Emirates that
want to offer kosher dishes”.
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At the Dubai restaurant, the stoves can be turned on by a rabbi
remotely using a mobile application, and the cooking monitored by
cameras.
Duchman said the halal tradition, which governs the Muslim diet
and shares rules with the kosher approach, including a ban on
eating pork, made it “easier to explain the rules of kosher in the
Emirates”.
– Long way to go – Elli Kriel is the pioneer of kosher cuisine
in the Emirates, after moving to Dubai eight years ago from South
Africa and realising she needed to find kosher products for her
home kitchen.
She has been running Elli’s Kosher Kitchen for the past two
years, born out of the need for Jewish travellers to remain
observant while in the UAE.
Her business got underway in November 2018 when she was asked to
provide meals for rabbis attending an interfaith meeting in the
capital Abu Dhabi.
“From there, word spread and I started getting more and more
requests,” she said.
“The challenge of running a kosher kitchen in the UAE is that..
there is high demand” following the normalisation agreement. “But
the industry is not really set up for that — it is really hard to
get a lot of products, especially the meats and the cheeses,”
she said.
However, import channels are now being established, Kriel
added.
“And in terms of actually opening a kitchen, you can open one
but then you need to have a rabbi with you and there aren’t many
here, so we had to bring one in for this specific task,” she said
of the rabbi who supervises her kitchen full-time.
While the speed of the rapprochement between the two countries
caught everyone by surprise, entrepreneurs have been quick to start
filling the space.
Just two days after the signing of the accord in Washington,
Dubai-based Emirates Airlines unveiled plans to produce kosher
meals in collaboration with a company owned by Ross Kriel — Elli’s
husband who is one of the leaders of the Jewish community in the
UAE.
The Middle East’s largest airline previously used suppliers in
Thailand for kosher meals on its international flights.
From the new year it will produce them at a dedicated facility
in the UAE, expected to be operating in time for the inauguration
of direct flights.
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/10/16/dubai-gets-ready-to-go-kosher-after-israel-peace-deal/