A gourmet palette of talent

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Food life Thursday night's gala opening of the Gourmet Abu Dhabi 2009 food festival at Emirates Palace was an exciting occasion, after all.

The cast was impressive. The stage bulged with talent. And the compere got a little carried away. Thursday night's gala opening of the Gourmet Abu Dhabi 2009 food festival at Emirates Palace was an exciting occasion, after all. But when the man with the microphone urged the venerable attendance of master chefs to show the audience how they could "let their hair down and be a little wild", all they could muster was a slightly embarrassed wave to the assembled press photographers. There was little doubt among the gathered spectators, however, that those gesticulating hands, which belonged to such celebrated Michelin star chefs as Santi Santamaria, Lee Keung, Marco Sacco and Eyvind Hellstrom to name but a few, would be put to devastatingly effective use in the kitchens of the capital over the next nine days. As guests and dignitaries mingled with the chefs on an outdoor terrace, an impressive buffet with live cooking stations gave us a taste of things to come. A jazz band played some lounge classics, as I made a beeline for the caviar station, where a few tins of Sevruga with seafood were pinged open and dispatched before I trawled the rest of the fare on offer. With choice morsels from almost every imaginable cuisine, my palate was suitably primed for the next morning's culinary masterclass. I love the smell of fresh Norwegian seafood in the morning, so there was no better place to be on Friday at 9.30am than a cooking demonstration with Eyvind Hellstrom. The proud possessor of one Michelin star and the master of contemporary Norwegian seafood was at the Armed Forces Officers Club to present the first of a series of masterclasses that will feature a constellation of star chefs over the coming days. I took my seat at the front, and my eyes were immediately drawn to a nest of colossal king crab legs next to a fine, and equally huge, salmon specimen. The Norwegian chef proceeded to instruct a full house on how to make salmon fillets "as soft as fondant" by gently cooking them in olive oil for at least 15 minutes at a steady 55°C. Naturally, there was a creamy sabayon sauce to go with them, not to mention a luxuriant green spinach purée. Soon it was time for some of the purest, whitest pan-fried halibut I've ever seen, and a healthy slathering of crab sauce and parsley purée, garnished with glistening orange globes of fresh salmon roe. It all looked sensational, but I simply had to dash. I had an appointment with one of Abu Dhabi's best chefs across the city. When I arrived at Bord Eau restaurant at the Shangri-La Hotel, the chef de cuisine Gilles Perrin was waiting for me - with an apron. Yes, it was time for the food critic to be put through his paces in a professional kitchen. The chef's table lunch was merely a couple of hours away, and there were vegetables waiting to be stuffed. So under the instruction of Chef Gilles and his team, I got to work filling courgette flower parcels with a sautéed courgette and shallot stuffing, ready for the oven. It was a fascinating insight into a real working kitchen. Chef Gilles briefed me on the chef's table concept, which is intended to be an informal gathering, where people can interact with the chefs, and where no part of the restaurant is out of bounds, not even the kitchen. The emphasis was placed firmly on a convivial atmosphere, and some truly fine French food made with the very best ingredients. If you missed out, you can look forward to such delights as Palamos prawns, Tsarskaya oysters, Quercy lamb and cheese by the renowned affineur Herve Mons at one of Bord Eau's future chef's table events. The stuffed courgette flowers aren't bad, either. It had been a hectic day, but there was one final event to savour. The Royal Meridien hosted the adventure traveller and star of the Discovery Channel's Globe Trekker programme Ian Wright. The irrepressibly cheeky Englishman took to the stage like the Artful Dodger with a passport and a round-the-world ticket. As he told us about his escapades with monkeys in Nepal and cockroaches in Cambodia, we tucked into a quintessentially English menu selected by the intrepid voyager himself. Much to the delight of the British contingent in the audience - and partly to the bemusement of everybody else - there was fish and chips, roast beef with bubble and squeak and spotted dick (a steamed suet pudding with dried fruit). The first full day of Gourmet Abu Dhabi was at an end, and what a day it had been. I'd studied the nuances of Norwegian seafood, stuffed French seasonal vegetables in a professional kitchen and gorged myself something rotten on good old English classics. If it carries on like this, it's going to be an interesting week. For more on Gourmet Abu Dhabi, read James Brennan in Arts&Life every day this week

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