Nineteen months after taking over Table 9 in the Hilton Dubai Creek, British chef Darren Velvick has moved on to pastures new and launched The Croft, a casual British eatery in the Marina at the Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites.
Velvick was widely recognised for his innovative cuisine at Table 9, but says fine dining is not where his heart is.
“I don’t want to be a strict person in the kitchen,” he says. “I want to loosen up and have fun. I want people to come up and see what we’re doing. This is where I want to be.”
It has taken more than two decades of hard work to get there. Velvick started training with celebrated British chefs Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing in 1998, long before either of them was a household name.
“I watched Gordon and Marcus on the stove,” Velvick says. “As a young chef, I was just in awe of them. They’re just mind-blowing to watch.”
Velvick honed his skills and work ethic under their leadership.
“We’d work all day and night,” he says. “We’d get in the restaurant at six in the morning and go home at two or 3am. Then we’d go in again at six. But that’s what I wanted as a young chef. I had big ambitions to get to the top.”
Velvick’s career as a chef happened quite by chance. Raised by a single mum, his family didn’t have much money. At the age of 14, he landed a job washing dishes at a restaurant a bike-ride away from home.
“They’d give me £1.50 [Dh8] an hour – I felt rich,” he says.
The restaurant’s owners, Richard and Kate Smith, took the youngster under their wings.
“If it wasn’t for them helping me and guiding me, I would have just been a young lad getting into trouble. They really focused me,” he says.
The more time he spent there, the more his love of food grew and evolved.
“The chefs would keep feeding me,” he says. “I started trying all these new foods I’d never tried, such as smoked salmon, foie gras and scallops. I’d never experienced anything like it.” After telling Richard he wanted to be a chef, Velvick trained once a week in the kitchen for seven years.
“I learnt the whole operation,” he says. “Then Richard got me a job in France and I went to work there for a year. I’ve got a lot to thank them for.”
Now, at age 41, Velvick is seeing his dreams come to life at The Croft. Each dish on the menu reflects his signature style. You’ll find traditional dishes such as fish and chips, but you’ll also find beef tongue-and-cheek pie; roast chicken stuffed with truffle, mushroom and brioche crumbs; and ox-tongue chips with pastrami mayonnaise.
“I grew up in England and these dishes have grown with me,” Velvick says. “That’s where I’ve got an advantage.”
His laid-back personality shines when he talks about his new venture. He wants diners to feel at home inside.
“I’m in here talking to the guests,” he says. “It’s just having a laugh with them – we’re not trying to be serious, it’s having a bit of fun.”
Velvick is often asked about notable British chefs coming to Dubai – Jason Atherton, Tom Aikens and Gordon Ramsay, for example, will all open restaurants in the city this year. Is he worried?
“No, not at all,” he says. “The one strength I’ve got is that I’m here. I’m in my restaurant. People are sick to death of all these chefs coming over here, taking a big pay cheque and not actually cooking. They’re only as good as the chefs they put in their restaurant.
“I’ve built up a great following from Table 9. I have guests who invite me round to their houses for barbecues. Diners become your friends here. They’re not guests.”
As for his former home, Table 9 closed at the start of Ramadan this year and will relaunch next month as a bistro concept, a departure from its previous fine-dining focus.
• The Croft is open daily from 6pm to 1am. For reservations, call 04 319 4794
sjohnson@thenational.ae
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Zimbabwe v UAE, ODI series
All matches at the Harare Sports Club:
1st ODI, Wednesday, April 10
2nd ODI, Friday, April 12
3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14
4th ODI, Tuesday, April 16
UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
