The Burj Al Arab

The Burj Al Arab

I was working at a luxury 5star business hotel in Dubai as the head sushi chef for one of their outlets in the hotel.  The name of the restaurant is Buddha Bar, an upscale Pan-Asian restaurant that infuses its own brand of music and djs.  The original Buddha Bar is in Paris and they have many restaurants and hotels around the world.  The location in Dubai is the largest one so far.  It seats 400+ clients and is a huge two level masterpiece, beautifully decorated with a huge golden Buddha in the center of the dining room. 

From the Lobby

High Tea

The culinary management of the hotel goes out together on what they call team-building excursions.  It helps connect with your coworkers and is usually a fun day of “work” doing something outside of the hotel.  This time the executive sous chef of the hotel had arranged a private tour of the Burj AL Arab.  The Burj is the sail-shaped hotel that is one of the many landmarks of Dubai.  It is touted as the world’s only 7star hotel.  It is just for publicity, there are not 7 stars in the Michelin rating system, the maximum amount of stars are only 5.  7 stars or not, it is a unique and memorable hotel.  The executive sous chef of the Burj Al Arab met us in the amazing lobby.  The inside of the hotel would remind you of being in the Disney movie Aladdin.  When you looked up from the lobby, the floors were colored in an amazing fashion, each floor an exact shade different than the last, fading into each other like a color wheel.  The décor was very vivid and in classic Dubai fashion everything in that hotel from the napkins under your drink to the door handles to the bathroom is done in an ostentatious, over-the-top way.  Our tour guide took us through the lobby and we rode the large gold-plated elevators up to the 10^th floor into the kitchens for the restaurant on the top of the hotel the Al Muntaha.  The Al Muntaha is a restaurant that literally hangs off the hotel 180 meters over the gulf in an over-hang jutting out from the side of the Burj.  I have eaten there once, but that is another story for another time.  I will say the food is all right, expensive and the décor is outdated and has a very 80’s new wave feel, lots of black, teal and magenta.  It is definitely a novelty.  But I digress.  The kitchens were surprisingly small and old looking.  I had expected a kitchen like the one in the Buddha Bar- new, immaculate and huge with high ceilings and new equipment.  What I remember the most about the kitchens in the Burj were the many, many rooms for the different food production.  The sushi room was air conditioned and very small, there were photos of all the dishes to keep them uniform.  I also remember the smell of the whole area.  It smelled like older kitchens I had been in back in Minnesota.  It was a classic French cooking smell, very familiar and comforting, but strange for Dubai.  There were so many production rooms; it was a maze of kitchens, walk-in refrigerators and freezers.  And surprisingly there was not many staff members working for such a large hotel.  We left the back of the hotel and went up the gigantic elevators again, going up to the 20^th floor to one of the suites.  The hotel has only suites and all are 2 levels.  Needless to say, the room was amazing.  There was a winding staircase in the entrance leading up to a living room that lead to a dressing room and bathroom which in turn led to a bedroom.  Again I mention the décor was very Aladdin, very Arab, everything was outlined in gold or dark wood.  Bright colors with a fairytale feel.  The view from the room, was incredible, you could see the largest Palm Island that was still under construction at the time.

One of the bedrooms in the suite

From the top looking down

We left the room and toured the ballroom, which was all gold from ceiling to floor and then the library, which was like stepping into a movie set. We finally went to the 28^th floor, top of the hotel and had high tea.  We were served small tea sandwiches of butter and cucumber, hors d’oeuvres of chive cream cheese wrapped with smoked salmon (boring!), little oven-baked pita chips with hummus and olive.  There were also macaroons of every flavor (my favorite), dried dates stuffed with almonds dipped in chocolate and Turkish delights.  There was a variety of fresh juices and Moroccan tea.  It was a great spread and we all enjoyed the view from the top.  The top floor was decorated in true Arab style, heavy in gold with luxurious throw pillows everywhere and plush furniture.  The most impressive thing about the top floor was looking down to the lobby; each floor was exactly the same making a stunning pattern.  I didn’t expect anything less.  The burj is an amazing hotel; in all the over-the-top tackiness I still think it’s cool.

Keep eating!


*Personal Photos