The entrance to Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Dubai
© Brandon Barré
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Dubai’s Chef de Cuisine Tom Allen © Kerzner International Ltd.
Private dining room at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Dubai © Brandon Barré
Much like the legendary Heston Blumenthal himself — the all-hailed pioneer of molecular gastronomy — Tom Allen is a native Brit. Born and raised in Cheltenham, his childhood was spent cooking alongside his mum, and this eventually led him to pursue a career in the culinary arts.
“I was born and raised in Cheltenham, a small town in Gloucestershire, England. I would say my parents definitely inspired me. My mum was a stay-at-home mum, so we would always cook together in the kitchen, and my dad would grow fruit and vegetables in our garden. Cooking at home was a way to bring the family together and is where I formed an emotional connection with food.
“In 2001, I began working as Chef de Partie at Lumiere, a small thirty-cover restaurant in Cheltenham. Working there at such an impressionable age, I learned the values of hard work and dedication, and it was during this period that I met Ashley Palmer-Watts, who was at the time the Head Chef of Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck. In 2005, I moved to The Fat Duck restaurant, working with an incredible team, where I developed a passion for the many processes of the prestigious three Michelin-starred kitchen.
“I then joined Dinner in 2009, assisting Heston Blumenthal and developing the historical dishes they would open the restaurant with, working alongside food historians and museum curators to bring Heston’s vision to life. In 2019 I then took on the role of Head Chef at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London.”
Beef Royal (circa 1821) takes inspiration from a dish served at the coronation of King George IV in 1812 and incorporates classic ingredients such as Claret wine, truffles, beef tongue and anchovies © Kerzner International Ltd.
“After spending a lot of my career in the United Kingdom, I was excited by the thought of travel and was curious to see where my journey with Heston would take me. This led me to relocate to Dubai in August 2021 to take up the role of Chef de Cuisine for Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at Atlantis The Royal.”
Marking a massive milestone in the Dinner by Heston Blumenthal brand, the Dubai location officially opened its doors on 10 February 2023. Poised to be one of the region’s most extraordinary restaurants, the dining venue has more than lived up to its global acclaim. Located within the city’s luxurious new Atlantis The Royal hotel, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal delivers a multi-sensory dining experience that combines history, storytelling and phenomenal flavours in a remarkable setting. Inspired by the rich gastronomic heritage of Britain, the menu, alongside carefully conceived design details, transports guests back in time, showcasing centuries-old dishes ranging from humble farmer’s fare to extravagant royal feasts.
“Located on the second floor of Atlantis The Royal, Dinner overlooks the stunning Skyblaze fountain via an expansive terrace and floor-to ceiling windows. Guests enter the restaurant through a panelled room, perfumed with frankincense, wood smoke and leather, and featuring Victorian-style animal sculptures built into the wood. As the entry door closes, a concealed automatic sliding door opens to reveal the dining area and show kitchen.
“The most notable part of the design greets guests upon entry and takes the form of a pineapple rotisserie and ‘The Dinner Escapement’ (clock). Designed as a breathtaking spectacle, this installation also adds a unique layer of history and storytelling to one of our signature dishes, the Tipsy Cake. Featuring a pulley system based on a sixteenth-century design used for the British Royal Court, the two-metre-high clock is inspired by the watchmakers of Greenwich and the royal kitchen of Tudor England, and the system powers a clockwork spit roast located in the kitchen that cooks the pineapples.
Awash with shades of black, brown and green, and featuring a spit-roast pulley system inspired by the sixteenth-century British Royal Court, the interior of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Dubai serves as the perfect backdrop for an awe-inspiring dining experience © Brandon Barré
“When it comes to dining, we create a relaxed and informal experience, where the menu reimagines Britain’s gastronomic past, with dishes bearing historical dates and stretching back as far as the thirteenth century. All dishes are accompanied by an eclectic selection of globally sourced wines and a bespoke range of drinks, distillations and infusions.
“We offer edible history through storytelling in the form of highly modern dishes inspired by a gastronomic insight from Medieval (circa 1300) to Victorian (circa 1800) times. Guests can expect signature dishes such as Meat Fruit (circa 1500), Powdered Duck (circa 1846), Salamugundy (circa 1723), Tipsy Cake (circa 1858) and Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Trolley (circa 1901).
“Our food is quite unique. Take our Meat Fruit (circa 1500), for example, which, if simply put, appears to be a mandarin but is actually an artistically disguised chicken liver parfait. Meat Fruit is inspired by a traditional Medieval dish called Pome Dorres or ‘Apples of Gold’; our contemporary version of the dish features velvety chicken liver parfait disguised as a mandarin and is served with sourdough. The multi-day recipe requires three cooks on the cold larder station to work five hours every day to make this incredibly special dish.
“[My favourite dish] will have to be the Salamagundy (circa 1723), which is our contemporary version of an eighteenth-century salad dish that features layers of smoked confit chicken, warm slices of beef bone marrow, pickled walnuts, braised salsify with bitter leaves and finished with freshly grated horseradish. It’s perfectly balanced and delicious.
Powdered Duck Breast (circa 1846) features sous vide duck breasts with duck hearts and pickled cherries, served with braised red cabbage and a red cabbage fluid gel © Kerzner International Ltd.
“Meanwhile, the Powdered Duck Breast (circa 1846) is just one of many examples of the level of work and detail that goes into each dish on the menu. Inspired by a recipe for ‘Garnish of Braised Cabbages’ in the 1846 edition of The Modern Cook by Charles Francatelli, this dish comprises sous vide duck breasts paired with duck hearts and pickled cherries, with braised red cabbage and a red cabbage fluid gel. The word ‘powdered’ is an old term or phrase for ‘brined’ (which was a great way of preserving meat before refrigeration was invented); the team ‘brine’ the duck first with herbs and spices to add flavour to the meat.
“After a historical journey of sampling rich mains, guests can go on a sweet discovery of the nineteenth century with the very popular dessert, Tipsy Cake (circa 1858). Taking his lead from the arrival of the first pineapples to the English court in the 1600s, Heston devised a featherlight brioche cake that has been lightly basted in Sauternes wine. It is served with slices of roasted pineapple that have been slowly roasted on a spit for up to six hours.
“Our aim is to surprise, enlighten and delight all our guests through rich storytelling, quality ingredients and impeccable service. Guests will be able to experience an award-winning menu that takes discoveries and fascinations of history, so many generations that most of us never knew existed, into a new and evolving modern dining experience they will remember forever. [It’s] experiential dining at its best; expect the unexpected.”
Clockwise from top-left: selection of British cheeses served at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Dubai; Hay Smoked Salmon (circa 1730); the signature Tipsy Cake (circa 1858) featuring a custard-soaked brioche served with golden spit-roasted pineapple; Salamagundy (circa 1723) © Kerzner International Ltd.
Behind the creation and delivery of these incredible dishes lies a passion for sourcing top quality produce and using this to tell a story and conjure emotions. At Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, they take this a step further by exposing diners’ palates and minds to time capsules of culinary genius.
“It starts with sourcing great quality ingredients and having an amazing team to bring the dishes to life. We collaborate very closely with a handful of suppliers in Dubai that work with farmers to procure responsibly sourced ingredients. We get a lot of food from Europe, and we also get a little bit from Australia and Asia.
“At Dinner, we always tell the story behind each dish to give it authenticity, that point of difference, and reference. That’s why we search for historical links and work with historians, museum curators and people who are passionate about food history to help bring all those components together, which we can then use when applying our techniques and methodology to provide a genuine story that that we can deliver to our guests.
“Food is something that connects every single person and brings the world together. It’s nostalgic and ties to different emotions. I’m sure everyone probably has a dish or a style of cuisine that reminds them of their childhood. Whether it’s their grandparents cooking for them or cooking with their parents in the kitchen, food brings back a lot of fond memories for me.”
Sherried scallops (circa 1965) served two ways: roast scallop and tartare, with cauliflower and shiitake mushrooms © Kerzner International Ltd.
Naturally, as a chef, Allen has some ingredients he is particularly drawn to, which span all flavour profiles from various corners of the globe. With a deft hand and prodigious palate, he skillfully incorporates these into the dishes at his restaurant.
“There are three ingredients that I have been quite obsessed with over the last two to three years; one of them is bergamot, which is a citrus. People tend to use it to flavour earl grey tea to give it that citrus note, while we use it for some of our fish. It grows on the Amalfi Coast in Italy and is very seasonal.
“I also love shiitake mushrooms, which you can find in our scallop dish. What we do is smoke them, sear them and then put them into a soy-mirin marinade to create the ultimate flavour.”
Of course, the produce isn’t the only key to a successful dish; the idea behind the creation must be meticulously conceived and executed to perfection. In the case of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, as is expected of a restaurant of this calibre, this dish conception phase is a very involved and time-consuming process.
The dining room of Heston Blumenthal Dubai offers beautiful views of the city © Brandon Barré; Fillet of Wagyu Beef (circa 1830) served with rich bone marrow sauce and mushroom ketchup © Kerzner International Ltd.; Cider Gimlet © Kerzner International Ltd.; Cod in Cider (circa 1940), with chard, onions, mussels and smoked artichokes © Kerzner International Ltd.
“A new dish could take anything from six months to a year before it makes the menu. We start the process by working with food historians and tapping into the world of the British Library. We visit around three times a year, diving deep into the archives from the thirteenth century, all the way up to the early nineteenth century. This allows us to take snippets of information back to our development kitchen in Bray, England. We then sit down with the development team to map out the dish in terms of flavour profiles and seasonality of ingredients.
“We then take the dish to the restaurant and review it to make sure we’re happy with it and then train the kitchen team to cook it and the front-of house team on how to deliver on the storytelling. We’ll then taste the dish with a sommelier to match the wine as well as nonalcoholic pairings.
“Heston is also involved and will make recommendations to ensure what we’re adding to the menu matches the DNA of Dinner and his vision. We’ll then go away and tweak it until it’s perfected and then present it to our guests.
“I’ve truly relished every moment of working with Heston over the years, where the learning never stops. In my current position, I work with him to capture his vision and sense of curiosity in every dish while collaborating with food historians and curators to develop seasonal dishes and new menu concepts.
“Being able to connect with Heston and his creative team on both a professional and personal level, including weekly video calls and travelling with him to the South of France to the village that first inspired his love of food, has been rewarding for me in so many ways.”
The wine cellar at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Dubai boasts a collection of over 900 globally sourced wines © Brandon Barré
Another aspect that has been particularly fulfilling for Allen is how well the restaurant has been received by diners. Already bestowed with numerous awards just months after opening, there’s no doubt that there’s a very bright future ahead for both Tom and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Dubai.
“We opened Dinner in early 2023 and have already made waves across the region’s culinary scene for our experiential dining and storytelling. Alongside one Michelin star in 2023, Arturo Scarmadella, our Head Sommelier, took home Michelin’s Sommelier Award, and May saw us bestowed International Brand of the Year and Wine Offering of the Year in the region’s 2023 Gault&Millau guide.
“Although the journey of opening Dinner at Atlantis The Royal has been complex, it has been an enjoyable challenge for us all, and one that has ultimately resulted in the passionate team we have in place today, all of whom possess an unwavering commitment to the unflaggingly high standards that Heston’s restaurants are known for around the world.
“When people dine at Dinner, they are coming for the name on the door, that being Michelin-star chef Heston Blumenthal, who is celebrated worldwide as one of the most progressive chefs of his time, and to experience the menu of Britain’s gastronomic past, complemented by our extensive collection of over 900 globally sourced wines.
“Despite only being open for a few months, we have achieved a great deal of success already, and this is just the beginning for us. Our focus right now is building the team, enhancing the experience for our guests, and ensuring that we’re driving Dinner forward as one of the world’s most unique and exciting award-winning restaurants.”
Dinner table details © Kerzner International Ltd.
Heston Blumental © John Scott Blackwell
Millionaire Tart (circa 1730) © Kerzner International Ltd.
To find out more about Tom Allen and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Dubai, visit the website, online booking link or Instagram profile…