Chefs of the Season

07.01.2026

The Artists Shaping Dubai's Winter Tables

Chefs of the Season: The Artists Shaping Dubai's Winter Tables

Winter in Dubai belongs as much to the chefs as it does to the city itself. Each season, certain culinary voices rise above the clamour — not through volume, but through vision. These are the artists whose kitchens become stages, whose plates tell stories that linger long after the final course. We've been watching, tasting, listening. Here are the names commanding our attention this winter, a collection that will grow as the season unfolds.

Chef Brando Moros & Chef Koyi Tanabe — Salvaje Dubai

Some collaborations feel inevitable once they happen, as though the culinary universe had been quietly arranging the pieces all along. Chef Brando Moros and Chef Koyi Tanabe represent two distinct traditions — Latin American fire and Japanese precision — yet at Salvaje Dubai, their partnership transcends mere fusion. This is dialogue rendered edible.

Moros brings the heat and heart of Latin America, that particular understanding of how flame transforms ingredient into emotion. His approach honours tradition whilst refusing to be bound by it, creating dishes that feel both ancestral and urgent. Tanabe, meanwhile, works with the kind of exactitude that Japanese cuisine demands, where a millimetre matters and timing becomes poetry. Together, they've crafted a menu that understands drama: the miso-glazed black cod that has become something of a signature, ceviches that respect the fish whilst celebrating the citrus, compositions that photograph beautifully but taste even better.

What distinguishes their work at Salvaje isn't just technical excellence — though that abounds — but rather the emotional register they achieve. These are chefs who understand that dining, at its finest, becomes theatre. The kitchen at Address Opera Residences has become their stage, and this winter, they're performing at the height of their considerable powers.

Salvaje Dubai

Location: Address Opera Residences, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Blvd — Downtown Dubai
Reservations: +971 4 570 3653

Chef Grégoire Berger — Kraken

There are chefs who cook, and then there are chefs who build worlds. Grégoire Berger belongs decisively to the latter category. Since Kraken opened its doors on 17 October, Berger has been quietly reshaping what seafood can mean in a city surrounded by water yet often looking elsewhere for culinary inspiration. His vision feels both radical and inevitable: a restaurant rooted in Dubai's fishing heritage, powered by uncompromising standards, and connected to the ocean through its own dedicated fishing boat and crew.

Berger arrives with a reputation as one of the most creative chefs of his generation, known for beautifully crafted dishes and a storytelling approach that transforms meals into narratives. At Kraken, he's channelling that artistry into fire-driven, flavour-forward cuisine that honours the Arabian Gulf whilst pushing boundaries with startling confidence. The menu reads like a manifesto: Local Fish Charcuterie that speaks to preservation and craft, Salted King Fish paired with fermented and freeze-dried strawberries — a combination that shouldn't work yet does, brilliantly. Omani Prawns arrive smoked, dressed with Shrimp XO, whilst octopus glazed in chilli, smoked tomato jam, and seaweed mole achieves that rare balance of restraint and intensity.

But Berger refuses to be confined by the sea alone. From the land come equally bold propositions: Roasted Quail with black garlic and local mushrooms, olive and wakame sour cream ice cream that challenges dessert conventions. The finale indulges unapologetically — truffle cheesecake, date miso caramel tarte tatin — proving that discovery and decadence need not be mutually exclusive. This is cooking that respects tradition whilst writing new chapters, that understands Dubai's fishing legacy as foundation rather than limitation. Berger isn't simply serving seafood; he's anchoring a culinary philosophy in the waters that surround us.

Kraken

Hours: Daily, 12 p.m.–11 p.m.
Location: Villa 4, Al Wasl Street, Jumeirah 2, Dubai

Chef Dmitrii Blinov — DUO Gastrobar

Some chefs chase Michelin stars. Dmitrii Blinov chased something more radical: accessibility without compromise. The founder and chef of DUO Gastrobar arrived in Dubai with a philosophy forged over 12 years in St. Petersburg, where he quietly revolutionised the notion that fine dining must remain synonymous with luxury. His answer? Fine Casual Dining — modern European cuisine with Mediterranean and Asian touches, served in an atmosphere where sincerity matters as much as technique.

Blinov began his culinary journey at 17; by 22, he was already a Head Chef. At 27, he opened the original DUO Gastrobar in St. Petersburg — a cosy, 24-seat space that introduced the city's first gastronomic restaurant with genuinely accessible prices. Within two years, it was named Best Restaurant in St. Petersburg by the Where to Eat awards. What followed was the creation of DuoBand, a restaurant group comprising eight distinct concepts, each carrying Blinov's signature approach: never more than three main ingredients per dish, yet combinations so vivid they become memorable, every plate infused with emotion rather than complexity.

In August 2023, Blinov brought this vision to Dubai Hills, and the city responded immediately. Within its first year, DUO Gastrobar earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand; in its second, a toque from Gault & Millau arrived. By November 2024, a second location opened in Creek Harbour, earning its own Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2025. This isn't mere expansion — it's validation of Blinov's belief that everyday gastronomy should be accessible, that good restaurants needn't signal luxury but rather good taste and quality of life. In a city often defined by extravagance, Blinov offers something quietly revolutionary: excellence without pretence, sophistication without barriers. His kitchens prove that the most profound statements are often the simplest ones, delivered with consistency and genuine care.

DUO Gastrobar
Dubai Hills — Michelin Bib Gourmand | 1 toque Gault & Millau
Dubai Creek — Michelin Bib Gourmand

Chef Alessandro Miceli — MamaBella

Certain chefs understand that the most profound culinary statements often arrive without fanfare, rooted not in innovation for its own sake but in the preservation of something essential. Chef Alessandro Miceli belongs to this rare category. At MamaBella, which he created for Gastronaut Hospitality — the group behind BohoX, Trove, WooHOO, and Ram & Roll — Miceli has built something that feels less like a restaurant and more like an act of cultural conservation.

His vision centres on Cucina Mamma, a concept as simple as it is revolutionary: each month, a different Nonna travels from Italy to Dubai to share recipes she has spent a lifetime perfecting. Miceli describes these women as "living cookbooks — the true guardians of flavour, memory, and authentic Italian cuisine." It's a phrase that could read as romantic hyperbole, yet watching these grandmothers work in the Mamma Studio — an intimate 12-seat communal table at the restaurant's heart — confirms its accuracy. These are hands that have made pasta tens of thousands of times, that understand dough not through measurement but through touch, that carry entire regional culinary traditions in muscle memory.

The menu refuses contemporary reinterpretation or fusion. Instead, it offers Italian cooking in its purest form: handmade pasta, lasagna, culurgiones, seadas, grilled lamb, and regional specialties prepared exactly as they are in Italian family homes — with patience, love, and the kind of authenticity that cannot be manufactured. Wild herbs, artisanal cheeses, fresh seafood, premium meats, and the richness of cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil form the foundation. These are dishes that taste of place and time, emotional and evocative, preserving flavours passed down through generations.

What distinguishes Miceli's approach is his recognition that true Italian cooking exists not in Michelin-starred innovation but in the knowledge held by women whose names rarely appear in culinary histories. The Mamma Studio becomes a living archive, keeping authentic traditions alive through experience, connection, and shared meals. On evenings when Sicilian energy fills the space, when live music accompanies the clatter of family-style dining, MamaBella achieves what so many restaurants only claim: it transports. Designed to evoke the warmth of a southern Italian village yet situated in the heart of modern Dubai, it proves that heritage and hospitality, when handled with proper reverence, need no embellishment. Miceli hasn't opened a restaurant; he's created a bridge between generations, between countries, between the cooking of Italian grandmothers and diners who might never otherwise taste it.