Best Cuisine

Nobody is lukewarm about oysters, especially when they're served raw on the half shell. There are lovers and there are haters.

Still, if an oyster fan ever wanted to try to convert someone squeamish, there's no better place to make that pitch than at Elliott's. As soon as you walk in the door, you have to admire the spectacular 21-foot icy bar heaped with bivalves from chilly Northwest waters. There are up to 60 varieties of four species, their availability depending on the season. Take a seat at the bar to watch champion oyster shucker David Leck do his thing. The results are stunning. Not always in a good way, but more on that in a minute.

It may sound strange that an award-winning Japanese restaurant like Zuma is helmed by someone who is not a qualified sushi chef, but for culinary master and entrepreneur Rainer Becker, the knowledge is more important than the craft.

A mere few weeks away from Zuma's grand opening at The Gate Village, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the multi-award-winning restaurant and its celebrity chef have already created a buzz with this city's growing food connoisseurs.

The heart of every restaurant is the kitchen. Here raw ingredients are prepared for cooking (washing, peeling, chopping etc) and cooked for service. The quality of food and speed of service depend on efficiency, hence planning, kitchen design and layout must be undertaken with due care and expert advice if necessary.

Errors committed in planning and purchasing specifications are extremely costly in the end. A poorly planned kitchen results in high payroll, slow production, unhappy kitchen staff, and dissatisfied guests.

Ideally, kitchens should be planned according to the menu envisaged. This will allow proper equipment selection, spacing, determination of capacity and purchase accordingly. Today’s high rents and construction costs dictate wise use of every square inch of space. Restaurateurs should be knowledgeable about both cooking and space allocation. . Consultants, if hired, should be interviewed in-depth before assignment.