Where did the idea for “Dine Around the World”, a one-off tasting dinner with signature dishes from your other restaurants, come from?

Tristan Farmer [Marina Social’s chef patron] and myself were putting our heads together, and it was like, how can we come up with a one-off thing where people can come and taste some of our global dishes – because not everyone can get to Singapore, or Hong Kong, or New York. It enabled them to get to taste some of those regions’ signature dishes, and for one night only. It’s about having fun with the regular guests, giving them something different, raising awareness with new guests and using my time while I’m in town. 

Why did you choose to host this unique meal in Dubai?

Why not? Dubai’s very close to my heart and I really enjoy coming here. As per my agreement with InterContinental, I’m supposed to be here three, four times a year but I’ve already been here three times and Marina Social has only been open six weeks [as of mid-November]. I just love Dubai; I spent four years here, met my wife here and I just really, really like it.

Will you be unrolling something similar in your other restaurants?

New York not so much, but we’ve done some in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Those events in New York don’t really seem to work. The people don’t really take to them; they just sort of want to come in for dinner and then go home. We tend to do more off-site charity stuff in New York, and raise awareness for our restaurant that way.

What changes have you noticed in Dubai since you were previously here working at Gordon Ramsay’s Verre?

You’ve only got to look at how fast people build buildings here and how fast mini-cities pop up inside the city. As that happens new restaurants have to exist. The quality goes from not so good, to OK, to good, to great. When I lived here [11 years ago] you could count the good restaurants on your hand but there are so many now. And what that means for someone like myself is you have to make sure that your restaurant is of the highest order, otherwise people are just not going to come due to the choice available. 

Where do you think Dubai’s dining scene is heading now?

Where I’d like it to head is seeing more chef-driven, chef-owned restaurants. There’s a lot more passion going into the product. It’s not just about making money or bringing in an international concept. People ask: “What’s your concept?” I don’t have a concept. We just cook good food, we have a beautiful balcony, we decorated it really nicely, we’ve got a nice wine list and cool cocktails, and the food comes from the heart. In the Middle East, we tend to fall into the trap a little bit of bringing in brands, and that’s OK, but we should support giving smaller restaurants liquor licenses and things like that – and I don’t know if that will ever happen, but I hope so. 

How do you achieve your signature atmosphere in each of your “Social” restaurants around the globe without letting them feel the same?

I don’t really plan it. Every time we look at a new restaurant in a new location, we look at what people like to eat, what restaurants are successful, why they’re successful, what people seem to enjoy, and then we start to mould our style of cuisine around that and the restaurant begins to take on its own life form. We try to make sure we’ve got all the senior people in place well in advance so they can start to live and breathe the destination, eight to nine months prior to the opening. 

With Marina Social marking your 17th restaurant, do you worry that you may become overwhelmed trying to maintain the standards of each?

Of course – you can only do so much, and if you take too much on, you start to not enjoy it and it becomes a massive pressure. The minute you feel that, you should stop. It’s almost like a kettle: when that kettle boils it’s time to turn it off. 

Do you feel like the kettle’s going to boil soon?

I think I’ve got a little bit of room left, but the problem is, there are things I want to achieve personally with Pollen Street Social, as far as accolades are concerned. It’s important to me that we continue to strive to get to two Michelin stars, that we continue to strive to stay in the top five in the country. That takes a lot of my time and effort because the competition in London is fierce. If I turned myself exclusively into a restaurateur I could probably do another 20 restaurants. But do I want to do that? Probably not. I probably have two, three more restaurants under my belt.

Are there any destinations that you are particularly keen to open a restaurant?

Los Angeles. I just like LA; it’s a cool place to hang out. I love the fact that fine dining doesn’t really work there. I find that fascinating. The whole city just goes: “You know what, we’re not interested in that stuff. Just give us really nicely cooked food, and a cool place to hang out and we’re happy.” I like that. 

Currently, where do you think has the most interesting emerging dining scene?

San Francisco is booming. It went on a lull for quite a few years but the amount of three-star restaurants popping up there now is crazy. San Francisco has always had great produce, but it’s a time and place and it just sort of happens. Two or three chefs show up in town and start cooking fantastic food – such as Joshua Skenes at Saison, Corey Lee at Benu, Dominique Crenn at Atelier Crenn – you’ve got all these chefs who became two- or three-star chefs overnight. And this creates a following of young chefs who train there and spawn off to do little bistros and interesting restaurants – and they might not get to three stars, but they’re still doing amazing food.

What restaurants are on your dining bucket list?

I’m trying to get a bloody reservation at Fäviken Magasinet in Sweden at the moment, and I can’t. Well, I’ve got one at Christmas, but I don’t want to go at Christmas. Frantzén in Stockholm; a place just outside Melbourne called Brae; and Benu in San Francisco for sure – I’m kicking myself that I didn’t try it last time I was there, just a couple months before it went three stars.