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DUBAI: “My dream wasn’t to be a soccer player or a musician or a doctor,” says Cedric Vongerichten, head chef of the French-Asian eatery Maritime at The Edition in Jeddah. “This is what I was meant to do — and to be.”  

It’s hard to argue. Vongerichten was born in Thailand to French parents who were in the country because Vongerichten’s father was head chef at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. By the time Vongerichten was two, the family had settled in New York after stints in Portugal and Boston. 

Vongerichten says his own passion for cooking starting at the age of eight or nine. “(I would finish) school and head home — which was a hotel at the time — and I’d spend my free time in the kitchen doing pastries and helping out. That was all I thought about.”  

He started serious cooking lessons in the south of France when he was 14 and has since traveled the world to learn about different cuisines and cultures.  

When you started out what was the most common mistake you made? 

I’d say overcomplicating things and not having a clear vision of the dish. Sometimes you just have to step back and look at the whole picture. The more you practice, the more things work automatically and you don’t have to think about it anymore. 

What’s your top tip for amateur chefs?  

When you’re at home it’s very easy to make your kitchen a mess and have pots and pans everywhere. That’s when it gets difficult to focus. Cooking, honestly, is 50 percent cooking and 50 percent cleaning; it’s really important to keep things clean and organized. Then when it comes to the actual cooking, keep it simple. People will be more impressed with (good quality ingredients) than with something overly complicated. 

What one ingredient can instantly improve any dish?  

Chili. I can’t live without it and nor can my family. It makes the dish very exciting from beginning to end. 

When you go out to eat, do you find yourself critiquing the food?  

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. It’s part of our job. But I’m not vocal about it, whether positive or negative. I don't want to ruin someone else’s experience. Everybody wants to just have a nice dinner. 

What’s the most common issue that you find in other restaurants?  

I’d say my pet peeve is lighting. I really like light to be done well. It creates a vibe. If the light is maybe gray, or too bright, it can make you feel like you don’t want to stay too long.  

What’s your favorite cuisine? 

We can’t live without our Asian fix. We need it at least once or twice a week, whether it’s Japanese, Indonesian, or Thai. 

What’s your go-to dish if you have to cook something quickly at home? 

Seafood takes me 15 to 20 minutes. Two nights ago, I did a simple local black sea bass. You just simply sear it skin-side down in a pan. And right now it’s the season for asparagus, so we had some boiled salted asparagus with olive oil and rice. Sometimes for the kids I’ll do roast chicken, they love that. I put it in a pan with potatoes, onion, garlic, water, salt, and olive oil, and sometimes I add rosemary. I put the chicken on top and put it in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size of the chicken. The sauce does itself because of the dripping chicken and the potatoes. It doesn’t make much of a mess and it’s pretty easy and tasty. 

What customer request or behavior most annoys you? 

I don’t like to say no, so, in terms of requests, if we have the ingredients, then we just do it. The only thing that I don’t appreciate is when the service team gets disrespected.  

What’s your favorite dish to cook and why?   

It depends on the season. Right now, I would do say a fluke — the fish. It’s very simple and very good with just olive oil, a little squeeze of lime juice, a little salt, lemon zest, and, of course, some chili on top.  

I also love to do bouillabaisse. It’s a Mediterranean fish soup. It takes a long time. On top of the fish, you have some lobster, more fish, some potato and a piece of bread. There’s also a lot of saffron inside. It’s such a fun dish. And it’s very, very tasty. 

What’s the most difficult dish for you to get right? 

Pastries can be difficult. You need to be very precise. You need to actually weigh everything by the gram. Also, from country to country, it’s completely different, because — first of all — the weather is very different. There is the factor of humidity and temperature. The products, like flour, are different. So, you have to adjust to all of that. It’s very technical.  

As a head chef, what are you like in the kitchen? 

I feel like I experienced the end of an era in France when there were still chefs yelling and throwing things around. I remember seeing that in France. But it’s definitely phased out. Did I scream a little bit at beginning of my career? Maybe, but I’m definitely not like that now. In a team, everybody reacts differently, so you have to manage people differently. Some people need a little more coaching, others have a more independent approach. As a manager and as a chef, this is where you have to be flexible. I can be laidback, but I also want to have great results and the proper product. In the long run, you can see that most people want to stay with us for a long time. So that speaks for itself. 

 RECIPE: Chef Cedric’s fritters  

Ingredients: 

90g all-purpose flour; 30g rice flour; 8g baking powder; 3g salt; 130g water; 25g scallions, green tops sliced on the bias; 300g corn kernels; 10g Fresno chili; vegetable oil for frying  

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1. Put the all-purpose flour, rice flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  

2. Whisk in water until just combined. 

3. Add scallions, corn kernels and Fresno chili.  

4. Pour the oil into a large heavy-bottom pan.  

5. Heat oil until it shimmers but doesn’t smoke (350°F).  

6. Pour 1 tablespoon of the batter mixture into the hot oil at a time without overcrowding (for larger fritters, use about 1⁄2 cup of batter each). 

7. Flatten fritters slightly with a spatula, then press the spatula into the fritters a few times to create indentations for crispy edges. 

10. Cook until batter turns golden brown on the bottom, then flip and cook until the other side matches (about two mins more).  

11. Remove fritters and place on a platter lined with paper towels. 

12. Serve hot with spicy kecap manis (sweet soy) dipping sauce and garnish with sliced scallions.  

DUBAI: There is perhaps no better person to ask about the magnitude of ��������Ƶ’s current cultural boom than Abdulnasser Gharem. Gharem has been creating art for decades, and has established himself as one of the Kingdom’s most acclaimed contemporary artists, despite the many obstacles he faced starting out at a time when there was really no pathway to becoming a professional artist from ��������Ƶ and most of those with a creative bent in the country were left with little choice but to pursue other careers. 

“I was in the army for 23 years,” Gharem, 51, who comes from the south of the Kingdom, tells Arab News. “There was no way you were going to be an artist with an income in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Most of my friends and relatives were in the army, so it was a popular thing. I became an officer, just to make sure that I could earn (money), and art would be something I’d do on the side.” 

Gharem also remembers how he discovered that two of his best friends from high school, raised in a strict environment, were part of the September 11 attacks on the US in 2001. “After high school, they just disappeared. We thought that maybe their parents moved to another city,” he says. “And suddenly I found their names in the list of the 19 hijackers. I was really shocked, because I was asking myself: ‘Why wasn’t it me?’ We were in the same neighborhood, the same school, the same environment, and had the same education. I think that’s why I became an artist: I was insisting that I wasn’t going to just rely on others. I just needed to create my own path.” 

And that is exactly what Gharem has done over the past two decades. In 2003, he co-founded Edge of Arabia in London. The arts platform, which highlighted Saudi artists through touring exhibitions, became hugely influential.  

A decade later, Gharem decided to set up his “own space” in Riyadh, which made him realize that there was a huge lack of support for the country’s up-and-coming generation of artists. 

“I had the experience of establishing a studio, dealing with challenges, bringing in sponsors, and setting up programs,” he says. “I was shocked to see how young Saudi talents — boys and girls who were interested in fashion, art, photography, filming — didn’t have their own space.” 

In Gharem Studio, young creatives from a variety of fields are invited to use Gharem’s library, art, filming equipment, the space itself, and — most importantly — to share ideas among themselves. He is much more than simply the founder of the studio, and has become a mentor to several young artists. He hopes that his non-profit arts organization can inspire self-expression and freedom of thought.  

“It’s really fascinating for me. We have artists like photographer Haitham Alsharif who discusses gender issues, and the artist Halla Bint Khalid (the studio’s co-owner), who is looking into family and children,” he says. “So, it’s all related to society. It’s nice when you listen to issues from different aspects, ages and slices of society. The studio became a think tank.” 

When Gharem Studio was launched, its artists flew abroad to experience art fairs in Europe and exhibited their own works in the UK and the US, traveling across 15 states. Gharem admits that in the beginning there were some hurdles to overcome, not just at home but overseas too.  

“We were doing international shows, because contemporary art wasn’t accepted yet in ��������Ƶ,” he says. “It was honestly tough to sell Saudi art. Of course, now it’s different. Now the government is putting us on the cultural map of the world. We are living in what I call ‘a grant narrative,’ and that’s what we have been looking for since we were young. I can’t believe our dreams became true. Suddenly everything changed. We have two biennales in this country. We have Desert X and Noor Riyadh Festival. These kinds of cultural events have become part of people’s daily lives. They can spend time at the movies, in a restaurant or at a concert, or a biennale. The public sphere has become totally different.” 

In early May, a selection of predominantly photographic works from Gharem Studio were displayed in an exhibition at Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery in Dubai. This month, the studio will be moving to its new home in the cultural hub of JAX District in Riyadh. According to Gharem, there are also plans to establish a bio-art lab in the studio, where artists can explore environmental issues.  

“Our mission,” he says, “is to bring something new to the artist and society.”