Chef Ali Benali is Executive Chef and the main driving force behind the Makkah Clock Royal Towers (a Fairmont Hotel) food and beverage team. A culinary explorer, Chef Ali has practiced and honed his craft all over the world (London, Edinburgh, Dundee, Glasgow, Casablanca, Agadir, Dubai, Jeddah and finally, Makkah.) We asked Chef Ali to sit down and share his thoughts and some of his favorite moments in Saudi Arabia.
1) You grew up in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains a short distance from Marrakech. How did food play a role in your childhood and how did your background influence the way you approach food today?
My childhood backdrop was the Atlas Mountains, renowned for its cedar forests and traditional villages. People used the area’s rich and generous soil to grow their own produce, including fruit, vegetable, meat and dairy products. In the Atlas Mountains, home-grown organic food is the norm.
I remember clearly the thousands of different scents in the weekly souks. My favorite place in the souk was always the kitchens. I was 7 years old at the time and I remember the different tribes who came on horseback from far-away mountains to sell their ingredients and to buy sugar, corn oil and other necessities. Each tribe would rent a small room for the day where they would prepare and cook lunch in clay pots on the wood fire. In the Atlas Mountains, men are traditionally the chefs. It was such a joy for me to walk around all those kitchens and to admire the creativity of tribal chefs. They were creating food from products they grew in their own soil for their families.
Lunch time was a real show at the Souk. The tribe members would sit with their leaders on the floor ready to be served. Hot bread, fresh salads, the sizzling tagines — all those delicious plates being dispatched around the room and everybody happily eating. After the first round, a large variety of fresh fruit is served, followed by a large pot of fragrant green tea and fresh mint and two dishes, one filled with extra virgin olive oil and the other with pure forest honey served with freshly baked flat bread.
At an early age I learned the love and respect of food. I also learned that creating a meal is a process that needs careful preparation and management.
2) Tell us a little bit about your experience at the Makkah Clock Royal Tower Fairmont Hotel. What do you think distinguishes the dining experience in the hotel?
I just completed 2 years in this amazing hotel and I’m still under what the French call “le coup de foudre" effect (love at first sight). Our team has worked very hard from the pre-opening until now to build the current reputation we are enjoying. We have 10 world-class outlets – more than any other hotel in the Kingdom! To highlight briefly, Makkah Clock Royal Tower, A Fairmont Hotel, boasts the only fine dining steakhouse in the Holy City of Makkah, The Grill. We use top quality products and import premium meat cuts from Nebraska. Our fish is imported from France (its caught at 5 a.m. and is in our kitchens by 8 a.m. the next day) and our fresh fruit and vegetable are flown in from Holland, the United States and Australia twice a week. We work closely with our local farms and use seasonal local vegetables, poultry, dairy and seafood products. Our Asian restaurant, Aja, provides the most authentic Asian meal experience in the heart of Makkah with its top Asian chefs and twice-a-week deliveries of authentic noodles,vegetables,sauces and spices from Jakarta, Singapore and Honk-Kong.
Lastly, Bharat (Indian,) Zan (Iranian,) Al-Dar (Lebanese) and Al-Dira (Saudi) restaurants are almost ready to open and our team guarantees that you will experience the very best of quality, authenticity and ambiance.
I would like to add that In all our restaurants, there is a strong stress on healthy food. With our corporate program, Life Style Cuisine Plus, we make our guests’ health a priority and we offer a carefully planned menus to accommodate different dietary requirements. Additionally, we encourage our guests to tell us about any food allergies once they check-in so that we can assign a chef to cook special meals that strictly adhere to any dietary requirements.
3) The Holy Month of Ramadan is fast approaching; how does your team prepare for this time and what can people look forward to?
The Holy Month of Ramadan is an amazing month for all of us. We prepare Iftar and Sohour for almost 5000 guests on a daily basis and this entails satisfying multicultural preference,providing a fresh and lavish buffet daily, producing huge quantities and maintaining a high level of hygiene and food safety. We began the planning and preparation process for this month more than 3 month ago. The crew consists of around 200 chefs and 150 stewards – a well-prepared culinary army!
4) Do you have any advice or quick tips for someone preparing iftar for their family or friends?
- Ideally, If you can, buy a freezer rather than rely on a built-in freezer in your fridge.
- Buy your fish, chicken and meat now, and clean, portion and stock them in your freezer ready to use. This will help you save time, money and especially energy, which is really needed during Ramadan.
- To better organize yourself, arrange your recipes in a folder so that you can plan your food shopping. Don’t forget to always plan for well-balanced and healthy meals.
- Don’t forget that Ramadan can be tough on the digestive system if we don’t think about healthy choices, reasonable portion sizes and the likes.
5) You have been working at 5-star restaurants and hotels for more than 20 years. In your opinion, what are the most important elements in any 5-star hotel restaurant?
The most important thing is to love and to respect food; this is the soul of every restaurant. Secondly, the way a team cooperates and coordinates their talent and efforts has a great influence on whether guests will have a wonderful and unforgettable dining experience. I know successful restaurants that have operated for more than 25 years and that is simply down to the fact that whenever you visit them, you experience the same extraordinary satisfaction. On the other hand, many restaurants don't make it through the year. The key to an excellent restaurant is a combination between a passion for food and a passion to succeed as leaders in this industry.
6) Can you share your fondest memory while working in the Kingdom and shed light on why it was so gratifying?
Last Ramadan, we had recently opened and we were chosen to cater a very high-profile event for 1000 clients, in addition to full house occupancy. For almost a week, we worked 20-hour days and the event was a resounding success and our first high-profile catering exposure. The team lesson was “nothing is impossible if there is team spirit, motivation and leadership.”
7) What are your favorite things about working in Makkah?
Makkah is of huge historic and cultural importance, not least due to its status as the center of the Islamic world owing to presence of the 'Masjid Al Haram'. I feel very proud to be in this unique location serving so many people from all over the world who have come here on this important spiritual journey.
8) What do you like to do in your free time?
I spend all of my free time with my three kids and my wife. Whenever I can, I like to cook something totally different from what they usually eat. I love to travel. I love mountain-climbing because it gives me a sense of empowerment, conquering obstacles. My next gift to my lovely wife and myself will be a digital telescope because one thing I’ve loved since childhood is space and planet observation.
Lastly, reading and collecting Cookbooks is an obsession for me. This is not just a hobby any more; it is a big part of my knowledge, development and inspiration. The most valuable cookbook I have in my library is a 1957 edition of "Le Répertoire de la Cuisine” written by Louis Saulnier, a student of Auguste Escoffier.
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E-mail: [email protected]
