It was a memorable evening at the "Orfali x Haoma" collaboration dinner.
The garden setting at Michelin-starred Haoma restaurant.
With an award-winning sustainable herb garden by Michelin-starred Haoma restaurant as the backdrop, Bangkok welcomed one of Dubai's most celebrated homegrown chefs Mohammad Orfali for the first time.
Orfali's contemporary Arabic cuisine creations such as black caviar with smetana on crispy seaweed; burghul salad on shiso leaves; Aleppo street bun with chilli pickles; and Wagyu beef shish barak gyoza were showcased in a 12-course special menu last week together with neo-Indian dishes by Haoma's chef-patron Deepanker Khosla.
"The modernness and cultural heritage of [Mohammad Orfali's] cuisine is in line with what we do in Haoma," said Khosla, the venue host.
"Bangkok's ever-growing culinary scene could do good with him coming and cooking something very unique for the city."
Originally from Syria, Orfali, who has adopted the UAE's most populous city as his home for the past two decades, is the CEO and head of culinary at Orfali Bros, a modern bistro he opened in 2021 with his two pâtissier brothers Wassim and Omar.
Chef-patron Deepanker Khosla of Bangkok's Haoma restaurant.
Orfali Bros is currently ranked at No.46 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list and No.1 in the Middle East & North Africa region. It has also gained Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition.
Inspired by the brothers' world travels and love of art, the restaurant represents Dubai's communities by capturing the imagination of its multicultural residents as well as the diversity of visitors from across the globe.
"Dubai gastronomy has changed tremendously over the past five years. Today, we have people coming to Dubai just to eat. That was not happening before," said Orfali.
"And the arrival of the Michelin Guide and the 50 Best has raised the bar even higher. The local chefs and restauranteurs are taking it more seriously and working harder to offer better quality to clients. Top international chefs from around the world also want to open restaurants in Dubai. That creates tough competition, but a very healthy one."
According to Orfali, Dubai has many hidden culinary gems most tourists don't know about.
Celebrity Syrian chef Mohammad Orfali of award-winning Orfali Bros from Dubai. Orfali Bros
Diners can find anything from Western haute cuisine in ultra-luxurious restaurants at the top of the world's tallest building to very affordable food on the street. Dubai Mall alone is home to almost 400 restaurants.
The complicated taste palate and demand in the Dubai food scene are due to the 7 million people and 170 nationalities that reside in the city.
Making everyone happy is challenging, he said. And for Orfali Bros Bistro to come up with a success story was never easy.
"You have to offer something unique."
With their restaurant as a platform of freedom, the Orfali brothers unify modern Arabic cuisine with French bistro style, breaking the boundary between fine dining and fun dining. The food is designed to invoke a sense of creativity, pride and joy.
"We serve what we like to eat. In my menu, you can see we are Syrian boys from Aleppo, the capital gastronomic city of the Levant region."
Aleppo is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and a cradle of ancient civilisation. Aleppian cuisine is considered the haute cuisine of Syria and the foundation of Mediterranean cookery.
"Our food is native, yet complex and rich in flavours. It was built over thousands of years, with layers of many different cultures and ingredients," said Orfali.
The Orfali Bros is recognised as the Best Restaurant of the Middle East & North Africa by the 50 Best Restaurant list.
"For people who are not familiar with Middle Eastern cuisine, an easy description of Syrian cuisine is it's Lebanese cuisine by Syrian chefs.
"Lebanese, Palestinian, Jordanian and Syrian foods share the same ecosystem, landscape and climate. Our fundamentals of cooking also started in the same place: Aleppo."
Orfali explained that the umami complexity in Aleppian cuisine is down to the classic techniques of preservation, fermentation and curing. Thus you find it in the bistro's dishes such as lacto-fermented local tomatoes with herbs and sourdough; eclair with mushroom marmite, beef prosciutto and fermented quince glaze; and scallop with sea buckthorn, leche de tigre and onion pickles.
"At our restaurant, we modernise traditional recipes by rebuilding them with different perspectives to create new textures, the authenticity of tastes and the respect for classic ingredients always remain."
The amiable big brother, who's also a well-known TV personality, plans to open a restaurant that focuses on modern contemporary Syrian cuisine in the future.
"But it can be a bit difficult because when you try to give the local food a tweak, the Arab people would not accept it for fear of losing their identity. So I'm trying to find a good balance between authenticity and modernity."
The new venture would also be in Dubai, he said.
"The city has so much energy and the people have a very open mindset. The Dubai government also gives 100% support. They want successful people in their city. Orfali Bros Bistro got support from the authorities as well. Dubai Tourism often brings people to our restaurant to show them what the Dubai community is like.
"Dubai is strong when it comes to sublime change. Agriculture has improved incredibly since I first arrived in 2005. Back then, there were just two or three farms in the city. Now we have plenty and an abundance of local ingredients, especially from October to March. We work with the community and local farms to get as much local produce as possible."
Most of the vegetables and fruits are grown in sand and soil under temperature-controlled glass domes, or in hydroponic farms, in the vicinities around Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
"Dubai's air freight system also gives us the benefit of getting fresh produce from around the world at any time without problems. It's a paradise for chefs. At our restaurant, we use mango, papaya, pomelo and palm sugar from Thailand."
Working with his siblings, big brother Orfali said, was not that fun, especially at the beginning.
"Everyone has different perspectives. So we fought a lot to find the synergy between the three of us. But in the end, we share the same goal. It is to offer what we do best to our guests and be at the top of the game.
"I feel blessed working with family and to see them sustain our dream for the next generation is incredible. Our ultimate dream is to make Orfali Bros a school. We will bring it to Aleppo hopefully when the situation in Syria improves. We want to show not just local people but also students from around the world Syrian heritage and how we can do sustainability with our food."
