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One's perspective on the potential complexity of shawarma
flavours will change drastically after a conversation with Chef Izu
Ani. Though Nigerian-born and brought up in England, his vast fine
dining experience stems from French cooking and his explorations in
the kitchens of Michelin starred chefs in France, England and
Spain. His venture into s'wich, a scalable gourmet shawarma
restaurant in Dubai in parallel to maestroing the kitchen at La
Serre in the city's downtown area expanded not only his repertoire
in Middle Eastern cuisine but the street food's prospects as well.
It may seem like a big statement, but it only takes a visit to his
kitchen followed by a meal at s'wich to verify the claim.
How was your trip to Ethiopia? It was amazing. Nothing in that
place is imported. The soil is so rich because Ethiopia is close to
the equator and so it has a climate thats consistent all year
round, even when it rains. The land is volcanic so the soil and the
salt are organic and extremely rich. Anything you throw in that
soil grows. Theres this super food they eat now: the teff. Its part
of the diet of every Ethiopian. They use it for the injera, their
bread. It's bread with no gluten in it. And gluten is made up of
proteins that bloat you. Their bread has proteins but of a
different kind so you can eat and eat and eat and not feel bloated.
Nothing there had additives. There are hardly any supermarkets in
Ethiopia and everything is naturally grown and sold so things taste
of what theyre supposed to taste. Theres no contriving.
Did you bring anything back for swich?I discovered on my trip
that Ethiopia cultivates some of the best sesame seeds in the
world. We want to import them to make the most outstanding tahini
for our shawarma. Tahini shouldnt taste bitter. If you use quality
sesame seeds and only use the heart, without the skin, your tahini
wouldn't taste bitter.
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What makes it gourmet?WORDS JADE GEORGE PHOTOGRAPHY DORY
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Youve trained in the kitchens of some of the most esteemed chefs
in the world Paul Bocuse, Arzak, Akelarre, to name a few and ran
the kitchen at La Petite Maison in Dubai. French cuisine and fine
dining make up the foundation of your cooking. What's it like for a
chef with your background and kitchen culture to work with
shawarma?Shawarma comes from a different culture, but cultures can
be shared. Im someone who likes to delve into other peoples
cultures. And food is culture. Do you know how important water is
in Japanese cooking? To make any of their main dishes you need
dashi. It's the base of any dish they make and thats what creates
the harmony of flavours in Japanese cuisine. When I was in London
there was a chef from Kyoto that used to import water from Japan to
make his dashi. Thats how important it was to him. Because the
elements in water change other things. Dashi basically forms the
base of the umami taste, the fifth taste, which is all about the
chemical reaction between certain elements. A lot of my dishes are
created in this way of thinking, and it's become a mindset. So
whenever Im trying to create a dish, I want to add layers to make
sure that the chemical reaction is balanced. I dont do it
scientifically; I just do it with palate built through many years
of tasting. One of the first chefs I worked for always told me,
"Izu, youve got to taste in order to have a library of taste."
Every time you sample something you go back into that library and
you'll go, "Oh! I can identify this," and it all comes together. In
that way, making swich and making La Serre wasn't really different
because it involved the same ethos. Thats exactly what I wanted to
instill in the swich team.
That might be part of the reason why weve never seen anyone make
saj bread the way you do. We had trouble making saj bread at first.
I was more concentrated on the meats and the sauces and one of the
guys had a recipe for saj bread. I came in and tasted it, and it
didnt taste good. People liked it but I thought it was too doughy.
See, what they usually do is get flour, water, yeast and salt, mix
it together, let it rest for 10 minutes, whirl it out and put it on
the saj. After a while, you come to taste it and it tastes doughy.
So I decided to delve deeper into it and create my own recipe.
Theres a lot of information that you need in order to make good
bread. You can make good bread or bad bread using the same recipe
and the same ingredients. What will change the outcome is an
understanding of the flour, the salt, the water and the yeast.
Was it your first time making saj bread?I had never used a saj
before. It was just about understanding the culture behind it and
employing everything I had learnt from my background in baking and
cooking. But one thing is the same. Youve got to basically
transform the proteins in the flour. You have to break it all down.
And to do so you need
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bacteria, because bacteria eat proteins to grow. So you need the
yeast which is the bacteria to eat the proteins to be able to
change their format. So that when they go into your body, they're
easier to digest. And this process will consequently make the bread
taste good. The flavours are opened, like when you cook vegetables
instead of eating them raw. They taste different, because you break
up the molecules when you cook vegetables and so you taste the
flavours. The flavours are held in the molecules. But if you
overcook them, you let every flavour out and you dont taste anymore
of the vegetable. Thats why youre encouraged to cook things al
dente. So that you have some of the molecules closed and some
opened. Thats a good marriage of flavours. So I explained to my
guys that the flour wasnt transformed because they let it rest for
only 10 minutes. I suggested to let the dough rest for 24 hours in
the fridge. The temperature you leave the bacteria in affects how
much they multiply. You leave them in a warm room in a city like
Dubai at, say, 24 C and theyll multiply quicker. When they multiply
quicker, they eat up all the proteins. You need to regulate that
because they cant eat too much too quickly. We're all bacteria
after all. We dont feel comfortable when we eat too much. We cant
move, we cant perform Thats why you eat gradually throughout the
day. And the same principle applies to bread. You cant allow the
bacteria to eat as much as they want because they'll die. So what
we do to control that is we reduce the temperature, because they
dont have the same appetite in cold temperatures. This still
transforms the proteins but slower and for longer. When you do it
over a longer stretch of time you create more flavours and perfumes
in the bread.
Where do all the other elements start to come in? And in an
agriculturally challenging city like Dubai, how do you get your
hands on the ingredients you want?Well take the flour for example.
Theres no such thing as local flour in the UAE. Theres no wheat
grown here. And because people here know that the climate we live
in is very adverse to making good bread, they dont even bother
importing good wheat or grains. They buy the cheapest grains they
can find and pump it all with certain substances to make up for
what they lack in quality. So if the grains don't contain enough
proteins, theyll add a shitload of proteins with chemicals. Try
this: buy bread anywhere in this city, leave it outside, and within
a day or two itll mould. Why? Because theres a shitload of
chemicals in the bread. In normal bread, which is usually known as
sourdough "levain" in French you work with the bacteria in the air.
You say, "Okay, lets put some flour here and Ill entice the
bacteria thats in the air." So the bacteria drops down onto the
flour. You then have to give them moisture: water. Water is very
important. You and I, as bacteria, need these elements; we need
bacteria and we need moisture. Without them we die. And because the
bacteria in the air are natural bacteria that we breathe, they're
easier for our bodies to digest.
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They understand them. Our bodies will receive them and say, "I
know you! I saw you the other day. I can use these proteins that
youre bringing into my body." But if your body doesnt know them,
it'll rejects them. Thats why people become coeliac. They reject
the proteins the gluten in the flour because the unnatural yeast
that's created in labs is basically stopping your body from
recognising the formula to break it down. We brought this really
lovely flour from Italy. But, whenever theres a possibility to buy
organic here, we do it. Were not reinventing the wheel. Were just
revising certain elements that we use to make shawarma, to make it
better.
How many shawarmas did you have to go through in the process of
elevating the age old street food? Of course I had to start by
discovering the whole tradition around shawarma. I read and tasted.
I had always enjoyed shawarma anyway. Especially when its made with
honest ingredients. The best shawarma I had eaten was in Beirut. It
was especially good because they cooked it on a wood fire grill. I
would have three of those at one go. Theres a grill that I want to
buy for swich that costs a bundle but it will allow us to cook the
shawarma spits on wood fire. I got one for my kitchen at home.
Cooking in that will give the ingredients we already use and the
product weve achieved a completely different dimension.
Would it be feasible?Everything is feasible when you have the
desire. Thats why I said to the guys at swich that, to take it up
yet another notch, this is where weve got to go. The flavour will
absolutely rip it. The next step for me with swich is to change the
dimensions of existing flavours. Its also about stabilising peoples
perception of what we stand for. I believe that were making a
product that is edible by everybody and is healthy, and every
ingredient that goes into it is seen. Not like at these dner kebab
places where everything is amalgamated and you dont even know whats
in a sandwich. There could be bones mashed in there, there could be
crap in there At swich, you can see the layers: the meat, the
salad, the sauces and all the other condiments. Its not all just
blended together so you can get away with anything. And yes, others
get away with it. Some start right and then decide to go down the
line of cutting costs. Its up to you and what you want to stand
for.
Can that be completely standardised?Anything organic is not
going to function like an assembly line. You need to be consistent,
sure. But you over-standardise something and you lose something.
Its that touch of "homemade", "fresh", "daily" that will elevate
the flavour. You put things in factories and youre going to have
people working who dont even care about the product. And this is
why I opposed the idea of a central kitchen.
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We would lose a little bit of what were doing here. Yes, it
would be harder to manage but if were ever going to have a central
kitchen we have to do it in a different way than what normal
central kitchens do with a different outlook on everything. You
start by saying, "I can do it" and you put elements in place to get
it done. Were already well on our way to our second and third swich
kitchens, maintaining the same principles.
Thats quite a motivating way of thinking. Have you started your
additional research to building on what you already have?Ive got a
research kitchen at home and were setting up an official one with
La Serre. Im now experimenting with lobster shawarma as a special
at s'wich. We already offer beef, veal, mushroom and chicken and
the quality of every bit of it is worth mentioning. The cooking
process, the homemade sauces that we make from scratch every day...
Even our BBQ sauce is made from scratch. And if a mayonnaise is
going to go with the lobster, its going to be from scratch. We
wanted to offer moorish flavours from day one.
You were planning on adding fish to the mix. What made you
reserve from launching it with the initial menu?We wanted to make
sure to put out a product thats really tasty but at the same time
isnt bad for you. Nothing that makes you feel like crap after you
eat it. Making fish in a fast-paced shawarma kitchen without
putting it in a batter and frying it was just too risky of a
process as far as food hygiene and safety go.
How does someone with your background define shawarma? It is
what it is. Its a sandwich. You shave meat, get bread and humble
ingredients and put them together. Shawarma means different things
to different people, depending on their relationship with it. Its
ultimately a quick bite on the go that gives you all the elements
of a diet a whole meal. Youve got your protein, youve got the
vegetables and youve got that enjoyment of the sauce that
lubricates everything and brings it together. Elevating it is
basically looking at the different elements of it and making every
bit of it better. Just like weve witnessed with the evolution of
any dish.
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