JEDDAH: Chef Javier Arrebola — a Barcelona native who is currently executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton Jeddah — was all of seven years old when his uncle told him he was old enough to bake his own birthday cake. 

“Everything I am comes from my family,” Arrebola tells Arab News. “My uncle is a pastry chef. I remember going to spend weekends with him in my childhood. I’d go inside the kitchen and spend time around the oven and the burners to see how everything works. So, when I was getting to the age where I needed to choose what I wanted to do in life, I always said that I wanted to become a chef and work in the kitchen.” 

Having lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for more than two years now, Arrebola says life in the Kingdom was almost instantly familiar. “When I moved to Jeddah, I was shocked to see the coffee shops full of guests at two in the morning. This is exactly like back home in Spain — just exchange the coffee or tea for wine, but the concept is the same: Going out to spend time with friends and family,” he says. “The people here are so warm and welcoming.” 

Here, Arrebola discusses his enduring love for all things rice, his favorite ingredient, and his management style. 

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

This is kind of silly, but when I was at culinary school, every time I put something in the oven, when I needed to take it out again, I’d put it on the tabletop then turn back to close the oven. When I went back to the tray, I’d forget to use the mitts, so, I would burn myself every single time. It took me quite a few burns before I learned. 

What’s your top tip for amateur chefs? 

Always try and find the best produce. The higher the quality of produce you have, the better the chance that you’ll make a good meal. If you do anything simple with high-quality ingredients, it can turn into something really good. 

What one ingredient can instantly improve any dish? (And why?) 

It’s a cliché, but I really believe that it’s love. Cooking and eating has everything to do with memory. It’s about what you grew up eating at home, what your mom, your family, your grandma fed you from the moment you were born. And your favorite dishes, for a long time, will be either the dish that your grandma used to cook or simple comfort food. Even if you go to a three-Michelin-star restaurant, you’d change everything just to have that meal one more time. And what makes the difference between this and another meal is the love that that person poured into their cooking. 

What’s your favorite cuisine?   

I really like all different kinds of cuisine. I love Indian, Thai, pan-Asian, Japanese... Even here in Saudi they have really good traditional dishes that, even after working in Dubai for a long time, I didn't know about. I'm pretty much open to everything. 

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

I’d just go for one meat — like any kind of steak or any fresh fish that I have — then just pan sear with the right seasoning, and some vegetables. In 10-15 minutes, you can get that ready. If the ingredients are fresh, it’ll be a really good meal. 

What customer behavior most annoys you?  

At the end of the day, our guests are our boss. We can only work in hospitality because we have customers; they pay our salary. The only thing that sometimes can be challenging is the short turnaround time, especially here in Saudi. Everything is last-minute. But, at the same time, that makes it fun. The surprise is exciting. 

What’s your favorite dish to cook?   

I really enjoy cooking rice dishes. Back home, we have a kind of rice called bomba rice. It's famous and is used in dishes like paella. I worked for three years with one chef that was really passionate about rice and he taught me a lot.  

What is the most difficult dish for you to get right?  

I think with every single dish that that you make, even if it’s something you’ve cooked for the last 10 years, you can always find ways to improve it. That’s the evolution of the chef. It’s what makes our job. It’s lovely that every single day is a new day. 

As a head chef, what are you like?   

Hospitality in general is changing. I remember when I started out, you could still find these chefs who would send dishes flying around the kitchen, and they’d be shouting and loud. That’s the old-school kitchen and I think it’s a thing of the past. Everything is moving to a more logical and well-behaved environment. But still, a kitchen without discipline cannot be a kitchen. At the end of the day, we work with fire and machines, so I don't think you want a kitchen without discipline. 

Chef Javier’s brioche avocado 

INGREDIENTS 

For the pine nut tarator: 

20g toasted pine nuts; 10g chopped parsley; 1 chopped garlic clove; 3g lemon juice; 50g olive oil; 1g sumac; salt                                                               

For the caramelized onions:  

100g white onion, thinly chopped; 15g oilve oil; 5g balsamic vinegar 

For the rest: 

3 quail eggs, poached; 1 radish, sliced; 1 avocado, sliced; 1 brioche bread  

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Mix all the pine nut tarator ingredients in a bowl. At the same time, add the olive oil and onions to a pot and cook them on medium heat until soft, then reduce the heat and caramelize slowly until they get a dark brown color. Deglaze with the balsamic vinegar at the very last minute.  

2. Poach three quail eggs for 1 min (or longer, as you most enjoy them). 

3. Sear the brioche with olive oil and salt, and toast in a hot pan.    

4. Spread a spoonful of tarator sauce on top of the brioche and add the sliced avocado. Top with the caramelized onion.                                                     

5. Add the poached quail egg on top and garnish with flaky salt. Serve. 

RIYADH: Robert Stirrup’s culinary journey began in his family home just outside of London. In the bustling kitchen, he would carry out basic tasks to help prepare meals on the weekends, and this sparked a lifelong passion for cooking.  

Now, with more than two decades of experience behind him, including stints at five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants, Stirrup is the director of culinary arts at The Ritz-Carlton Riyadh.  

Here, he discusses his favorite dish and his top tips for amateur chefs. He also shares his recipe for roasted seabass with etuvée of vegetables and herb salad. 

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

Probably one of the biggest was to keep trying to add flavors. When you’re not really sure of the different flavors and the complexity of ingredients, you keep adding things. Over time, you start to realize what will work with what. One of the big things that one of my chefs taught me, when I was 19 or 20 years old, was to actually smell and eat all the different herbs and understand what the flavors were and what you could actually pair them with. 

What’s your top tip for amateur chefs? 

Planning. If you don’t have a plan for what the dish is going to look like or be presented as, then you miss out on making a list and realizing that a lot can be done in advance. If you do a lot of the things in advance, then at the end you’re just doing the finishing touches of cooking the meat, cooking the fish, finishing the vegetables or reheating the sauces. Then you don’t put all the pressure on yourself at the last minute and panic and make a mess of it. 

What one ingredient can instantly improve any dish? 

Citrus. It can elevate so many different dishes, and there are so many different ways that you can use it. It’s not just a case of using lemon, either. You can use different herbs that have a citrus base. You can use limes. You can use yuzu. There are lots of different ways that you can revitalize a dish or bring back the freshness of a dish by adding citrus. 

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

I always check how big the menu is. If I see a big menu, I always think that either the food can’t be fresh, or the team can’t be experts at making that many dishes. For me, having a smaller menu means the team is more focused, and the ingredients will be fresher because they'll rotate them properly. I also prefer restaurants that serve a particular style of cuisine, rather than trying to do everything for everyone. Also, I think you can tell a good restaurant before you go in by how busy it is. If a restaurant’s empty, I’m not going there.  

Also, from a service perspective, I always like to ask the team what they would eat. It’s so important to have a well-trained team. And it’s so difficult to find good people. But train the team so that when they’re talking to guests and explaining the menu they’re really confident with it. I went somewhere recently where they presented the dishes and didn’t explain them at all. They just said, ‘Enjoy’ and walked off. And that changed the whole experience — rather than them sharing a bit of their knowledge and their enjoyment of being there and of what they’re serving.  

What’s your favorite cuisine? 

I like the simplicity of Japanese food. You can’t hide behind anything when you’re cooking Japanese food, because it's so simple. It’s the quality of the ingredients that make the dish. 

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

I tend to just open the fridge and see what’s there. It’s something that always drives my wife mad. I don’t like to do big shopping trips, I prefer to buy ingredients on a regular basis, and then just see what there is. I don’t really think you need to put more than three or four ingredients together to make a dish, especially at home.  

But I think something easy that everyone enjoys is probably pasta. There are so many different dishes that you can do.  

What customer behavior most annoys you? 

I think it’s just being impolite. Everyone’s busy, everyone’s rushing, but the person who is cooking for you or greeting you or serving you? They’re also humans. It’s doesn’t cost anything to have good manners and to be polite to people. And I think you’ll have a much more enjoyable experience and they’ll have a much more enjoyable experience. Even if something’s not going right and you want to talk about it with someone, you can still be polite (about it). People suddenly become very aggressive sometimes, and I think it’s very unfair on the team who are trying their best to cook for you or to serve you. 

What’s your favorite dish to cook and why? 

I like to cook fish. It’s so versatile, whether it is sea bass, cod, snapper… anything really. Find a great piece of fish and some fresh vegetables, put them together and add some different seasoning. I always think it’s a sign of good cook if someone can cook fish well, because it’s very easy to overcook it and get it wrong. And, like I said, the less ingredients, the better.  

As a head chef, what are you like? 

I’m fairly laidback. I’m used to having very big teams; I have nearly 150 people in the team. At my last place, I had nearly 300. So, I’m a team player, an organizer who understands people. I find that to be much more effective than screaming and shouting. Occasionally, yes, you have to raise your voice to make everyone stop and listen, but very rarely. 

RECIPE

Chef Robert’s roasted seabass with etuvée of vegetables and herb salad  

Serves two 

For the seabass 

INGREDIENTS: 2 seabass fillets (180g each); 7g cumin seeds; 5g sumac; 10g dried oregano; 10g sesame seeds; salt and pepper to taste (approx. 5g each)  

INSTRUCTIONS:  

1. Toast the cumin seeds in a dry pan until aromatic. Transfer to a mortar and grind with sumac, oregano, sesame seeds, salt and pepper to make a fine powder. Set aside extra for future use.  

2. Roast the seabass fillets seasoned with the spice blend until cooked through and golden.  

For the etuvée of vegetables: 

INGREDIENTS: 1/2 large fennel bulb or 8 pieces of baby fennel, shaved or finely sliced; 1 carrot or 4 baby carrots, shaved or finely sliced; 4 baby artichokes (optional), shaved or finely sliced; 2 banana shallots, finely sliced; 2 cloves of garlic, crushed; 10 basil leaves; 4 sprigs of thyme; 100ml vegetable stock; juice of 2 lemons; 50ml extra virgin olive oil; salt and pepper to taste  

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Sweat the shallots in olive oil until translucent. Add the crushed garlic and cook gently.  

2. Incorporate the carrots and artichokes (if using), then add the remaining olive oil, herbs and vegetable stock.  

3. Cook slowly at medium heat, covered with a lid or cling film, for 10 minutes. Then stir in the lemon juice and adjust the seasoning.  

For the herb salad: 

Combine seasonal salad greens with 2g fresh dill, 2g fresh basil, and 2g fresh sorrel. 

ASSEMBLY: 

Plate the seabass on a bed of the etuvée vegetables. Garnish with green vegetables of your choice, such as asparagus or green beans. Accompany with your fresh herb salad.