Not Your Mother’s Couscous

For most, Arabian cuisine conjures up convivial images of heaping portions of everything from meat tagine and curried vegetable couscous to various succulent takes on lamb. Not so for Ingo Maass. The German-born executive chef at Dubai’s JW Marriott404 Not Found

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nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu) is out to change the traditional culinary take on the Arab world in a cookbook titled Dubai: New Arabian Cuisine, written by Lutz Jäkel.

Along with his counterparts, Frenchman Christian Jean, Egyptian Amgad Zaki and Syrian Khalil Zakhem, Maass — who has built a reputation for successfully inventing new takes on old standards during his decade-long tenure in the United Arab Emirates — has created an informative, user-friendly tome with 120 culinary creations. The 256-page book applies a Euro-fusion ethos to classic Arab cookery, incorporating new ingredients (lobster with baba ghanoush ravioli, courgette-aubergine salad and cream of red peppers) while respecting regional Muslim customs that disallow alcohol in cooking.

Oenophiles are not forgotten, though: selections like an hors d’oeuvre of orange-flavored prawns on a flan of pine nuts, celeriac purée and cream of olive oil get paired with top-notch regional vintages, in this case a La Dame Blanche from Lebanon’s Château Kefraya. But if whipping up that combination seems too involved, just book a flight in either first or business class to the Middle East aboard Lufthansa, where you’ll be able to savor Maass’s handiwork. Now that’s taking Arab fare to new heights.