00:00Let's see. Let's see. It's an experiment.
00:03It's an experiment on camera, which is a terrible idea.
00:06Hi, I'm Cathy Johnston, a chocolate maker here in Dubai.
00:10I'm going to take you through what a day in my life here looks like.
00:15Which is the sexiest one?
00:20My day starts with a dip in the golf at Kite Beach.
00:23A quick coffee, a bit of people watching, and then it's off to work.
00:26I'm a baker and a chocolate maker, because those are my two favorite things in life.
00:31Morning, Namita. How are you?
00:36Now we are at Birch Bakery, and we are in the Alcoz area of Dubai.
00:42How many baguettes have we got left?
00:45All gone?
00:47Any morning buns?
00:48Yes, we still have buns.
00:50Okay, good. I'll come in and give them a go.
00:53Birch has such a hugely diverse customer base.
00:57We have a lot of people with little kids, because we open really early in the morning.
01:01Expats, tourists, the Emirati locals.
01:05We sort of want to cater to everybody and reflect that Dubai is so multicultural.
01:11My family moved here 40 years ago.
01:15My mom is a photographer, and she was always waking up early and dragging us out before the sunrise to
01:21take photos.
01:22And she was collecting photos of traditional gates from all over the country.
01:26And so I used these photos to make us this set of gates that feature different parts of our story.
01:33This morning at the bakery, I'm checking on my latest creation when Shaw from Lila Molino stops by.
01:39We've been working on a custom tortilla for her restaurant, but first she needs to try this.
01:45I know!
01:46Did I come at the right time?
01:48You did come at the right time.
01:48I came at the right time, didn't I?
01:50You came at the right time.
01:51We added them to the menu recently.
01:52What is it?
01:53So it is like a mini baguette, but with red cheddar and whole cloves of caramelized garlic.
02:00Like, sort of rolled together.
02:03Oh my god, yeah!
02:08Next stop, the Chocolate Factory.
02:15We're at Mirzam Chocolate Makers in Alkos, which is part of the new creative zone in Dubai.
02:20Follow me inside the Chocolate Factory and come check it out!
02:23The world thinks they know what Dubai chocolate is, but Mirzam is crafting chocolate that's truly rooted in Dubai.
02:29It's history, it's culture, it's place in the world.
02:34The inside of my jacket pocket has a monster embroidered into it.
02:39Can you guess why?
02:41In the historical spice map, so you see the traders would be marking out where they got their spices from.
02:48They would put monsters in the ocean.
02:49The spice traders would scare other traders from going along the spice route by telling them that there were monsters
02:55there.
02:56First thing I like to do when I come into the Chocolate Factory is check out what is going in
03:00our most important machines.
03:01The grinders.
03:02So each one of the seven grinders is usually working on a different origin.
03:07A white chocolate, a milk chocolate, caramelized white chocolate.
03:10Check on how they are going, taste, get an idea of how they smell, and just enjoy chocolate making.
03:20So when you taste chocolate, what I'm trying to do is scrape the chocolate down my tongue.
03:28So you cover all the different taste buds, all the different areas of taste buds.
03:32As some areas of the tongue can feel better for texture, for sweetness, for sourness, bitterness.
03:40Oh my god, that's really good.
03:42That's really good.
03:46We're working on a new recipe with our saffron white chocolate.
03:50We make it by firstly grinding cocoa butter together with a lot of saffron.
03:56So I'm going to dilute this with some white chocolate in the next step.
04:02So I'm going to use that for one of our special recipes, new praline recipe.
04:18I want to try and do like one so it mixes in together with the emerald chocolate as it goes
04:24through.
04:24So when it's like more smooth.
04:27So this chocolate's really hard.
04:29So when we do the drizzling, it'll sit on top of it, which will add the texture.
04:33It's not really going to affect the flavor at all.
04:35Let's see. It's an experiment.
04:38It's an experiment on camera, which is a terrible idea.
04:40What I love about making chocolate at Mirzam is that our recipes reflect Dubai's place along the spice route.
04:46Our stories of Dals that sailed to India, East Africa and beyond.
04:50So Dubai's location on the historical spice route places it right in the middle between the growing countries in the
04:58East and the customers who were always traditionally in Europe.
05:02The history of spice trading places the UAE in history, in antiquity.
05:11It's the source of so much education moving around the world.
05:14It's why you have tiramisu in Italy.
05:17It's why you have vanilla custards in Paris.
05:20Like vanilla beans don't grow in Paris.
05:27Let's take a break for lunch at Middle Child.
05:30Leen Hazim is the chef here and she loves bread almost as much as I do.
05:34I'm bringing her my focaccia and she's going to make me lunch.
05:38Do you want to come in from the window?
05:39Sure.
05:43We're in Al-Sakal Avenue at Middle Child Eatery, which is run by one of my favorite food makers in
05:49the Middle East, Leen Hazim, who moved here nearly 10 years ago from Lebanon.
05:55You know, everyone asks me, what's the cuisine here? And just to make it easier, I say Mediterranean comfort food,
06:01because I'm from Lebanon, which is the Mediterranean.
06:04Now I'm also influenced a lot by like France and Italy and places that I travel to a lot, but
06:10mainly dishes that bring me comfort, dishes that I can like have again and again.
06:15Potatoes are from?
06:16Lebanon.
06:17Excellent.
06:17They're the best potatoes. And they're hand cut and fried three times to get like this fluffy interior and crispy
06:25exterior.
06:26And then we have eggplant caponata. So it's a Sicilian dish. It's like a sweet and sour eggplant, tomato, onion
06:33dish served at room temperature with fresh mozzarella.
06:36We have focaccia from Birch, toasted on the grill. And this is a celery salad for celery haters.
06:45The food scene in Dubai is very special. The other chefs, makers and customers who visit us from all over
06:52the world become our community and ultimately our friends and family as well.
06:59Monday night at the Chocolate Factory is Mahjong night. Myself and this group of wonderful women from Dubai, Morocco, India,
07:06from all over the world get together to play, eat chocolate and have a good time.
07:13We come from totally different walks of life, but we've bonded over this game and of course, chocolate.
07:19I would say it's pretty much my idea of heaven.
07:23Okay, that was my day in Dubai. I hope you come visit and share some authentic Dubai chocolate with me.
07:33May be projektically sunny on the series on Friday.
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