When the ball starts rolling in Qatar 2022, the country will receive close to 2 million visitors from all corners of the world who will find gastronomic embassies in the Qatari capital willing to show the richness and variety of their culture with some of the most successful restaurants in the world.
Spain, Mexico and Peru have culinary temples adapted to the particularities of a country in which you cannot eat pork or drink or cook with alcohol and avoid raw foods, with which traditional dishes have their limitations in some countries in which are kitchen staples.
Some of the most important international chefs have found in Qatar an open and hospitable country and Michelin stars, and some of the best chefs in the world such as Wolfgang Puck, Pino Lavarra, Nobu or Alain Ducasse have an establishment, but also the Spanish Dani García or the Peruvian Gastón Acurio.
Fusion and Peruvian magical realism
Frank Ponce is 32 years old and is the chef at La Mar, Gastón Acurio ‘s Peruvian cebichería . The restaurant is located in the Intercontinental Hotel in Doha and has more than thirty fusion and tradition proposals.
Frank arrived at this restaurant in 2018, although he has been working with Acurio since 2014. His career of more than 13 years began in his grandmother’s kitchen and from there he went on to specialize not only in high-level Peruvian cuisine but also in the best Italian and Japanese traditions.
“ It is a Peruvian restaurant, we offer seafood cuisine . But we have varieties of meat, lamb, a very varied offer, getting used to the Qatari market, which is totally new to us. We did not know how it would work, but in all this time that we have been here, 4 years, the acceptance has been very good. Traditional Peruvian cuisine taken to another level”, the chef explains to EFE.
Causa from Lima, tiraditos such as yellow chili, Nikkei cuisine or the classic cebiche are some of their most demanded dishes, but they have also made specific creations for the Qatari market : “The creation of dishes is with the help of Gastón Acurio, giving ideas . We have a dish that was born here. The ‘chaufa middle east’, which is a superclassic Peruvian anticuchera sauce with ingredients from the Middle East” such as cinnamon, cloves, or star anise, and the lamb is stir-fried in a wok with rice.
Ingredients that are not always easy to find in the Qatari market.
“From the beginning and up to today we encountered these problems. I think that throughout this time we have known how to handle it. We have the Peruvian product. Our base of Peruvian cuisine is chili peppers” but they also find local products, the yellow chili pepper or the panca pepper they replace it with Thai or Mexican and mix it.
” At the end of the day, the cook is like an alchemist , he always tries to reach the flavors so that there is always a consistency in the dishes,” he adds.
Now, as a novelty, they have incorporated their restaurant into the beach area, creating La Mar Beach & Manko Doha on the same sand, with an exceptional gastronomic proposal and absolutely unique and essential views of the skyscrapers of the bay. Both places, barely separated by meters, are distinguished, refined and in them light plays a fundamental, almost magical role.
Spanish tapas
The most international cuisine of the Spanish Michelin star chef Dani García also has a location in Doha, BiBo . Santiago Guerrero, 43, has been in charge of the kitchen for 3 years with a proposal of “fun tapas, dishes from different parts of the world but always with a Spanish and Andalusian vision. It is Spanish cuisine that is a little more modern ”, he details.
In Qatar, their cuttlefish and stew croquettes, the potato omelette, the patatas bravas with a special touch or more ‘BiBo’ dishes such as oxtail brioche, are all in great demand.
Located in the St. Regis hotel in the capital, they define themselves as a “fine dining” with the best Mediterranean gastronomy in the form of a “brasserie” and tapas bar.
“The local client comes because he wants to enjoy Spain. We want to represent what Spanish food is. They have traveled to Spain, many of them either have second homes in Spain or visit it every summer. We have put the Spanish flag here in BiBo. Also with the opening of Lobito de Mar (another of his franchises) that we just opened a few months ago ”, he adds.
BiBo Doha is pure glamour. Live music, art on the walls, a careful wine cellar for those who can consume wines and a bar where you can have a snack. It is the essence of Spain taken to its maximum exponent, elegance and tradition.
Tacos, like in Mexico
Sergio Enrique Peña is known as ‘Checo’ , he is 37 years old and left Mexico City to end up in Doha and embark on “an adventure”. For the past 4 years, he has been leading Maya’s kitchen in his goal of “refining traditional Mexican dishes”. Appetizers, tacos, enchiladas, chimichanga or fajitas are part of the menu.
“Tacos are the star dish here. The tacos and the enchiladas,” she details.
For their dishes they use local and imported products, although as in the rest of international establishments it requires creativity to avoid the lack of items in the shopping cart at source.
