Meet Florian Barbarot, the acclaimed Top Chef France contestant, and the Executive Chef at Beach by FIVE. Florian is the new addition to FIVE’s award-winning culinary team, bringing the same high-quality approach with his distinctive twist. The exceptional Chef originates from the southern French province of Grenoble and has worked at seven Michelin-starred restaurants in 11 years.
Give us a short introduction of who you are and what you are doing?
My name is Florian Barbarot. I am a chef. I have been doing this job for 16 years. So, I am 31 years old. And I have had my restaurant in Paris for six months. A very new restaurant. And now I am coming to work here in Dubai.
Amazing! So, having been a key player in 2 Michelin Star establishments, how do you feel about your new upcoming venture with FIVE?
I think, for me, Michelin Star is a good score. It’s a place where you learn excellence, and all kinds of things you need for the rest of your career. Here, I want to give excellence, because FIVE is excellence. For Food, apart from serving excellence on a plate, I also want to share a nice plate of French cuisine. I believe that my Michelin star experience will help me achieve that.
How has your experience with FIVE been different compared to other hotels you have worked with so far?
When I came here two years ago, I thought FIVE, for me, is the best hotel in Dubai. I did work with a few hotels before but when I came to Five, I thought I wanted to hear. Since we have the same mindset, and they have an out-of-the-box mindset. They are different but professional, and I love it!
FIVE is known to be one of the best destinations for an ultimate holiday experience in the UAE, what did you have in mind while developing your menu for them?
When I was preparing this menu, maybe for the food we wanted to give something unique – something that’s new here. More excellence in the French style of food but without straying too far away. A perfect fusion of what I excel in and what FIVE excels in.
So, out of all the exquisite dishes that you have added, which one is your favorite?
My favorite is, of course, the octopus for two reasons. The first one is that I love octopuses, and I have never had a good octopus in a restaurant. They are always hard and elastic, while our dish is so soft that it can be cut with your spoon. That’s amazing! And the second reason is my cuisine and my vision of cooking octopus. The octopus that I used to cook in France, and the hummus, a middle eastern dish. So, both together on the same plate is the best ratatouille sauce, it’s the best plate!
At the tender age of 19, you went you were appointed with the renowned chef Marc Haeberlin. What was it like working with him?
It was amazing! At 19, I was just leaving my family. For me, it was my first time working with a three-star Michelin restaurant. It was stressful, and I had to change my life but it was the best experience of my life. Maybe that would be FIVE now; but the people, like here at FIVE are extremely professional but very human. Now that I am older, I can compare the two experiences.
Can you describe the beginning of your journey into the art of cooking?
I was supposed to do something with sports – Soccer because I was good at it. When I was 15; I decided to venture into being a cook. So, I went for training. For the first year, it was like sports – we were a team. There was adrenaline, and I was always occupied. But I was not passionate about it. Afterward, I started to cook, and I got good at it and realized it was meant for me.
What motivated you to become a cook?
If you told your family that you wanted to be a cook for 16 years – not just family but in France, they would go, ‘You want to be a cook? It’s not for smart people.’ But since I was good at studying, I could take more subjects, and I chose cooking as one course. And my parents kept encouraging me, so I kept at it. In the end, their encouragement kept me motivated since everything I do is to make my parents proud.
Do you resonate food with art?
Yes, I think food and art are the same things. Because you can give a pen to a thousand guys you will have thousand different results. And if you do the same, if you give 10 products to a chef, you can expect thousand different dishes. They are creators. In the end, it depends on your mind, in deciding if it is nice or not so nice.
Your menus are often based on seasonal products. How do you master the creativity of every delectable dish?
I think in France, we are really lucky that we can get produce seasonally but we get different produces. In Dubai, we can get all produce anytime we want, it’s something of a paradise. When you want to produce, you can get it any period of time. When you compare the produce in Paris, in Dubai it is very easy.
Why do you choose to make your menus based on seasonal produce?
As a chef, you have to respect the produce and nature around you. You are not going to use scallops in June since it’s not the season for them, it will be frozen scallops. For ecology, this is not a good practice. Using produce in season, we respect the natural cycle. It’s also exciting, for example, a fisherman would call me about their new catch, and I would decide to make something with it.
Anything else that you would like to say to our listeners?
Oh, that’s simple. Come to Five, come to try my food!
