A Home-Cooked Meal with Chefxchange.com

Residents who’ve spent several years in the UAE will be all too familiar with the country’s decadent and ever-changing culinary landscape. Transient, just like the country’s expat population, new restaurants bang in offering a plethora of contemporary dishes and opulent dining spaces, while those that have made a go at the country’s flashy posh crowd but haven’t quite made it, ween out in favor of other ventures. A few make it, and those that do offer a formula that long-time Dubai residents crave: quality made with passion served in elegant surroundings.

Alas, there aren’t many venues that hang around for years on end that maintain this missive. But there’s something new in town that does: chefxchange.com. This fun and easy to use website launched in the UAE in February 2015 is the brainchild of owners (and foodies) Karl Naim and Marc Washington. The two friends had the idea for the concept two years ago while at a dinner party in the UAE. What is it? ChefXChange.com is an online marketplace that enables foodies to connect with renowned or amateur chefs to devise their own culinary experience taking place at their home or another chosen venue. In so doing, ChefXChange offers a fourth alternative to the traditional three dining options: shopping and cooking at home, ordering in or dining out. It works like this: Chefs sign up into one of three categories: professional, apprentice and amateur. Visitors to the site click on one of these three according to the budget they have to spend. A range of chefs in these categories means that there is someone who can cook for any budget and whatever you have in mind, including romantic dinners, swanky dinner parties, fun birthdays, delicious house warmings, creative baby showers or simply a good hearty meal in the presence of family and friends. It’s an online platform that let’s your culinary creativity soar, while at the same time offering hosts the ability to step away from the actual cooking and mingle with guests.

Soft spoken and courteous, with a bit of a French accent, Chef Pascal unpacked his belongings with ease as if he’d already been to our residence a dozen times. We chatted briefly about his past, his culinary adventures in France, South Africa, Italy, and Dubai. He spoke of wine, food and his love of cooking. And this was how our evening began. An entirely new experience, never before had we conversed this closely with a professional chef over our devised menu for the evening, the wine pairing, and food preparation. But the best part was the attention we were able to provide to our guests. Instead of scrambling in the kitchen to prepare something of note, dashing out with our aprons still on to welcome our friends, this time we were able to greet them with ease.