Helmed by Chef Gregoire Berger, the restaurants’ progressive fine dining cuisine pays homage to the riches of the ocean and coastal land
4th March,2022: On 1st March 2022 a new chapter in the Ossiano journey began, helmed by celebrated chef Gregoire Berger. Offering a progressive fine dining cuisine paying homage to the riches of the ocean and coastal land, the nine to 11-wave tasting menu is guided by Berger’s lifelong respect for seasonality, terroir and sea foraging, with all ingredients sustainably sourced from the oceans or within 50km of a coastline.
Ossiano’s debut menu, available from March to summer 2022, will focus on Berger’s memories of travel and childhood, starting off in the oceans of Brittany and moving through several coastal cities across the world. Menu highlights include ‘Feeling the warmth of the west side’, featuring a delicate welk shell on a bed of sand, filled with umami dashi with sourdough and seaweed butter, as well as ‘Sitting on the dock of the bay’; Brittany brown crab, fragrant kari gosse and bouillabaisse essence. Each wave brings a new dish, with many more ocean inspired dishes to be discovered.
Located in Atlantis, The Palm and seating just 50 guests per evening, Ossiano is well regarded as one of the country’s most unique and beautiful dining destinations. Taking diners, a world away from the moment of arrival, guests descend into the subterranean dining room, submerging themselves 10 meters to the bottom of one of the world’s largest aquariums. With the unique dining environment as its muse, Ossiano transports guests both visually and sensorially to the depths of the ocean.
Aspiring to showcase some of the best produce from around the world, Berger and Ossiano have devoted the last seven years to forging lasting relationships with some of the finest boutique producers from around the globe, personally sourcing top-quality produce including Patagonian toothfish from sustainable fisheries in the Kerguelen Islands to handline caught fish from the Hokkaido Islands in Japan. Ossiano takes pride in offering guests a unique opportunity to taste these exceptional ingredients at their peak, in the heart of a city that is itself at the crossroads of the world.
At 34 years old, Berger has already made waves on the global culinary stage with his cutting-edge, unconventional dishes refined with traditional French technique that has become his signature. The youngest and only chef in the country to be featured in the top 100 in the Best Chef Awards for five consecutive years, Berger has set himself apart in the busy Dubai dining scene with his visionary approach to pairing ingredients and application of beauty and art to food. With an unapologetic embrace of progressive fine dining in a city that traditionally favours a more relaxed approach, Berger’s next chapter for Ossiano harks to a new age in culinary for Dubai, set to escalate with the arrival of the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best and Gault & Millau.
Upon his return to Ossiano, Berger has assembled a stellar young team of talent, including Chef Aurelien Durand, Berger’s right-hand Sous Chef, hailing from the kitchens of Joel Robuchon and Anne Sophie Pic, as well as Hungarian Eszter Palagyi, the youngest female Chef in Central Europe to win a Michelin-star at the tender age of 30. Both the front and back of house team are invited to participate in a vast range of training programmes including performing arts, marine biology and culinary skills, ensuring each has the ability to bring performance and didactic dialogue to the dining experience.
