The largest-ever culinary showcase concluded today at the Dubai World Trade Centre, marking a successful five-day run for Gulfood 2024, the world's largest annual food and beverage event.

Across the five days of the show, a star-studded line-up of internationally renowned chefs sharing 25 Michelin stars are showcasing traditional cooking methods, elevating authentic ingredients, and revealing the stories behind the world’s most beloved dishes in over 90 Masterclasses. Meanwhile, at Chef Talks, established and up-and-coming chefs are giving insights into the dishes that will take the world by storm this year, along with culinary tips and tricks.

Top names participating in the programme include Chef Alain Passard of L'Arpege, Chef Enrico Cerea of da Vittorio, Chef Joan Roca of El Celler de Can Roca, and Chef Mark Donald of The Glenturret. Home-grown talent includes Chef Vladimir Mukhin of White Rabbit Krasota in Dubai. This year's theme highlights the union of rich heritage and traditional culinary practices with modern, trendsetting innovative techniques.

Dubai World Cuisine, a series of city-wide dinner collaborations between homegrown chefs and culinary icons from around Europe aimed at shaping the cultural identity of Dubai and helping establish it on the world’s culinary map, has already seen successful dinners at six Dubai culinary landmarks – Krasota, Lowe, Takahisa, Armani Ristorante, Folly, and F.R.N.D.S. Grand Cafe.

The event sees tie-ups between Michelin-starred chef Akira Back and Pepe Solla, chef and owner at one-Michelin-star Casa Solla restaurant, and Chef Kelvin Cheung of Jun’s, Dubai, and Begona Rodrigo of La Salita in the Valencian capital, a Michelin star recipient and acclaimed vegetable chef.

Tracy Reynolds, Consul-General of Canada in Dubai, commented, “The UAE is a major market for us and a major hub for the region and beyond. Last year, the UAE exported about US$50 million worth of food products to Canada, while Canada exports almost US$700 million a year to the UAE.

Last year Canadian companies accounted for 45% of all foreign direct investment into Dubai. We know that if we come to Gulfood and do business, it goes beyond just the UAE and the Gulf market. They have the ability to develop other markets throughout the region”.

At the Gulfood Inspire Conference meanwhile, leading global food futurologist Dr. Morgaine Gaye took participants through a fascinating look at the F&B trends coming down the track, including a greater focus on sustainability and eco-friendly products, reducing and reusing waste and packaging, growth of locally sourced products, a return to forgotten, heritage local and regional flavours, more hand-crafted products, attention to aesthetics, and many more.

Bandar Akrin, Founder and CEO of Kinza, commented, “During the Gulfood exhibition, we have signed partnerships to enter ten new markets, and we are in negotiations with a number of commercial partners to open factories and license manufacturing in further new markets.”

Martin Camus, VP – Procurement, DNATA USA, commented, “I found Gulfood this year to be a fantastic event, and managed to meet with suppliers from all over the globe. The key trends I’ve noticed this year is a lot more focus from supplies on consistency and quality, and also a lot more details about their supply chains and sustainability”.