From the hawker stalls of Singapore to a growing portfolio of homegrown concepts in the UAE, Chef Reif Othman has built a career around one deceptively simple principle: flavour comes first.
Japanese technique, Southeast Asian references, fire, acidity and umami all find their way into his cooking, but Othman has never been particularly interested in rigid international brand was coming to Dubai. Now some of the most interesting restaurants are being created here. I’ve said it before: Dubai doesn’t need to keep importing its food identity. We’re building one here.
What do you believe is the secret to longevity in hospitality, particularly in a market where new restaurants are opening constantly?
Consistency. Opening a restaurant is easy; keeping it good is hard. The first three months, everyone comes because it’s new. Everyone takes pictures, everyone posts it. Then what? You need people to come back when you’re no longer the new restaurant.
For me, that means good food, good people, looking after the guest and knowing when to change something — but also knowing when not to change something just because everybody else is doing it.
Do you think a chef today needs to be as much an entrepreneur as a cook?
If you want to own restaurants, yes. You don’t have a choice. You can be the best chef in the world, but if you don’t understand the numbers, the rent, the team, the operation, you’re going to have a problem. I love cooking, obviously, but now I probably spend as much time talking about business as I do food.
And I actually enjoy that side of it. Creating something, seeing it work, watching the team grow — that’s also very satisfying. But yes, passion is great. Passion also has to pay the bills.
TERO is a very different proposition, with just 12 seats and a six-course experience. What does such an intimate format allow you to do creatively that a larger restaurant cannot?
TERO is where we can loosen the rules a little. With only 12 seats, we can do things that wouldn’t necessarily make sense in a larger restaurant. We can use more particular ingredients, change dishes more often, play with the pacing, and serve things that need a bit more explanation or interaction.
The guest is also right there in front of the kitchen, so you see the reaction immediately. You can talk to them, explain where an idea came from, and sometimes even change the way you serve something based on the room. That intimacy gives us a lot more freedom, and for me that’s the whole point of TERO.
This season, TERO returns with A Journey Through Asia, Chef Cooking Instinctive Othman Reif
