Hail to the chef

Could you pass me the water?" Martin Luther King leans across the table and asks Marilyn Monroe. Alex Ferguson avidly discusses this season's tactics with culinary brothers Michel and Albert Roux while Gary Rhodes dishes up his famous sticky toffee pudding. Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, tucks into his specially prepared dessert.

This is Rhodes's perfect dinner table. Well, almost. The British celebrity chef would rather poison Livingstone, he tells me as we sit in his chic new restaurant, Rhodes Mezzanine, in Grosvenor House. "There are certain food critics that I would rather throw food over or spit on than cook for them but if I was cooking for Livingstone I would make him very, very ill so he would lose his job. I can't abide him."

Rhodes, however, who practically coined the phrase ‘celebrity chef' over 20 years ago in the early 1990s in the UK, is the consummate professional, despite threatening to contaminate the political figure's food. He assures me that he has never done it before. Our interview is peppered with anecdotes and funny stories as well as the occasional swear word. But that's what chefs do, don't they? They swear a lot. Take Gordon Ramsay. It is clear that Rhodes has been doing this for many years - even his various poses for the photographer after our meeting are slick, professional, and evidently well-rehearsed.

Martin Luther King aside, Rhodes has cooked for thousands of famous faces in his 20-year career; Princes Diana at Buckingham Palace, Tony Blair at No 10 as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin. But has he cooked for any Gulf Royals yet? "I haven't but it would be fantastic to get the opportunity. Cooking for wonderful people is a privilege. I would love to cook for Bill Clinton and Manchester United - the greatest football team of all time," he says.

"Alex Ferguson is a brilliant manager and I find him an inspirational man. Even when times are hard and things are not going his way he still knows how to get the maximum out of his team. I take that inspiration and introduce it into the kitchen." Rhodes has something of a cult following in the UK. He is known for being the nice chef that doesn't swear. What his fans don't realise is that he is human and does lose his rag once in a while, especially when service is in full flow.

His collaboration with Tate & Lyle sugar during his early television years was a perfect match for the cook that used British ingredients but with French precision. "People have a misinterpretation about me, probably from being on television. I was introduced to TV in a kind of milky style because it was what has been demanded 20 years ago," he justifies.

Step into the kitchen, however, and it is a different story. "During one of the first meetings when I arrived in Dubai I made a point of telling my staff that they would find me one of the most placid guys to work with, but also one of the nastiest.

"I'm never ever totally happy. The moment I am 100% satisfied with what I am doing, is the moment I stop because that is when you become complacent." For someone that has over 2000 cookery books lining his office wall and is known to stick to what he does best, it seems that Rhodes is constantly striving to learn new foods and recipes; however, until now his experience with Arabic cooking has been limited. "I've tasted little bits here and there but I haven't had much experience. It's not because I don't want to, it's more because I haven't had the opportunity yet. At the moment I'm concentrating on the little kitchen in this restaurant," he explains. "I want to taste food from all around the world. For me it's not just sitting down and munching, I want the knowledge behind it too. One of the greatest things about food and this industry is continual discovery. No chef can ever say they have learnt it all. We are all trainees - some are just on a different level to others."

Rhodes has been coming to Dubai for the last five years since his first visit to the Burj Al Arab food festival. He is also good friends with Gordon Ramsay - the first famous British chef to open a restaurant in Dubai. "I love Dubai. I think it has real potential to hit the world culinary scene very much like New York did. It took New York a few years to get itself together and then it hit the scene in a very big way," says Rhodes excitedly.

"I think Dubai can do exactly that. It doesn't happen overnight though. In the next few years it will be somewhere to come just for the culinary experience. That's why I wanted to be one of the first on the block," he continues. "Ramsay is already here but hopefully we can draw more in because the more there are the more we are providing for the customer on the street. At the same time competition is good - it keeps you on your toes."

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