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Chef Ruben Herrera Aguilera, Le Royal Méridien Beach Resort & Spa's Maya restaurant .

The chef de cuisine at Le Royal Méridien Beach Resort & Spa's Maya restaurant enjoys educating guests about the authentic flavours of Mexican food.

Chef Ruben Herrera Aguilera arrived in Dubai in 2006 to head the opening of Maya restaurant, which is part of celebrity chef and restaurateur Richard Sandoval's Mexican franchise.

Born in Mexico, Aguilera has what he calls a healthy patriotic connection to his homeland.

"I specialise in Mexican food because I believe that it's in my blood and I can understand the Mexican flavours better than anyone else.

"When I'm cooking, I'm not showing my skills as a chef, I'm presenting my country."

Aguilera concedes that moving from America to Dubai was not an easy transition.

"Dubai is my first experience of life in another country and it was a big culture shock to adapt to the different traditions here."

South American food represents a very small market in the Middle East according to Aguilera, and he views the process of educating consumers as his professional responsibility.

"Most people have a common misconception that Mexican food is TexMex - cheese, nachos and chilli con carne - but we don't eat that kind of food in Mexico."

"You can travel in Mexico and experience completely different ingredients, cooking techniques and cuisines in each region."

Education is an important aspect of being a chef, explains Aguilera, because it gives you the power to change the way people think about food.

"Many people believe that Mexican cuisine has to be cheap and poor quality, which is not true."

"I often go out to the tables and explain the difference between authentic Mexican food and TexMex because guests should understand cuisine."

"I find that people want to learn more about the origins and techniques of specialty food," he says.

Tequila, pork and poppy seeds are components of traditional Mexican food, which have to be adapted for Maya in Dubai Aguilera explains. "We can cook without alcohol but in Mexico we have many dishes with pork that we can't offer here."

"It's not necessarily a problem because we have good alternatives and can cook with lamb, seafood, shellfish, beef and chicken instead."

Aguilera - like his mentor Sandoval - insists on authentic products and as a result imports many ingredients from South America on a weekly basis.

"Some ingredients are more expensive because of higher import costs, so when we make changes to the menu, we try to find ingredients locally to make product supply easier.

"We conduct constant product research to see what we can get on the market because sometimes if we can't get a certain product then we have to find alternatives."

Menus at Maya are changed twice a year with Sandoval's approval explains Aguilera.

"Richard basically makes the changes and together we work through ideas and dish presentation although we tend to retain signature dishes that are very popular."

The biggest difference when cooking in Dubai is the type of clientele comments Aguilera.

"In Denver and New York it's not uncommon to do 300-500 covers a night and it's an 'in and out' attitude."

"Here it is the opposite. We do a steady 80-90 covers a night and people take their time to enjoy their meals, which I think is the way it should be."

Aguilera looks after nine chefs at Maya, comprising seven nationalities, and concedes that Mexican chefs are hard to source.

"Family values are very important to Mexican people and it's difficult to get chefs to move to Dubai."

According to Aguilera, fewer than 30% of the country can speak English, which makes communication a problem.

"Even if you have an excellent chef, if they can't speak English then you cannot resolve problems in the kitchen, or speak to guests, which is an increasingly important aspect of the job."

Aguilera trains all of his chefs personally to maintain consistent quality of cuisine.

"It's hard to train chefs to use traditional Mexican methods, especially when it comes to seasoning and preparation."

"Once they know the basics it becomes much easier to train them," he says.

Maya's popularity is growing steadily according to Aguilera who believes that education has been the key to success.

"We have a regular customer base and we're getting great feedback all the time."

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