Reflections of style

Reflets par Pierre Gagnaire at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City uses unique interior design ideas to reflect its French-influenced menu concept.

Three-star Michelin Chef Pierre Gagnaire first made his mark on the global stage when his Parisian restaurant was named third best in the world by Restaurant magazine.

He has now brought his inimitable style to Dubai with the opening in May of the über chic outlet Reflets par Pierre Gagnaire at the InterContinental Hotel Dubai Festival City.

The upscale menu boasts specialties the chef calls "multi-sensory hits", created by blending unexpected tastes and textures, and this concept is mirrored in the outlet's design according to restaurant manager Etienne Haro.

"From day one, the interaction between menu and design was very strong," he explains.

"What helped most was that Christian Ghion, the designer, knows Pierre Gagnaire.

"He's a fan of his cooking and they had already worked together on a restaurant in Tokyo."

Having a completely blank canvas to work with allowed the designer total freedom to develop a restaurant that would match Gagnaire's food says Haro, adding that the name - Reflets, which means ‘reflections' in French - came to embody the many layers of symbolism at the heart of the menu and the outlet's design.

"The design should reflect the food and Reflets is a reflection of the philosophy on the plate. It's the reflection of the emotions that the plate creates inside the guest," he says.

"One thing that makes the restaurant different is that it's not fussy.

"A lot of people like to think it's fussy because the place is very artistic and the name is very grand, but we're not here shaving truffles or putting caviar everywhere and charging a lot of money for it.

"What we're doing is taking extremely good raw ingredients and, as simple as it may seem, turning them into a memorable culinary experience."

To highlight this philosophy, the team looked for materials that were perceived as luxurious, but that were actually "the work of a human being, turning something basic into something beautiful", Haro explains.

The outlet features two walls covered with mother of pearl, which exemplify this concept.

"Mother of pearl is an expensive feature, but it just comes from inside an oyster shell. It's a basic element but the work of man to extract the mother of pearl from the shells allows us to cover 30m² of wall with this beautiful finish."

The mosaic work in the outlet's bar and restrooms also demonstrates this concept.

"We used a lot of mosaic work, and obviously that's expensive - some of the tiles are even gold-plated. Guests are always impressed by the beautiful colours and contrasts in the mosaic pictures," says Haro.

He points out, however, that the individual tiles "don't look very exciting on their own".

"It's only when a man works with them and puts them all together that it makes something special," he explains.

"Also, the raw material of the tiles themselves is just sand, and what is more common in Dubai than sand?

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