Chef and restaurateur Vineet Bhatia is flying to Dubai next week to sign a deal to become a consultant chef for a new hotel restaurant.
The 44-storey Grosvenor House hotel is being built in the marina area of the United Arab Emirate. It will have 200 bedrooms and is due to open in March next year.
The as yet unnamed restaurant will seat 64. Bhatia will be responsible for designing its menus and recruiting its 10 chefs. He will use two chefs from his London restaurant Rasoi Vineet Bhatia in the kitchen for the first year. Eventually, all Bhatia's seven London-based chefs will work at the restaurant on a rotation basis.
Bhatia is travelling to Dubai on 1 August to sign the deal. He said: "I was a bit taken aback when they asked me because it all happened very fast. Of course, I'm absolutely flattered."