Gregoire Berger.
Gregoire Berger.
Grégoire Berger is the celebrated chef behind Ossiano, Dubai’s leading progressive fine dining restaurant with a menu that pays homage to the riches of the ocean and coastal land. Offering a nine to 11-wave tasting menu, dish inspiration is guided by the underwater setting of the restaurant as well as by Berger’s lifelong respect for seasonality, terroir and sea foraging, with all ingredients sustainably sourced from the oceans or within 50km of a coastline.
Still, only in his thirties, Berger has already made waves on the global culinary stage with his cutting-edge, unconventional dishes refined with traditional French technique that has become his signature. The youngest and only chef in the country to be featured in the top 100 in the Best Chef Awards for five consecutive years, Berger has set himself apart in the busy Dubai dining scene with his visionary approach to pairing ingredients and application of beauty and art to food. With an unapologetic embrace of progressive fine dining in a city that traditionally favours a more relaxed approach, Berger’s next chapter for Ossiano harks to a new age in culinary for Dubai, set to escalate with the arrival of the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best and Gault & Millau.
A native of Versailles, Paris, Berger was raised in the Morbihan region of Brittany in France. Spending his younger years in a coastal city where land meets the city, Berger quickly became accustomed to quality ingredients and cooking whilst spending time with his mother and grandmother in the kitchen. At 16 years old, Berger decided to realise his dream with an apprenticeship at La Closerie de Kerdrain, a gourmet restaurant in Auray created by Martine and Fernand Corfmat. Walking into the kitchen was akin to experiencing real magic for Berger, and from this moment, his path was set.
Berger's further years were spent training under an array of the world's leading culinary talents at several acclaimed Michelin star restaurants in France to large luxury resorts around the world, including Paul Bocuse, Roger Verge, and the late Gaston Lenotre, as well as Frederic Robert at la Grande Cascade Paris. Berger also spent time honing his craft under Pastry Chef Gilles Marchal and Chef Michael Nave, the right arm of Pierre Gagnaire and head chef of Balzac.
nspired by his wife’s Arabic heritage, in 2014, Chef Grégoire made his move to the Middle East, whereby he took the reigns of Ossiano, a restaurant well regarded as one of the country’s most unique and beautiful dining destinations. The subsequent six years were a whirlwind for Berger, with his beautifully crafted dishes, unique style and strong emphasis on storytelling quickly being recognised by culinary tastemakers and organisations across the world.
Beginning in 2016, Berger was awarded the winner of the Middle East and Africa region for the S. Pellegrino Young Chef Award and went on to represent the MENA region at the finals in Milan in November 2016. Over the next five years, Berger and Ossiano went on to win 38 awards and acclaimed titles at the Pro Chef awards, the Hotelier Middle East awards, the World Luxury Restaurant awards, the Leaders in Hospitality awards and the Caterer Power 50 List, which placed Berger the top ten most powerful chefs in the UAE for three consecutive years. In 2018 to 2021, Berger also joined the global ranks of culinary talent, taking 23rd in the Best Chef Awards, making him the youngest and only chef in the country to be featured in the top 100 in the Best Chef Awards for five consecutive years.
After a brief sabbatical to embrace his love of travel and spend time with his young family, Berger returns to Ossiano in 2022 to begin a new chapter. Aspiring to showcase some of the best sustainably sourced produce from around the world, Ossiano’s debut menu will reflect Berger’s memories of travel and childhood, beginning in the oceans of Brittany and moving through several coastal cities across the world. Upon his return to Ossiano, Berger has also assembled a stellar young team of talent, including Chef Aurelien Durand from the kitchens of Joel Robuchon and Anne Sophie Pic, as well as Hungarian Eszter Palagyi, the youngest female Chef in Central Europe to win a Michelin-star at the tender age of 30.
2022 will also bring a wealth of world-class culinary collaborations to Ossiano, paying homage to Berger’s dedication to bringing world-class culinary talent, tastes and new ideas to Dubai. Previous collaborators have included Nobu Matsuhisa, Himanshu Saini of Tresind Studio, Tom Allen of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Davide Oldani of D’o and Alex Dilling of The Greenhouse.
Berger characterises his cuisine as a sensorial and emotional experience, informed by a deep respect for seasonality and the oceans. A medium for expressing his love for storytelling and travels, each dish is carefully crafted using Berger’s savoir-faire for French cuisine fused with a desire to take diners on a journey of metanoia, where nothing is as it seems.
