Having won major acclaim as the creative brain behind the award-sweeping restaurant Ossiano at Dubai’s Atlantis The Palm, Chef Grégoire Berger’s next chapter is to launch Kraken, a bold independent restaurant located on Al Wasl Road in the city’s elegant Jumeira suburb.
Designed with a moody, sea-cave aesthetic, the venue embraces a “fire meets water” philosophy that prioritizes open-flame cooking and raw, primal flavors over molecular theatrics. In a major shift for the region’s fine dining scene, Kraken commits to sourcing 90% of its ingredients locally, challenging the industry’s reliance on imported luxury goods.
Here Chef Grégoire Berger tells Esquire, the stories behind the dishes that helped make him the chef (and the man) he is today…
The Candle
My first job was picking fruit in Northern France. It was demanding, but formative. At the end of the day, we gathered around a small wooden table in the owner’s house, sipping wine by the soft glow of a single candle. Years later, that memory returned to my table. In this dish, we decant a non-alcoholic wine using the traditional French method, its stream flowing past a candle’s flame. When served, two plates arrive: one bearing soft brioche, the other delicate fruits. Then comes the moment when memory becomes tangible. The waiter carefully cuts into the candle, revealing it is edible—the melted wax is crafted from cocoa butter and duck fat, transforms into a living story
The illusion of tomato, burrata & pesto
At Kraken things are not always as they seem. This is a delicate salad disguised as an heirloom tomato—but it is an illusion. The shell is actually made from white chocolate, and when it cracks it reveals a delicate mix inside, served alongside a light foam of burrata and pesto. This is an ode to summer from Kraken’s kitchen, where the shore meets the land. A dish that made us who we are, because it makes the simple, complex.
The Chicharron
Dubai taught me the beauty of contrasts. When I first arrived, the fish markets would be full with fishermen from Oman, traders from Iran, cooks from Lebanon, all chasing the same dream to make something in this land of opportunity. This Shrimp Chicharron & Labneh dish—on the menu at Kraken—is a tribute to that Dubai spirit: bold, diverse, and alive. A meeting of sea and sand, noise and silence, tradition and reinvention. The chicharron is a bit of my story in Dubai.
The Olive
When I met my wife in Morocco, being seen together in public was forbidden so we sought refuge away from prying eyes. We would often sit beneath an olive tree in the plains of Ouarzazate. Our long conversations marked the rhythm of those stolen days. I created this dish in her memory: delicate, fragile, alive. Sheep’s milk ice cream with Moroccan olive oil in a single bite. A burst of flavour like a burst of love. Sweet surrender meeting earthy warmth, the forbidden made beautiful. What began beneath that tree now lives on every plate.
The Brittany Crab
This dish draws on memories of my adventures in Morocco. Sitting on the dock, watching the fishermen pull up baskets heavy with crab. The crab, with its delicate, sweet flesh, meets the spices of the south—preserved lemon and warm, sultry flavours that linger on the tongue. Coming from Brittany in France, the sea is central to who I am as a person—this dish sees Brittany and Morocco embrace, putting my past memories very much in the present.
