Chef Spotlight: Chef Solemann, Founder of Moonrise

What The Food 2024 will spotlight Chef Solemann Hadad, who will share his personal journey through Dubai’s F&B industry—an experience that ultimately inspired him to conceptualise and lead Moonrise.

This conversation will spotlight Chef Solemann Haddad, a recipient the 2022 MICHELIN Dubai Young Chef Award, and the 2022 Gault & Millau Future Great of the Year Award, making him Dubai’s youngest Chef Patron at just 28 years of age.

His cuisine primarily focuses on the use of Japanese and Middle Eastern techniques and ingredients to tell his story of growing up in and around Dubai - a cuisine which he’s dubbed as ‘Dubai Cuisine’. In doing so, Solemann also shares the story of countless others in the industry by heavily focusing on supporting and working with many of the UAE’s homegrown artisans, organic growers, mills, and suppliers. His sourcing philosophy is simple: keep things homegrown by showcasing the diversity of ingredients that this region has to offer, and fill in the gaps with the best from around the world.

A mostly self-taught chef, Solemann never underwent significant professional training in other restaurants before opening Moonrise. Despite the obstacles and challenges that came with this path, he feels incredibly grateful for his lack of mentorship because he believes it opened his mind to many unexplored possibilities, freeing him from the constraints of classical training.