The Chef’s Counter: Doughbai’s Wadad Zarzour

Chef Wadad Zarzour, co-founder of Doughbai, joins Tiffany Eslick for week 8 of The Chef’s Counter. Doughbai is one of Dubai’s favourite neighbourhood bistros that’s built around the art of slow fermentation sourdough, and delicious Levantine flavours.

For The Chef’s Counter, Chef Wadad is bringing Doughbai’s trio of dips to Spinneys — their signature hand-strained labneh and feta with za'atar, jalapeno & walnuts, the sundried tomato, olives & walnut dip, and the muhamara.

The Chef’s Counter micro-series is an extension of our in-store initiative to support the chefs and food entrepreneurs shaping the UAE’s dining scene.

What is Nourish by Spinneys?

A show that inspires you to eat and live well. Hosts Devina Divecha and Tiffany Eslick chat with leading players in the food community, from farmers to foodies, as well as health and well-being experts. Brought to you by the UAE’s premium supermarket retailer, this award-winning show promises to bring you engaging conversations, fresh ideas, and help nourish your heart and soul.
New episodes every other Tuesday.

Tiffany Eslick: 00:00

Welcome to Nourish by Spinneys, our award winning podcast where we bring you conversations to inspire you to eat well and live well. I'm Tiffany Eslick. We're continuing our micro series called The Chef’s Counter, which is an extension of our in store initiative that is designed to support the chefs and food entrepreneurs of The UAE. Over the last few months, many independent food concepts have faced real pressure, and the Chef’s Counter is designed to use the Spinneys platform to help the chefs and food entrepreneurs to share their stories and their products in a tangible and accessible way with our customers. We're now in week eight of this initiative.

Tiffany Eslick: 00:34

And today, I'm sitting down with my dear friend, Chef Wadad Zarzour of Doughbai. This is a small bistro in Al Wasl Road, one of my favorite places to hang out. And Chef Wadad and her son, Ghadi are famous for their 72- hour slow fermented sourdough and their delicious Levantine flavors. You are no stranger to Spinneys. You're one of our dear ambassadors. We've done lots of projects and events with you, and we've done a podcast interview with you before.

Tiffany Eslick: 01:03

Tell us about your dips, first of all, that you're launching at Spinneys.

Wadad Zarzour: 01:07

Hi, Tiff. Thanks for the beautiful intro. Yes, I'm part of the family actually, and not only an ambassador. This is how I feel when I'm working with you or just shopping at Spinneys every day. So the dips, when we were building the Doughbai menu, we thought we want to put what we love most mainly at home and what our friends also ask for when they visit us.

Wadad Zarzour: 01:34

So those three dips that we are going to have on the chef's counter for a week are our favorites and they are three. The labneh feta, what makes us special is that I do the labneh myself every day. So from scratch, from the milk to the yogurt, to the labneh, Then we add to it the the natural ingredients, which is Palestinian olive oil, the za'atar, the jalapeno, and the walnuts. So everybody loves this one. We have it also as a manouche.

Wadad Zarzour: 02:07

It's very We add to it the pomegranate and the za'atar, the fresh za'atar. We have the walnut sun dried tomato olives. It's also a very popular one. People gets confused with it. Does it have eggplant?

Wadad Zarzour: 02:21

Is it a Magdoos? Yeah. Like, is it a mashed Magdoos? Actually it's not. And it's also one of our top sellers and the Muhamara, which we do it from scratch.

Wadad Zarzour: 02:33

So we roast all the vegetables, the bell pepper, the tomatoes, the onions, and we add to it all the other ingredients. And I make sure that I only put a little bit of the breadcrumbs, which makes it really special. So this is my secret to your audience.

Tiffany Eslick: 02:51

I feel like you're not giving away all the secrets.

Wadad Zarzour: 02:52

Yeah. I can, I can, but the main ingredient that we put in everything we do is the passion. Yeah. The passion that we have for everything we prepare and when seeing our customers enjoying it, it adds to our passion. And of course, all those three ingredients have the main ingredient of it is the extra virgin olive oil.

Wadad Zarzour: 03:15

And every time, maybe people who follow me, they would say, oh, she keeps talking about extra virgin olive oil. Yes, it is very important to use the extra virgin one. So it has it, the three of them has it. So this will be on the Chef's Counter in addition to the cafes, three of the cafes that will have the croutons. So it's our sourdough, 100% sourdough.

Wadad Zarzour: 03:38

It's only flour, water, and salt with a bit of rye flour that we do the loaves. And then we do them as croutons, we bake them with a bit of olive oil, some za'atar and some sumac. And recently we started the mini baguettes.

Tiffany Eslick: 03:56

They're so cute. I love them.

Wadad Zarzour: 03:58

And so they will be also in the cafes served with those dips.

Tiffany Eslick: 04:03

Ok so it's the trio of dips, the baguette and the croutons that you'll get as a portion.

Tiffany Eslick: 04:07

Yes. Fantastic. And I mean, sourdough, that's what Doughbai started. You started it in COVID, and you've become the queen of sourdough in this town.

Wadad Zarzour: 04:14

That's a new title.

Tiffany Eslick: 04:17

I'm giving it to you.

Wadad Zarzour: 04:18

Thank you, Tiff.

Tiffany Eslick: 04:18

But yeah, your loaves are really lovely, and so it's nice that you're branching out, you know, and I'm glad that we can showcase that in stores. People can pick them up at the counter, but also go to the cafe and enjoy it with some bread.

Wadad Zarzour: 04:28

Thanks, Tiff. Yes. So we started that during COVID. Actually, I think lots of people started that during COVID, but we continued feeding our starter until Doughbai was born.

Wadad Zarzour: 04:39

So yes, we are developing every day, like we learn from our mistakes. And also we try to come up with new ideas, what people like most. Maybe sometimes you don't want to take a full loaf, so people pass by for a mini baguette in the morning because we're usually sold out by midday. We're so excited to have it in Spinneys and in the cafes as well.

Tiffany Eslick: 05:05

Yeah, so let's talk more about being part of the Chef's Counter program. Why is it important for you that you took part?

Wadad Zarzour: 05:11

Yeah, as I told you, I always felt like I'm part of the family. So now this member of the family is being in the Chef's Counter program. So what else can I ask for rather than being like featured? Thanks for this opportunity and I'm so excited to be part of it. I always wanted that to happen, to have a collab between me and Spinneys and it's happening.

Tiffany Eslick: 05:36

And you've been quite vocal during this time. You've spoken on Sky News about like what's going on and what you felt from the community. Can you share your thoughts on sort of like how you've seen great support as a whole and what it's been like as a restaurateur?

Wadad Zarzour: 05:52

Although we passed through difficult times, but like we didn't feel it much because of the support of the community. Actually, they were amazing. Doughbai is based on the community support and it showed during this period. And we are so grateful and thankful for everyone who showed up. Like we were there to listen to our guests, to share, like to discuss.

Wadad Zarzour: 06:17

And it turned out to be like really, really very comforting to both sides. And I want to thank everyone. I want to thank the suppliers. I want to thank the guests. I want to thank the team who are showing up every day no matter what.

Wadad Zarzour: 06:34

And here we are, like everything is good and fine. And we look forward to a better future in The UAE. And we appreciate the support from the authorities and from everyone. And like, this is very rare to happen in the world nowadays and it's happening in UAE so I want to thank everyone.

Tiffany Eslick: 06:53

Aww, your positivity always shines out with anything. Back to the dips before we end. So I know that you can buy them and you could dip like bread or crudites into them, but if someone wants to do something more interesting, let's say get some of the sun dried tomato and olive dip and put it on a sando with something else, like how would you suggest sort of adding these dips to other things, like to pastas, to sandwiches?

Wadad Zarzour: 07:16

All the dips are like to play with. Like they can do the sun dried tomato with the Caprese Sando, for example, it goes very well with it. The muhamara, we're adding it to pasta with some parmesan. We also suggest to have them like on a toast with a lot of Parmesan cheese, so muhamara and Parmesan, they love each other. The labneh goes with everything and it's a spicy labneh, so you can have it for breakfast with some eggs, with the omelet.

Wadad Zarzour: 07:43

So there are lots of ideas. Let them taste them first and leave it up to their imagination to create for those who are food lovers. And for those who need any support or any ideas, they can just get in touch with us or visit us either at the Spinneys this week or at Doughbai anytime.

Tiffany Eslick: 08:02

Okay, great. And you'll be in stores, so you're gonna be doing some sampling, you're going to be in Spinneys Umm Suqeim.

Wadad Zarzour: 08:08

This is my home.

Tiffany Eslick: 08:09

Yeah.

Wadad Zarzour: 08:09

Spinneys Umm Suqeim is my home. I will be there and I will be in other stores so as like, I'm so excited to be there. Ghadi maybe will be there with me as well. And I'm looking forward to meet everyone.

Tiffany Eslick: 08:24

Exciting. I'm glad you can be in your home. I think everyone in Umm Suqeim knows you by name.

Wadad Zarzour: 08:27

Yeah. And I know them as well.

Tiffany Eslick: 08:30

Yeah. So, yeah, good luck, and, yeah, I'm very excited to have you on board.

Wadad Zarzour: 08:34

Thank you, Tiff. Thanks for Spinneys. I'm looking forward.

Tiffany Eslick: 08:39

This episode was brought to you by Spinneys. Don't forget to follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for more. And don't forget to look out for Chef Wadad's dips at the Chef's Counter at select Spinneys stores and cafes. We still have a few more dishes to come as well. We'll be back with a new episode next week.

Tiffany Eslick: 08:56

See you then.