One of India’s leading culinary experts, Chef Abhijit Saha, swapped the heat of the kitchen for burning rubber at Abu Dhabi’s iconic Yas Marina Circuit F1 track, taking a break after his Gourmet Abu Dhabi culinary festival promotion.

Burning the track with Le-Mans style Yas SuperSport SST laps, Chef Saha – who was the festival’s guest chef at the award-winning Ushna restaurant, Souk Qaryat Al Beri – drew parallels between managing a kitchen and racing a performance car.

“It is all about operating under pressure. When the restaurant is full, you need a great team behind you, much like any race outfit needs support to back up the guys on the track. If the head chef is like the driver, he must have a strong group of people to support him to put in a winning performance,” said Chef Saha, who currently owns and operates two critically acclaimed premium restaurants in Bangalore – ‘Caperberry’ and ‘Fava’.

A self-confessed motorsport lover, 43-year-old Chef Saha - one of the youngest people to feature in UpperCrust Magazine’s coveted ‘Hall of Fame’ list of India’s 50 most important food and beverage industry personalities – says he hopes to return to the UAE capital in for the F1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“I’ve done the Yas Marina Circuit now and even got some good speed on the last few laps. I am a huge motorsport lover so to come back to Abu Dhabi for the Grand Prix and see all the action would be amazing,” added Chef Saha, whose first restaurant ‘Caperberry’ was voted India’s ‘Best Independent Restaurant’ in the 2011 Time Out Food Awards.

For more on Gourmet Abu Dhabi’s great culinary promotions at 20 of the UAE capital’s finest restaurants running until February 20, visit www.gourmetabudhabi.ae.

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