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Chef Matthew Kenney
French Pastry Chef Pierre Hermé and plant-based food Chef Matthew Kenney to offer multi-course menus at Al Murabaa Riyadh Season.
It will soon be Riyadh Season in the capital of Saudi Arabia, and Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Centre will be right in the thick of programming as the official hospitality provider of the acclaimed festival, and on the menu with two international culinary experiences to enjoy at Al Murabaa Fine Dining Area.
Serving innovation on the plate, Four Seasons will present offerings to tempt lifelong “sweet-tooths” and contemporary “foodies” alike. They include seasonal desserts from renowned French Pastry Chef Pierre Hermé, who has been tagged as a “pastry provocateur” by Food & Wine magazine, and plant-based creations from celebrated Chef Matthew Kenney, a successful restaurateur and recognized leader in plant-based cuisine, who will employ local Saudi ingredients to create multi-course dining experiences.
Taken together, Four Seasons will be a hot ticket among more than 200 restaurants and 70 cafes set to contribute culinary offerings throughout the two-month entertainment and cultural festival. Both Four Seasons culinary experiences will be available daily from 6 pm-2 am from October 24 to December 8, 2021, at Al Murabaa Fine Dining Area.
Make Room for Macarons and More
Lovers of sweet treats and artistic presentations will find much to enjoy from Chef Pierre Hermé during Riyadh Season. A descendant of four generations of French bakers and pastry chefs, Hermé draws inspiration from his personal weakness for “sweets, pleasure, sensations, encounters, fragrances and textures,” which he shapes into pastries, madeleines, pound cakes, chocolates, ice cream & sorbets, confections, and macarons in a wide array of flavors and hues, from the blushing pink “Ispahan” with sweet rose cream, litchi, and fresh raspberry, to the tawny “Mogador” with milk chocolate ganache and passion fruit purée – to name just two of many.
Nicknamed the “Picasso of Pastry” by Vogue, and hailed as the World’s Best Pastry Chef by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy in 2016, Chef Hermé’s collaboration with Four Seasons will see a wide selection of dessert items available for festival-goers to enjoy.
Chef Pierre Hermé
The Future of Food on the Menu
An avid outdoorsman originally raised along the Atlantic coast of Maine in the northeast United States, Chef Matthew Kenney’s keen understanding of seasonal and local ingredients was sharpened at the French Culinary Institute and polished along with his culinary skills in the kitchens of upscale restaurants in New York City. Then he began opening his own and kept at it, with myriad operations across the U.S. and around the world, including “Folia by Matthew Kenney,” a seasonal plant-based dining experience created in collaboration with HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud’s KBW Ventures. “Folia”, Latin for “from the leaves”, is already available at various Four Seasons properties in the GCC and in the United States.
Building on their joint successes with Folia, now rolled out across five of the Hotel company’s premier properties, Prince Khaled and Chef Matthew have embarked on their latest innovation: the launch of Folia for Riyadh Season. Embracing the concept that “the future of food is plant-based,” Kenney reimagines the way guests experience food and elevates healthy dining in settings of contemporary design and architecture, the better to improve the way the world eats by bringing plant-based cuisine into the mainstream.
Chef Matthew Kenney
For the Four Seasons dining experience at Riyadh Season, Kenney will offer two six-course menus highlighting bright and colorful creations such as “Cacio e Pepe,” kelp noodle, black olive; Macadamia “Chevre” Beetroot, vegetable ash; and “Lasagne” Heirloom Tomato, pistachio pesto, macadamia ricotta.
“On a personal level, the launch of Folia for Riyadh Season is truly the biggest moment in our collaboration with Chef Kenney to date. KBW Ventures is proud to present innovative, healthful dishes, curated by a culinary master in my hometown, Riyadh, as part of the Kingdom’s celebration of hospitality and entertainment,” said Prince Khaled, highlighting Four Seasons Riyadh’s commitment to bringing the very best quality in dining experiences to its valued visitors.
“We are proud to be the official hospitality provider at Riyadh Season 2021, and pleased to provide our guests and festival-goers alike with unique culinary experiences from the world-renowned chefs Pierre Hermé and Matthew Kenney,” said Guenter Gebhard, Senior General Manager at Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Centre. “Riyadh Season is an exciting time in the capital, and playing a prominent role in the food and beverage offerings means a lot to all of us at the Hotel. Our culinary team is looking forward to joining chefs from Pierre Hermé and Matthew Kenney to offer exquisite dishes with the pick of locally sourced ingredients.”
