Colin Clague.
Coling Clague.
Colin Clague is a much acclaimed and award-winning Chef, renowned for bringing the breadth of his knowledge & skills into any cuisine, handling it with absolute ease, and also giving it a flair of his Midas touch to make that all-important difference.
Born on the Isle of Man, Colin spent his early childhood amongst the island's fishing and farming communities. Greatly inspired by his mother, who was a passionate home cook and also a qualified Chef, Colin developed a deep sense of food and also the local produce, thus imbibing the importance of food dishes based on the seasonality of ingredients from a very young age itself.
These intense influences led him straight from the school to a catering college, helping fuel an unwavering desire to further expand his culinary knowledge and his growing enthusiasm to travel the world.
Having been born on an Island, and realizing cooking is what he wanted to do as a career, Colin applied to the Royal Navy to join in as a cook, however, was turned down for not meeting the mandatory physical fitness requirements. Thereafter, he went on to get trained in Catering at the Isle of Man College for Further education, where he worked very hard and learned every nuance of professional cooking in the best way possible.
On completing his culinary education, Colin moved to London, where he got his first taste of the discipline and rigors of the professional kitchen. He got to work with some of the biggest names then — Anton Mosimann, Peter Langan, Gary Hollihead, and Sir Terence Conran, through which Clague gained much experience, confidence, and also rich exposure through his extensive travel across Europe and also the Middle East.
Colin’s professional growth over the years has been both fast and as well as steady. Some of his notable stints include being on the pre-opening team of the prestigious Burj Al Arab in Dubai, as the Executive Chef of the award-winning Japanese izakaya restaurant, Zuma in London and Dubai, being in charge of the pre-opening and opening of Michelin-starred restaurant Pollen by Chef Jason Atherton, before moving to head the iconic Q’bara, where Colin went to win several awards, including The Pro Chef Middle East’s ‘Chef of the Year’, Award.
“I have been fortunate to have to see so many countries and also get to meet numerous wonderful people around the world, something astounding since having come from a small place back home.
Opening the Park Hyatt in Sydney, then Mezzo in London, which was amazing under John Torode, Opening the Burj al Arab in 1999, then starting Zuma with Rainer Becker in London in 2002, that eventually led to me return to the UAE to open Zuma in the DIFC, from there to the Q’bara, Jean Georges and now Rüya, it has simply been an amazing journey, but it is not over yet!”
Colin’s dedication and passion for food, also his vast exposure over the years, have seen him acquire extensive industry knowledge and experience. Being food-focused, his creations are all ingredient-driven; as he believes in using only the best to create sublime flavors that are executed with absolute simplicity and finesse, which have become his signature.
