What The Food returns to ‘Disrupt the Table’ this October, bringing together a community of chefs, thinkers, farmers, artists, and innovators to question the forces shaping tomorrow’s food system. This edition considers food as a medium of cultural, environmental, and creative urgency. Supported by Dubai Calendar.

An interactive workshop about what makes a great coffee, how coffee is produced by micro lot farmers, and how Nightjar Coffee Roasters focuses its green bean sourcing to be transparent and along direct trade principles.

Matt and Gabriel will showcase a “flight” of coffee that ranges from the commercial, to speciality, rare, freak and unique. This session will include a communal ‘cupping’ of these unique origin coffees.

Bio

Matthew Wade has been roasting specialty coffee for over 18 years. After graduating in Fine Art, he moved to New Zealand where he worked as a barista at a number of different coffee houses and roasters, across the North and South islands. Bringing this knowledge back with him to London, he played a leading role in the rapidly emerging coffee scene that began ascending in the city from 2002 onwards, becoming one of the UK’s first licensed Q-Graders and a graduate of LA’s Coffee Chemistry. Matt has won a number of awards and worked at several key roasters internationally including Head Roaster at Union Hand Roasted. He is the co-founder of Nightjar Coffee, Dubai and Hundred House Coffee, UK.

Gabriel Ade Kisworo is Nightjar’s longest serving employee, joining as an understudy coffee roaster (before Nightjar was even established in Alserkal Avenue!), and now leads the roastery as HEAD OF COFFEE.

Prior to his coffee journey, Gabriel’s background was working as a Music Photojournalist (which ticked all the boxes for Matt and Leon…), however his love of coffee began in 2010 as a home brewer in his hometown; Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The coffee love affair soon became a serious relationship, soon “trading up” the late-night photography to become a barista assassin to start a life-long lesson in coffee excellence. In 2017, Gabriel arrived at Nightjar Coffee Roasters, and the rest is legendary. In his spare time, Gabriel is a sneakerhead, plays football and is an ace pilot in Mini 4WD Tamiya car racing.

About What The Food by Alserkal
What The Food by Alserkal is a leading cultural platform exploring the future of food – connecting a community of chefs, thinkers, farmers, artists, and innovators through critical conversations, curated experiences, and collaborative learning.

The Journey of the Bean