Wildfire: The Authentic All-You-Can-Eat Brazilian Steakhouse Restaurant in the Heart of Riyadh

Interview with Naji Berjawi, Executive Chef at Crowne Plaza Riyadh RDC Hotel and Convention Center

What is your overview of Wildfire and what was the inspiration behind opening a Brazilian steakhouse restaurant in the heart of Riyadh?

We opened Wildfire in 2019. It was my first experience opening a Brazilian restaurant. Brazilian restaurants are all about meat. Everything about Churrascaria is meats, meats, meats and eat until you get full. The concept of Wildfire is that it is mainly made for the all-you-can-eat meat lover. We were excited to open this restaurant, especially with the atmosphere that makes you feel like you are in the Amazon with the nature and the greenery around the restaurant. With the show kitchen you see your meat being made on the Churrasco grill. The carvers come to your table with big skewers of meat that they slice in front of you at the table. We did a study before opening the restaurant and decided to open Wildfire because Saudi people and the local people here love their meat. We always make sure at Wildfire to choose the right meat. We use all graded meat, 150 to 200 days grain fed. Churrascaria and the idea of the restaurant is open meats. Once you enter the restaurant, you have green and red cards. If card is on the green you are saying to go ahead. Then you will start having cuts by cuts until you reach 14 cuts. If you are not full, you can repeat the process. Just imagine that you are getting fresh meat from the barbecue on the Churrasco to your table with the gaucho slicing. It is amazing. The restaurant’s atmosphere is also good for families and good for gatherings of two to five people who want to get together and enjoy their night. Most of our carvers are actually from Brazil. This restaurant is not like other restaurants that only focus on the meat. We have side dishes and we also have the open salad bar. It is quite unique. The salad bar has more than 100 ingredients on the bar from different regions in Brazil. We have different high end cold cuts coming from Spain, Germany, and France. Also, we have the cheeses section with many different international cheeses. We have the raw salads bar with raw, fresh ingredients and five different kinds of lettuce. We have our homemade pickles section to go with the meat. We use many Brazilian ingredients like cassava and we are actually very famous for our fried cassava. Cassava is a kind of potato that grows in Brazil. It is so tasty that I actually prefer to eat it over French fries. We also have our homemade cheese roll. It is special to Brazil, tasty, delicious, soft, amazing. We also have our signature sauce which is a barbecue sauce made from guava. We also have the famous Brazilian sauce called chimichurri and our Brazilian salsa. The restaurant has 14 different cuts from beef, lamb, chicken, and shrimp. We end with our signature Brazilian pineapple coated with cinnamon and sugar, slow grilled on the barbecue.

Is Brazilian steakhouse becoming a very popular style of restaurant in Saudi Arabia now? Is there a lot of competition in the area for this kind of dining experience or is it relatively new? What makes Wildfire unique in this offering?

The Brazilian Churrascaria style restaurant is now becoming popular in Saudi Arabia. Before, there was only one of this type of restaurant. We are now the second restaurant to open. There is a big difference between the restaurant which was available and us. We take that experience from the regular experience to the unique experience of meat from the cuts we choose to the marination itself. Out of 14 cuts, each cut has a different marination and different flavor. You are not just eating meat, you are eating the meat with the taste of the marination, the fresh herbs, the fresh ingredients, the juice itself. It is totally different. Saudis now prefer this style better than going to a steakhouse restaurant where you just eat one piece of steak. Wildfire is all about meat. At Wildfire, you can eat 14 different cuts of meat from different parts of the cow and 14 different tastes. There is nothing better than this. It is also about the gathering atmosphere. People like to come with groups just to gather or celebrate at Wildfire and enjoy a special time together. You are not coming just for half an hour or 45 minutes. You are coming to spend two hours. We want to make it enjoyable with lots of love, lots of chatting, lots of joking, playing. There is a friendly and familiar atmosphere. If you want to celebrate a birthday or any special celebration, Wildfire is the right place. We also have some carvers from Brazil. They are very familiar with clients and we have some clients who come in just to meet and have a conversation with specific carvers. When you come to the restaurant, you feel like you are part of this restaurant.

What specialties or unique dishes does Wildfire offer? What is your personal recommendation?

I would like to eat every day at Wildfire just because of the meat. I prefer the two signature cuts at the restaurant which are our Picanha and the Ribeye. Both are mainly fatty cuts. You can just imagine the fats and the meat cooked on the charcoal on the grill, slow cooking, crispy from the outside, tender from the inside. Also, I like the short ribs. They are 24-hour slow cooked short ribs, sous vide style, finished on the charcoal, then it goes to your table on a trolley and it is carved front of you. You can imagine how soft the beef will be after cooking for a whole 24 hours. I love to eat this cut with the guava barbecue sauce. The crispy meat and the softness with the guava taste and sugary sauce is amazing. Of course, I cannot forget our signature drink, Sangria. It is the most popular drink at the restaurant. Everyone coming to Wildfire must try the Sangria. It is made from fresh fruits and alcohol-free wines. It is very, very delicious.

Do you have a specific clientele that you are trying to target at Wildfire?

Our main target at Wildfire is the local people. They are the ones who love to eat meat. After that, we are targeting all the businesspeople. That is why we created a business lunch which gives you the experience itself, but not with 14 cuts. Businesspeople do not always have time. They may only have 30 minutes and they want to just eat something and go back to the office. So, we developed a menu from three cuts from the regular experience where the gaucho will come to your table and carve your meat in front of you with some side dishes and specific salads that also come right to your table. This way, you do not need to go to the buffet. We have three options of salads, three options of side dishes, and the three cuts of meat. We designed this menu to be a good value for the guests, not too expensive, and in 30 minutes you can finish the full experience and go back to your office. At Wildfire, we are also targeting the Brazilian people or the South American people who live here and who love to eat meat. Recently, we hosted the Brazilian national football team. We also hosted the President of Brazil while he was visiting Riyadh. We have monthly events with the Embassy of Brazil at Wildfire as well. Now, it is the sports season and more people are coming from outside especially from South America and from Brazil. They are always visiting Riyadh. We are targeting them and inviting them to come and try Wildfire. We have hosted the National Brazilian team twice at Wildfire, in both 2020 and 2021. When there are any famous Brazilian players that come to Riyadh, they always visit Wildfire. We have the autographed shirts of the players and we are planning to do a small studio at the restaurant to keep all these unique signed items. It is great for people to see that the reputation of the restaurant is very high. We also have Friday brunch with a full buffet of side dishes, salads, desserts, and some carving items. On the terrace we have barbecue as well, not only from the kitchen. We have very nice terrace at the restaurant that can accommodate 60 guests. It is a live barbecue where you can choose your meats that are then grilled on the iron barbecue.

What new services or dishes are you starting or planning on rolling out in the coming months?

For me, as a chef, I am always looking for a new cut or introducing new cuts to the client. We do not want to do the same cuts as usual. Now, we are planning on some new things for the next year. We have new recipes not only for serving plain meat, but we are planning to serve rolled meat stuffed with new flavors and fresh ingredients like cheese, vegetables, herbs, and other ingredients from Brazil. Something that is just now being introduced to Saudi Arabia is aged meat. We are planning to have an ageing chiller in the restaurant in front of the guests where you can choose your cut and it will be cut in front of you. We want to offer something new to the people who want to try something different. This is part of the 2023 goals for the restaurant also. There is also a plan for customers to buy graded meat from different countries. We are planning to do a small retail shop at the restaurant for specific cuts of graded meat for people who would like to cook it at home. We are also now working on a plan to open Family Churrascaria Brunch on Saturdays starting from January 2023. It is mainly aimed at families who want to come with their kids. We have a kids area and kids playground with face painting and games for the kids to play that the family can also enjoy. If you are a member of family group and you would like to come and all gather at one restaurant, Wildfire is the best choice for you. The adults can enjoy talking and conversation and having time with the chefs and gauchos carving while the kids are playing nearby. We are also starting an at home service as well. In the beginning, it was very difficult to do online delivery from Wildfire from how to keep the temperature of the cuts to the presentation and the packaging. So, we came up with an idea called “kashta box”, which means “outing”. When you go on an outing or a picnic, you take your meat with you to grill it outside. This box comes with six kinds of different meat cuts. We sell it by weight and with some side dishes and different kinds of sauces. We even keep the marinade separate. You take this box with six raw meat cuts and you can marinate it by yourself as you like with the three different kinds of salt we provide which include rock salt, Hawaiian black salt, and truffle salt. Once you buy this box, we deliver it to you at home and you can do your own barbecue picnic outside or in the desert or wherever you like.

What is your culinary training and experience?

I studied hospitality in Lebanon from 2001 to 2003. I decided to study this sector because I love hospitality, especially in Lebanon. This is the best way to grow very fast and to be successful. In the first year, I was in the culinary section and then I moved to the hotel management. I have Hotel Management degrees from the Institute of Lebanon. I worked at different hotels and different restaurants in Lebanon in the international restaurants, Italian restaurants, and French restaurants. Then, I decided to move outside of Lebanon and I moved to Dubai where I worked in Madinat Jumeirah as an international chef. I started with them as Chef de Partie, then I moved to Junior Sous Chef. I specialized in levantine cuisine where we created different dishes with a touch of Arabic and touch of modern cuisine. I have a diploma of Master Chef from the World Master Chefs Society. I am also a member of the World Chef Association and a member of the Saudi Chef Association. Then, I moved from Dubai to Doha and did an opening for the Qatar National Convention Centre which is a big convention center with luxury restaurants. It has the Qatar Luxury Group and also three different luxury restaurants, a steakhouse restaurant, and a French restaurant. I was also handling the catering sector. So, I have multiple experiences from the restaurants to the hotel to the exhibitions to corporates and catering also. Then, I decided to move back to the hotel sector and I came to Crowne Plaza RDC. I did the opening in December 2017. I was growing, doing online trainings with the company. I traveled to Italy to do a course and also to Austria for a course. We then opened Wildfire here. We now have three restaurants – the all-day dining restaurant called Mosaique, Wildfire restaurant, and KOI restaurant. In my journey, I am always pushing my team to train and create. In the chef life, if you stop working with your hands, you are done. Always, you have to create new dishes, find new ingredients, come up with new tastes and new ideas for the dishes to impress our guests. So, this is how I always develop myself through internet Googling, searching for ingredients which we still have not used, and being able to create from these ingredients new recipes. This is how we develop ourselves. Also, I am working on my leadership skills through online courses, leading others, management. Developing your skills and yourself and your career is all related.

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