Exclusive: Alvin Leung Unveils Secrets at Dubai's Demon Duck Restaurant

I need to see you here. Hi there, I'm Courtney Brandt, a food writer and content creator in Dubai. Today we are on Blue Waters Islands, home to Caesar's Palace. On this episode of Dubai By Food, we're going to talk to a famous global culinary chef. I can't wait for you to meet him. Let's go. Can I tell you something? Caesar's Palace is one of my favorite properties in the city. It's got the beach, it's got pools, multiple pools, it's got restaurants, and in case you haven't guessed it yet, it's Demon Duck and Chef Alvin Leung that we're going to see today. Oh, and real quick, you might want to pay attention till the end of the video. You know why? You could win dinner for two at Demon Duck. So let's go check it out. Can I see the menu? Of course. Here we go. Excellent. To start with our signature cocktails, we have divided our drinks into three parts. So first, the reviving side, followed by the buzzing Hong Kong Straits to capture the energy of Hong Kong and the vibrant thrilling nightlife. Okay, and tell me, which is your favorite of these signature drinks? For me, a Daisy Duck to start with. Okay, well, if that's your favorite, then I've got to try it. Definitely. Okay, so we've got sake, gin. What is Umeshu? It's a very authentic Japanese liqueur made of plum. Very sweet, very textured, a little bit acidity. Very nice to get in a drink. Okay. So it's a very playful mix of the cocktail. I also see this is Instagram friendly. So I might get my phone out to get a few pictures. Definitely. I think a few of your drinks, people come in, they're taking pictures. Yeah, this is our crowd favorite, and people love to take a photo of this drink. Okay. All right. Making that look good. Oh, we love that it's blue. And it's like, it's blue. Wait, I've got to get my Instagram moment. Okay. I'm filming you now. Go ahead. Yes. Nice shot. Hey, caramelization. It was made for Instagram. Yeah. Wow. I haven't had a marshmallow cocktail since. First time for everything. There we go. Okay. That's your first drink. A Daisy Duck. Okay. Cheers to you. Cheers. Enjoy. Thank you so much. Okay. Let's give it a shot. That's so refreshing. The citrus, the light notes of rose. But what's interesting is that when you drink it, you smell that caramelization of the marshmallows. Daisy, you never looked so good. Thank you so, so much. Thank you so much. I'm glad that you love our drinks. Yeah. Yes, I do. And I think I'm going to go talk to chef now. Okay. Cheers. Thank you. Welcome to Demon Duck. It is my pleasure. You're going to feed me today, right? I'm going to try. Okay. I love it. I love it. So, let's have a... Let's do. Welcome to Dubai. Well, welcome back. You've been here a few times. Every time I come back, there's always something new and exciting going on. It is. And we are so fortunate to have your talent here. I think you brought a voice that is very distinct, very original. So, at Caesars, we're super lucky to have that. Was there any reason why Dubai specifically? Well, you know, since I began cooking or making a career out of cooking, I've been going international. So, you know, I have restaurants in North America. Of course, I have restaurants in the Far East, but I can tell you, the Middle East is somewhere I've always wanted to go. Did you have to change the menu? Did you add anything special when you came to Dubai? I think the most important thing is it's a knowledge of taste because, you know, food is food. You know, the tomato here and tomato Italy, tomato in Hong Kong, it's the same tomato. Yes. I want to put more instances on the flavors, the flavors combination, the strength. But at the end of the day, food is food. And it's delicious food. I tell you, taste is always the key. Okay. Could we taste something? Is that a little intro? Can I use that as a perhaps? Hey, come on. I would love to hear your explanation of it. The first presentation, okay, is, of course, a visual presentation. Yes. So we have some scallop crudo and with Sichuan pepper, puff rice and a lemon vinaigrette. Can I tell you? Scallops are my favorite protein. Well, I have good taste. Good guess. Exactly. You don't need to do anything with scallops except that you've got texture in there. You've got acidity in there. You've got that kind of nice fatty sweetness. Like, I love it. I want like, yeah, I could share this with others. Don't know if I want to. Okay. So we have a lamb satay. And of course, I'm inspired by kebab and the kebab, you know, meats that are that are skewered. It's very common, I think, in a lot of countries. Yes. What is this delicious sauce? It's a satay mayo and peanuts. You've got a lot of flavor in there. A lot of flavor in there. I'm really impressed. It looks a little like it could be subtle, but you brought that flavor. Good, good. A little heat, just a little bit. I could keep eating, but I don't want to be very disabled. We have some meat. Okay. Some seafood. Now it's time for a bit of vegetable. Okay. Okay. And this is bang bang cauliflower. Okay. So it's cauliflower with the bang bang sauce. Okay. So we have some Chinese chili sauce. We have some Sichuan pepper. And of course, a light Japanese Kewpie mayo. And I am always impressed and happy when you go out with friends and they don't eat meat, but you've given them something equally delicious. Well, I mean, here, even though, you know, our restaurant stays dark, we want to cater for everybody. This is great because you've got a little bit of crispiness on the outside, and then the cauliflower is treated beautifully. So I think, you know, the best dishes, even if they are vegetarian, everybody will love them. Thank you. So we're at Demon Duck, but is there any special way you treat it? Is there something we should know? What do you do special about the duck? Well, first of all, you know, there's no secret. There's no secrets. Okay. So we get, we source the duck. We pick a Peking duck because of the size, the fat content. Now, what we do different than let's say other restaurants is we age our duck and we age it for up to 21 days. Wow. The reason for this is it intensifies the flavor, tenderizing process, other process that makes the fat easy to render. Okay. Then after it's been aged for 21 days, we slow roast it. The reason we slow roast it is we want to retain the moisture. We want to give you very, very moist flesh. Could we maybe try some? Definitely. Okay. Yes. Okay. Yes. All right. Oh, this is the hero of the hour here. So 21 days this has taken to get to me and they're going to do some magic maybe off screen to show us how it cooks. Thank you so much. It smells like you're Oh, this I love to see. I know there's no wrong way to eat it, but how would you eat it? How about that? You know, you can eat just like that or we can make a little sandwich. Okay. We had pancakes and also buns. Okay. Um, I prefer the bun and I'll tell you why later on. Okay. Um, so this is not just a bun. This is a bun, but we flavored with a bit of citrus. Okay. Okay. Um, calamansi. Okay. We, first of all, we slice it thick. Secondly, you see it, you notice that meat nice, juicy, tender, and then you see the skin. Okay. And you have that almost like a crackling. Everything I could want everything I could want. So you put it here. All right. Then you have two sauces. We have the classic. Okay. And then we have the new bell. Okay. Okay. Which is, um, infused with citrus. So which one would you like? Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to show the new, new, new. Okay. So you don't put the sauce in. All right. Um, are you a garlic person? I am very much a garlic person. Now in Beijing, they love garlic. So a little bit of garlic aioli. Okay. I think this will add an extra, uh, dimension. Okay. And finally, we have some chopped leeks. All right. Voila. Okay. Thank you, chef. Are you going to join me or am I just going to enjoy by myself? I'm going to make one myself. Let's eat it while it's hot. There are not many perfect bites. This might be one of them. Duck is cooked to perfection. The crispy from the skin, this bun, just living that like moment of, um, citrus. So it's, and the texture from everything else, it is a perfect fight. Thank you, chef. There's just so much juice coming up from the duck and we need something. It's kind of spongy to absorb that juice because you can imagine if you eat this in a pancake, all that liquid will be all over your hands. Yes. Um, thank you. And I can't wait to see what comes next. Now, this is what I like to see. A whole trolley. And I'm going to personally cook it for you. Well, this day just got a whole lot better. Now this is very, I would say local inspired. Okay. One of my favorite food here is what do you call it? Shawarma. Yes. Okay. Classic. Yes. I'm going to make you a sweet shawarma. Okay. We have more attention here. So we have roasted pineapple sliced very thin, just like a shawarma. Okay. Okay. And wrapped in a pastry. Dinner in a show. Yes, chef. Try my own cooking. Okay. Well, that seems appropriate. Chef, this is phenomenal. It's the pineapple. So if you look at it, it's like it's that thinly sliced, roasted pineapple, aromatic syrup. You know, when you have a shawarma, that kind of the big, the big kind of meat, round meat, it just looks like a pineapple. It does. And so it's grilled. So you can just kind of shave it off. And there you go. Exactly. It's a 10 out of 10. Everything I've eaten today, I would happily order again. Chef, I want to say thank you so much for personally cooking for coming to Dubai for opening with us. And just really want to tell everybody to come here. Not only when you're here, you are here in town, but anytime you want to come to Caesars Palace and you would love to try the Demon Duck food, order the duck. You won't be disappointed. Thank you again, chef. My pleasure. Yes. Cheers. I'll be back. And you will. Thank you again for tuning into this episode of Dubai by Food. If you would like, comment, or subscribe, we'd love to know what dish you would like to try here. And you can win a dinner for two at Demon Duck. Until next episode, I'm Courtney Brandt. Stay hungry.