It can be exhausting cramming in all those unmissable Michelin starred meals, zipping from one stellar appointment with gastronomic delights to the next, but such is the life of the working journalist ...

You might not have been among the lucky glitterati who were able to take in some or all of Abu Dhabi’s food spectacular, the Gourmet Abu Dhabi programme of top chefs and top eats, but you surely felt a glow of vicarious pleasure at the thought of all that quality sprinkled around town like so much fairy dust. This is the kind of place we live in: this is the kind of world we inhabit. It’s what Abu Dhabi is all about (or at least what it likes to think it’s all about: and there’s nothing wrong with aspiration).

The curtain comes down on the 15-day culinary festival this weekend, and to our way of thinking one of the highlights has been the Abu Dhabi Gourmet Stars Awards –11 of them, depicted credibly enough as the Oscars of the local hospitality industry. We cover the big winners in the news pages inside this issue, but it’s especially gratifying to see a couple of unexpected names in the list – we were particularly pleased to see the appearance of one notable independent in the form of the India Palace; and Marie Irene of Ushna really does deserve the ‘Restaurant Host Of The Year’ accolade. Not that the others don’t merit their awards, just that it’s probably a little bit easier to be a star in the environment of a notable five-star hostelry with high standards and higher expectations.

Well done to all of the winners; and well done too to the ADTA people who organised Gourmet Abu Dhabi. It makes you glad to be here, even if you weren’t there ...

Dennis Jarrett