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Behind the Scenes at Reflets Par Pierre Gagnaire in Dubai. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Behind the Scenes at Reflets Par Pierre Gagnaire in Dubai

One of the best things about our jobs is that we get to spend time in some of the world’s best restaurant kitchens. One of our most memorable experiences was a night behind the scenes at Reflets by Pierre Gagnaire in Dubai. These are my reflections from a Michelin-starred chef’s kitchen.

Literally months after opening in Dubai, Reflets Par Pierre Gagnaire slipped onto the San Pellegrino World’s Best 100 Restaurants list. It was the only restaurant from the Middle East to make the grade back in 2009. In doing so, it became the restaurant that set the standard for fine dining in Dubai, a city where the term had been used far too loosely.

On the first night of a weeklong visit by the fêted French chef to his Dubai restaurant, Lara and I got to slip behind the velvet cocoon of the dining room into the kitchen with the man himself. Our aim was to see just what makes the restaurant – and the chef – one of the world’s best.

Notebook in hand and my camera around her neck, Lara was a fly on the wall for the night. I was hands-on in between taking photos, learning how to prep a dish or two, and by the end of the night actually prepped Chef Gagnaire’s dinner. But that’s another story. Here are our observations from that night…

In the Kitchen at Reflets Par Pierre Gagnaire in Dubai

It’s 8.30pm. Orders are starting to fill the board at the pass — the area where the chefs plate the food and the servers take the dishes headed for the elegant dining room beyond the swinging doors. An order comes in and as soon as Chef de Cuisine Olivier Biles reads out the dishes the whole kitchen team yells loudly in unison “Yes, chef!” It’s the loudest sound we’ve heard since we arrived at the restaurant.

Two hours earlier, when we took the private elevator to the restaurant, it was calm and quiet. The restaurant looked perfect but the assistant restaurant manager Dennis Tels was doing last minute checks, painstakingly checking every table, adjusting the blinds, positioning plates, straightening cutlery, and straightening his own tie in the mirror. The hostess was lingering near the elevator waiting for the first guests to arrive.

“After the pre-service briefing everyone knows which section they’ll be working so they prepare themselves and familiarize themselves with their area,” Dennis explains. “We change their sections every night to keep them on their toes,” he grins.

The previous night had been tough, with most tables of diners arriving at once, making the waiters quietly scramble and the order board in the kitchen instantly full with dockets. It was the kind of night that restaurants fear, especially a fine dining one.

The first customer arrives, the team jump to attention, and Dennis hurries to greet him. Chef Pierre Gagnaire arrives soon after, freshly showered after a workout at the gym straight off the plane from Paris. He slips on his chef’s jacket in the kitchen and joins us in the private dining room, where he meticulously folds a crisp white scarf and ties it around his neck, so I can first shoot his portrait.

At the helm of an empire encompassing several highly regarded restaurants around the world, Chef Gagnaire says he chose to open in Dubai because “it’s a special place, a unique city”.

Another reason was Tom Meyer, General Manager of the InterContinental Dubai Festival City where Reflets resides. “Tom loves to eat. He loves Reflets,” Gagnaire confides to us. “If we don’t have the support of these kinds of people, we can’t succeed.”

But the real secret to success, Gagnaire tells us, is the staff. “My staff – especially my chef de cuisine Olivier Biles, the pastry chef Sébastien Vauxion and my restaurant manager Etienne Haro – have the right personalities and a connection to the city.”

“They’re enthusiastic, clever, and they love people. Our team is very multicultural, they want to learn, and they want to give pleasure. Know-how, personality, years of experience, people who represent my values to carry on my philosophy, consistency… these are all important qualities I look for in staff,” Chef Gagnaire says.

Gordon Ramsay was one of the first Michelin-starred chefs to do something in Dubai when he opened Verre many years ago, which was the city’s first real fine dining restaurant, and in recent years a handful of other Michelin-starred chefs have also opened restaurants. Yet Reflets has easily been the most successful, consistently busy since day one.

Chef Gagnaire is not so sure: “…to say Reflets is a success… well, it’s still too early. We need to wait another year and then we’ll judge if we’ve been successful or not. Dubai is special… the climate, for one, makes it unique. It’s a business, so success is not our decision, but is based upon the expectations and reactions of the customers,” Chef Gagnaire says.

While not dismissive of the global expansion of other chefs coming to Dubai, Gagnaire says he simply can’t replicate his Michelin three-star restaurant in Paris in Dubai, nor does he want to.

“For me, it’s impossible to do what Nobu is doing,” Chef Gagnaire elaborates. “I’m not a concept man. I’m personal. I’ve created something for Dubai, for this hotel, for this produce. I give directions and guidelines but the chefs have freedom too. Especially because I’m not here every day.”

With this, Gagnaire rises, keen to get to the kitchen, and we follow. For the first twenty minutes or so he simply stands and observes. “When I arrive, I just watch what’s going on,” he explains. “I just look at everything and watch everything. I watch. I watch.”

There is a real energy in the kitchen and it quickly verges on being frenetic, but it’s not quite there yet. The chefs are still in control. The preparation of dishes is very exacting. The finishing touches are being made to several plates when Chef Gagnaire intervenes to reposition a garnish on one and then follows another out with its server.

When he returns he says, “When I’m here I go to the tables with the waiters and make sure they are putting everything in the right place. It’s about showing the guest respect.”

While the chefs wait for an order, benches are wiped, trays are put away in fridges, and the mise en place (the ingredients, seasonings, sauces, and spices at hand) is refreshed.

Chef de Cuisine Olivier is borderline obsessive – everything must be in its right place. He admonishes a chef for borrowing his favourite ‘duck saucepan’ and indicates to another chef that he’s breaking his heart by not putting trays back in the fridge immediately. Chef Olivier fetches a crisp white scarf and ties it around his neck in exactly the same manner as Chef Gagnaire.

After a brief period of calm, it’s clear why Chef Olivier is so particular. Several tables are ready for their next courses and the chef is deftly searing off duck breasts, a côte de bœuf (a cut of beef for two) so large it must have been sourced from a brontosaurus, as well as lovely pieces of venison.

The venison dish smells rich and wonderful, its daube (stew) featuring fragrant braised dates. The dates are from “here” Gagnaire tells us, pointing up towards the hotel entrance – they have quite literally come from the palm trees lining the hotel driveway. During the next few hours Gagnaire finds time to share cooking tips and off-cuts of meat to sample. “Taste, taste, taste!” he says, offering us spoons, as he finishes sauces. He never has to ask twice.

An order comes in that increases the pace even more: two tables have ordered degustation menus at once. Chef Olivier calls out the order. There’s silence. “Hello?” he says, and the kitchen team yells out “Yes, Chef!”

The chefs are deep in concentration, all working feverishly, but generally in silence. Each move appears choreographed and practiced. Each cook is aware that the different yet often complex components of each dish have to be completed in unison. Astonishingly, they commonly are.

It’s now 9.45pm and Chef Gagnaire has tasted every sauce resting on the stove, watched every plate heading out of the kitchen, and pitched in when a particular station has fallen behind. He brings us over two spoons of creamy foie gras on a crispy wafer with fine pieces of frilly lettuce. It’s sublime.

So is the langoustine and red pepper ice cream he proffers with a smile. The kitchen is now at the busiest it’s been all evening. Chef Olivier, who has been flitting between the pass and the stoves, is now firmly at the pass and Gagnaire is plating dishes.

The dreamy, eyes-closed sensation of the ice cream is broken by the shouts of Chef Olivier. “Allez! Allez!” (Go! Go!) he yells to kitchen expediter Kim Queroljico, whose job is akin to a ‘go-between’.

Queroljico makes sure the trays are ready, dishes are plated correctly, and that there’s someone poised to run the plates to the tables immediately. It’s a job few envy or can handle, despite the adrenalin rush.

The other chefs are checking the dockets themselves to double-check orders. There are never more than eight orders at once, but the restaurant is full so there’s a constant stream of dockets.

A bread board about to go out to the restaurant catches Gagnaire’s eye. The stainless steel edges have finger marks on them. Gagnaire doesn’t yell. He doesn’t say anything. He merely stops the waiter, removes the bread, wipes the tray down, and rearranges the bread to show the waiter what he expects.

Restaurant director Etienne Haro, who has been in the dining room all night, enters the kitchen. He watches the chefs in action with some pride as service begins to wind down. We met Haro months before the restaurant opened. He oversaw every aspect of its development, from building plans to plates.

We spot Haro scrutinising one of the less experienced chefs at work. “He started off very nervous,” he confides in us in a whisper. “He wasn’t sure of himself. Yet some people find their confidence in all of this and lift themselves. Now we can rely on him. It’s a big leap,” he tells us, smiling.

Just as big a leap was taking the ‘Gagnaire experience’ to a city like Dubai, where sourcing ingredients, dealing with bureaucracy, and keeping staff happy can be problematic.

But how much further can a chef like Gagnaire expand his empire?

“I see a limit,” Gagnaire admits. “With this type of quality, you cannot recreate it easily. Here in Dubai, I have Olivier, the head chef, who was like a cowboy in the beginning, a bit crazy, and Sebastien, who is very talented, but now they are calm and focused. And me, I’m the guardian of the temple.”

“I know my people have talent. I trust them. It’s for this reason that I prefer gastronomic restaurants. Because after 50 covers, they might only have prepped a dish four times. In big restaurants, they might make 20-30 of the same dish. It gets boring. The staff are thinking about going home,” Chef Gagnaire explains.

While Gagnaire is renowned as a creative chef whose flair for boldly matching unusual ingredients is a key to his success in Paris, perhaps finding, motivating and then giving freedom to the right human beings is the true secret to the success of Reflets in Dubai.

“Human beings are always at the centre of the cooking story,” Chef Gagnaire says with a smile.

Reflets par Pierre Gagnaire
www.pierre-gagnaire.com

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About Terence Carter

Terence Carter is an editorial food and travel photographer and infrequent travel writer with a love of photographing people, places and plates of food. After living in the Middle East for a dozen years, he settled in South-East Asia a dozen years ago with his wife, travel and food writer and sometime magazine editor Lara Dunston.

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About Grantourismo

Lara and Terence are an Australian-born, Southeast Asia-based travel and food writers and photographers who have authored scores of guidebooks, produced countless travel and food stories, are currently developing cookbooks and guidebooks, and host culinary tours and writing and photography retreats in Southeast Asia.
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Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check o Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check out our seafood recipe collection, especially if you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with a fish focused meal in the Southern Italian tradition, transformed by Italian-Americans into the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or like Australians, who celebrate Christmas in the sweltering summer, feast on seafood for Christmas Day lunch, we’ve got lots of easy seafood recipes for you.

Our recipes include a classic prawn cocktail, blini with smoked salmon, a ceviche-style appetiser, and devilled eggs with caviar. We’ve also got recipes for fish soup, seafood pies and pastas, salmon tray bake, and crispy salmon with creamy mashed potatoes.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/seafood-recipes-for-christmas-eve-and-christmas-day-menus/
(Link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas if you’re celebrating!! 

#christmas #christmasfood #seafood #fish #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #grantourismo #grantourismotravels #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you’re still looking for food inspo for Chris If you’re still looking for food inspo for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day meals, my smoked salmon ‘carpaccio’ recipe is one of dozens of recipes in this compilation of our best Christmas recipes (link below). 

The Christmas recipe compilation includes collections of our best Christmas breakfast recipes, best Christmas brunch recipes, best Christmas starter recipes, best Christmas cocktails, best Christmas dessert recipes, and homemade edible Christmas gifts and more.

My smoked salmon carpaccio recipe makes an easy elegant appetiser that’s made in minutes. If you’re having guests over, you can make the dish ahead by assembling the salmon, capers and pickled onions, and refrigerate it, then pour on the dressing just before serving. 

Provide toasted baguette slices and bowls of additional capers, pickles and dressing, so guests can customise their carpaccio. And open the bubbly!

You’ll find that recipe and many more Christmas recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/best-christmas-recipes/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas!! X

#christmas #christmasfood #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #salmon #smokedsalmon #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels 
#xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I sh If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I shared a collection of recipes for homemade edible Christmas gifts — for condiments, hot sauces, chilli oils, a whole array of pickles, spice blends, chilli salt, furakake seasoning, and spicy snacks, such as our Cambodian and Vietnamese roasted peanuts. 

I love giving homemade edibles as gifts as much as I love receiving them. Who wouldn’t appreciate jars filled with their favourite chilli oils, hot sauces, piquant pickles, and spicy peanuts that loved-ones have taken the time to make? 

Aside from the gesture and affordability of gifting homemade edibles, you’re minimising waste. You can use recycled jars or if buying new mason jars or clip-top Kilner jars, you know they’ll get repurposed.

No need for wrapping, just attach some Christmas baubles or tinsel to the lid. I used squares of Cambodian kramas (cotton scarves), which can be repurposed as napkins or drink coasters, and tied a ribbon or two around the lids, and attached last year’s Christmas tree decorations to some.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/homemade-edible-christmas-gifts/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Yes, that’s Pepper... every time there’s a camera around... 

#christmasgiftideas #ediblegifts ##christmasfoodgifts #foodgifts #giftideas #homemadegifts #christmasfood #ediblegiftideas #hotsauce #chillisauce #sriracha #pickles #homemadepickles #recipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood 
#blackcat #blackcatsofinstagram #picoftheday 
#christmas #christmastree #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas #cambodia #siemreap
This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’ This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’s perfect if you’re just back from the fish markets armed with luxurious fresh crab meat. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and very, very moreish.

Our crab omelette recipe was one of our 22 most popular egg recipes of 2022 on our website Grantourismo and it’s no surprise. It’s appeared more times than any other egg recipes on our annual round-ups of most popular recipes since Terence launched Weekend Eggs when we launched Grantourismo in 2010.

If you’re an eggs lover, do check out the recipe collection. It includes egg recipes from right around the world, from recipes for classic kopitiam eggs from Singapore and Malaysia and egg curries from India and Myanmar to all kinds of egg recipes from Thailand, Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, USA, Australia, UK, and Ireland.

And do browse our Weekend Eggs archives for further eggspiration (sorry). We have hundreds of egg recipes from the 13 year-old series of recipes for quintessential egg dishes from around the world, which we started on our 2010 year-long global grand tour focused on slow, local and experiential travel. 

We’re hoping 2023 will be the year we can finally publish the Weekend Eggs cookbook we’ve talked about for years based on that series. After we can find a publisher for the Cambodia cookbook of course... :( 

Recipe collection here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio):
https://grantourismotravels.com/22-most-popular-egg-recipes-of-2022-from-weekend-eggs/

If you cook the recipe and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either in the comments at the end of the recipe or share a pic with us here.

#recipe #recipes #eggs #eggslover #breakfasteggs #WeekendEggs #egg #breakfast #brunch #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #lookingforapublisher #writingacookbook  #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angko I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angkor Archaeological Park, home to stupendous Angkor Wat, pictured, celebrated 30 years of its UNESCO World Heritage listing. 

That’s as good an excuse as any to put this magnificent, sprawling archaeological site on your travel list this year.

While riverside Siem Reap, your base for exploring Angkor is bustling once more, there are still nowhere near the visitors of the last busy high season months of December-January 2018-2019 when there were 290,000 visitors. 

Last month there were just 55,000 visitors and December feels a little quieter. A tour guide friend said there were about 150 people at Angkor Wat for sunrise a few days ago.

If you’re looking for tips to visiting Angkor, Siem Reap and Cambodia, just ask us a question in the comments below or check Grantourismo as we’ve got loads of info on our site. Click through to the link in the bio and explore our Cambodia guide or search for ‘Angkor’. 

And please do let us know if you’re coming to Siem Reap. We’d love to see you here x

#siemreap #cambodia #asia #travel #instatravel #traveldeeper #slowtravel #localtravel #experientialtravel #exploremore #neverstopexploring #goexplore #igtravel #angkorwat #angkor #temple #temples #angkorwithoutcrowds #unesco #unescoworldheritagesite #unescoworldheritage #archaeology #archaeologicalsite #traveladdict #beautifuldestinations #beautifulplaces #travelgram #wanderlust #picoftheday📷 #grantourismotravels.
Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky, flavourful and succulent chicken thighs that are fantastic with steamed rice, Chinese greens or a salad, such as a Southeast Asian slaw. 

The chicken can be marinated for up to 24 hours before cooking, which ensures it’s packed with flavour, then it can be cooked on a barbecue or in a pan.

Terence’s soy ginger chicken recipe is one of our favourite recipes for a quick and easy meal. I love the sound of the sizzling thighs in the pan, and the warming aromas wafting through the apartment. 

It’s amazing how such flavourful juicy chicken thighs come from such a quick and easy recipe.

Recipe here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio): https://grantourismotravels.com/soy-ginger-chicken-recipe/

If you cook it and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either here or in the comments at the end of the recipe on the site or share a pic with us x 

#recipe #recipes #chicken #soygingerchicken #asianfood #southeastasianfood #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #cookingtime #recipe #recipes #comfortfood #foodblog #food #foodstagram #healthyfood #instafood #healthy #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re mak Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re making with my market haul from Psar Samaki in Siem Reap — all for a whopping 10,000 riel (US$2.50)?! 

Birds-eye chillies thrown in for free! They were on my list but the seller I spent most at (5,000 riel!) scooped up a handful and slipped them into my bag. She was my last stop and knew what I was making.

My Khmer is poor, even after all our years in Cambodia, as I don’t learn languages with the ease I did in my 20s, plus I’m mentally exhausted after researching and writing all day. I have a better vocabulary of Old and Middle Khmer than modern Khmer from studying the ancient inscriptions for the Cambodian culinary history component of our cookbook I’m writing.

So when one seller totalled my purchases I thought she said 5,000 riel but she handed back 4,500 riel! The sum total of two huge bunches of herbs and kaffir lime leaves was 500 riel.

Tip: if visiting Siem Reap, use Khmer riel for local shopping. We’ve mainly used riel since the pandemic started— rarely use US$ now as market sellers quote prices in riels, as do local shops and bakeries, and I tip tuk tuk drivers in riels. I find prices quoted in riels are lower.

Psar Samaki is cheaper than Psar Leu, which is cheaper than Psar Chas, as it’s a wholesale market, which means the produce is fresher. I see veggies arriving, piled high in the back of vehicles, with dirt still on them — as I did on this trip. 

The scent of a mountain of incredibly aromatic pineapples offloaded from the back of a dusty ute was so heady they smelt like they’d just been cut. More exotic European style veggies arrive by big trucks in boxes labelled in Vietnamese (from Dalat) and Mandarin (from China), such as beautiful snow-white cauliflower I spotted.

Note: the freshest produce is sold on the dirt road at the back of the market.

#cambodia #siemreap #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodphotography #igfood #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #instadaily #picoftheday #market #siemreapmarket #psarsamaki #marketfresh #vegetables #healthyfood #marketshopping #traveltips #foodtravel #culinarytravel #localtravel #cooking #cookingtime #curry #homemade #currypaste #grantourismotravels
My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recip My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recipe makes tender meatballs doused in a delightfully tangy-sweet sauce, sprinkled with crispy fried shallots, with carrot-daikon, crunchy cucumber and fragrant herbs. 

The dish is inspired by bún chả, a Hanoi specialty, but it’s not bún chả. No matter what Google or food bloggers tell you. Names are important, especially when cooking and writing about cuisines not our own.

This is an authentic bún chả recipe:  https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-bun-cha-recipe/ You’ll need to get the outdoor BBQ/grill going to do proper smoky bún chả meat patties (not meatballs).

My meatball noodle bowl is perhaps more closely related to dishes such as a Central Vietnam cousin bún thịt nướng (pork skewers on rice noodles in a bowl) and a Southern relation bún bò Nam Bộ (beef atop rice noodles, sprinkled with fried shallots (Nam Bộ=Southern Vietnam) though neither include meatballs. 

Xíu mại= meatballs although they’re different in flavour to mine, which taste more like bún chả patties. Xíu mại remind me of Southern Italian meatballs in tomato sauce.

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, home to millions of Khmer, there’s bánh tằm xíu mại. Bánh tằm=silk worm noodles. They’re topped with meatballs, cucumber, daikon, carrot, fresh herbs, crispy fried onions. Difference: cold noodles doused in a sauce of coconut cream and fish sauce. 

Remove the meatballs, add chopped fried spring rolls and it’s Cambodia’s banh sung, which is a rice noodle salad similar to Vietnam’s bún chả giò :) 

Recipe here: (link in bio) https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-meatballs-and-rice-noodles-recipe/

For more on these culinary connections you’ll have to wait for our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history. In a hurry to know? Come support the project on Patreon. (link in bio)

#recipe #recipes #vietnamesefood #cambodianfood #asianfood #southeastasianfood #ricenoodles #rice #noodlebowl #meatballs #igfood #igfoodie #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #writingacookbook #writingacambodiancookbook #patreon #patreoncreator #grantourismo
It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour matches the furnishings of our rented apartment. So, no, I did not colour-coordinate the interiors to match our cat’s eyes. 

I keep getting DMs from pet clothing brands wanting to “partner” with Pepper and send her free cat clothes and cat accessories. Although she did wear a kerchief for a few years in her more adventurous fashion-forward teenage years, I cannot see this cat in clothes now, can you? 

#pepper #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #blackcatsmatter #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #catlover #catlovers #catlove #catoftheday #catphoto #catpic #catpics #cambodiancat #cambodiancatsofinstagram #catlife #catloversclub #catoftheday #catgram #catstagram #cats_of_instagram #catphotography #catsofig #catsoftheworld #catsofinsta #cats🐱 #siemreap #cambodia

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