Amal Al Marri & Deem Albassam and Ben Walton & Alex Light: food and fitness revolutions

In 2013, two girls from the Gulf who loved cooking and eating outdoors got tired of ‘burning burgers in the desert’ and decided to create a food movement that would celebrate the open spaces of the UAE with a simple yet premium dining experience.

Amal Al Marri, a designer and event creator, and Deem Albassam, a food and beverage entrepreneur, called this new movement ‘Salt’ – paying their respects to a simple, fundamental of ingredient of life and good food. While they procured a pair of Airstream trailers and the licensing necessary for the UAE’s first mobile food experience, Amal and Deem travelled around the country to listen to their community of ‘Salters’ – first identified on social media – to understand what was missing from the country’s dining landscape.

Today, Salt is a lifestyle movement that delivers simple, premium food, sourced locally where possible, in two beachfront locations in Dubai and Ajman/ and a park destination Abu Dhabi . The menu includes quickly prepared, easy-to -eat choices made onsite with enthusiasm and consistency from the highest-quality ingredients.

As the UAE’s first homegrown, pop-up dining concept, created with passion by its founders, Salt has created a meeting point for like-minded individuals who are active, innovative, creative, and community-minded. It’s a destination that makes UAE resident feel like tourists, and tourists feel like residents in the know.

Ben Walton graduated BSc Business Computing from Leeds Met University, UK. He spent 7.5 years building and growing the epic local classified’s site dubizzle.com as Director of Technology. Ben is an endurance athlete, regularly competing in Triathlons and Mountain Bike races around the world.

Alex Light graduated in Law from University of Southampton, UK. He Spent 6 years in the “dark side” of dubizzle.com, managing teams to help monetize the site as Director of Advertising. Alex is an everyday runner and a fickle sports experimenter.

As insanely curious guys, Ben and Alex are motivated to find solutions to huge problems through the application of technology. Styck is focused on making a dent in the issues that surround Obesity, Diabetes and “sedentary lifestyle”. The Styck app is an attempt to bring all stakeholders in health development together to help motivate users to move more, and develop healthy habits.