From a perspective of social sciences, food is never simply cooked or eaten: social, cultural, historical, class, ethnic, gender, religious constraints perform and are performed in the everyday practices of preparing and consuming aliments. Food is a marker of cultural capital and class distinction, is a medium for the expression of the social hierarchies and tensions, and plays an important role articulating the nation as an imagined community.In the globalized consumer society, food choices were styled and sensitized, and gastronomy ceased to be an elite kitchen to somehow become a fashionable commodity. This topic currently occupies a significant place in the media when printing specific notebooks in newspapers, being the subject of specialized publications (books and magazines, especially), appearing in TV programs and on the internet (blogs, specific social networks, Apps, etc). UAE is also part of this globalized trend, and newspapers have been showing concern about the cultural erosion and changing values as result of sociocultural changes in Emirati Daily life. In order to face this challenge, different institutions had taken a leading role in propelling food as culturally important, in three levels: 1) as a common ground of multicultural conviviality (in Abu Dhabi and Dubai food festival, for example), 2) Emirati food as gateway for introducing and teaching Emirati culture and habits to migrants (in Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Undestanding, particularly), and 3) as a heritage to be celebrate and preserved (in the event My Heritage, my Responsabilty event at Al Ain Palace Museum organised by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Culture Authority).When, where and how Emirati food is prepared and consumed? Who is cooking Emirati food in domestic and professional kitchens? How is the relation of new generations (whose palates where socialized with a broad range of international offer) with Emirati food? How it is presented as national heritage in restaurants and for the international market in festivals and Culture Centers? What is kept, what is lost? How Emirati food is gentrified (in taste, in visual, in selection of ingredients) in order to be presented as authentic heritage for foreigners and as a cultural marketable product? Is Emirati food entering in a process of ethnicization in order to be preserved? What are the cultural elements that differentiate Emirati food from the generic Arab food, and how these features are negotiated in professional kitchens? Is it possible that Emirati food becomes a cuisine (as French or Southeast Asian)? And if so, what are the transformations it is going though in order to be appreciated by the globalized food market? These are some of the questions that leads this research and organize my inquiry agenda..