MICHELIN MAVERICK

THE INSPIRING TALE OF CHEF HRISHIKESH DESAI, WHO GREW UP EATING SIMPLE VEGETARIAN FARE, AND IS NOW RANKED AMONGST THE FORMIDABLE NAMES IN FINE DINING

APPEARANCE WISE

It’s hard to imagine this desi chef whipping up and plating Michelinlevel meals, considering that until he left India, he had never eaten non vegetarian food. “Food at home was Maharashtrian vegetarian. Anything fancy was and classic French dishes.

“Every chef would do a bed of rice topped with chicken and the sauce and veggies on the side. I would, say, present the rice in a line, slice the chicken and present it as a pyramid, and spread the mashed potatoes on the plate. place for every ingredient. I’ve learnt from books, good chefs and eating at different restaurants.”

But he wouldn’t like to even try fancy presentation tricks with Indian food, because that’s not how we eat at all. “If we try to present Indian food in the continental or Michelin way, we will take the sense of Indian cuisine away from it. Indian food is incredible and there is refinement in rusticity. It’s not sloppy,” he believes.

Desai’s father supports his son’s career, but Desai credits his mother for her foresight in encouraging him to

“FOOD AT HOME WAS MAHARASHTRIAN VEGETARIAN. ANYTHING FANCY WAS EATEN ONLY ON OUTINGS: A NICE PARATHA, BUTTER NAN OR DAL MAKHANI.”

learn French, knowing that most gastronomical terms are based on French cuisine. So he enrolled himself in French classes at an institute of foreign languages in Pune. Later, when he did his diploma in hotel management and catering technology from Bharati Vidyapeeth, he continued his lessons in the language there. That helped him win a scholarship to the Institut Paul Bocuse in Ecully, France.

“This marked the biggest turning point in my career.

It was there that I saw crème brûlée being caramelised with a blowtorch and I changed my mind from working to become a general manager to working to be a chef so I could use these gadgets,”

Desai laughs.

HOME ALONE

Desai visits Pune every year. This time he cooked for a Relais & Châteaux charity dinner where he paired food with jewellery and helped raise about ~54 lakh to support the education of the girl child in India.