Cooking food with an iron
Chef Hemant Oberoi used a Bajaj Electricals iron to cook appetisers at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2017
The recently concluded Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2017 saw a variety of innovative performances, and chef Hemant Oberoi’s creation, ‘iron cuisine’, was certainly one of them. This is a cooking technique developed by Oberoi, where he cooks food using irons that are used to smoothen clothes.
Oberoi whipped up some starters at the event using a vintage coal iron and a Bajaj Electricals iron. He began by cutting paneer, chicken, shrimp, fish and broccoli, which had been marinated for over five hours in different marinades into thin slices. Each slice was then placed in a piece of parchment paper and folded. Lastly, a steaming iron was kept over the parchment paper for about a minute, and then the other side of the paper was ironed. The result was a steamed and crisp appetiser.
Oberoi thought of using irons to cook when he was passing Dhobi Ghat in Mahalaxmi, and saw clothes being ironed there. After a lot of trial and error, the chef discovered that irons could be used to cook food. Speaking about his technique, Oberoi says, “I have been using this technique to cook some delicacies for some time now, and the results are good.” After sampling one of the starters made this way, a member of the audience said, “I can’t believe what I am eating. The paneer is so tasty.”
Oberoi says using a coal iron to steam the food lends it a smoky flavour. “Nothing except coal can give you that taste,” he says. The chef, who said the theme of the evening was ‘Press to impress’, also used an 18th century heavy weight iron from the UK to cook the food.
“Chef Hemant Oberoi and the Bajaj family go a long way back,” says joint managing director of Bajaj Electricals, Anant Bajaj. “When I came to know that he was retiring, I approached him to do something creative and different, and this festival gave us the opportunity to do that. Both he and Bajaj Electricals agreed that we didn’t want to give the audience something that has been done before. The iron cuisine idea he came up with has really blown us away,” Bajaj says.