THE SECRET INGREDIENTS IN THE MAKING OF A FAMOUS CHEF ARE...
Some of the most wellknown names from the culinary world, recall their journey with food and how they believed in self, learned with experiences and made mistakes, to reach where they are today!
Make mistakes
Chef Manish Mehrotra is one of the first names that comes to a mind when one thinks about Pan Asian food in the country. His take on Indian food with an ‘international accent’ is inspirational, but if it wasn’t for chefs Ananda Solomon and Johnson Esso, things might have been different.
“They gave me that space to learn, understood me as a person, and the biggest thing was probably that they let me make mistakes,” recalls Mehrotra, adding, “For example while I was learning Wok, which is a tricky thing to learn because you are doing it on high flame and tossing it, so for a newcomer its quite scary. So many times, we dropped the pan, or ended up burning our hands. But, Chef Jhonson was extremely patient.”
“Many times, Chef Solomon used to send us to the area where guests were eating our food. The idea was to see their expression, after the first bite. We also followed a half eaten dish sent back to the kitchen. He used to say if a customer has sent a dish, back to the kitchen, it can either be that they’re full, or the dish is badly prepared. That means there’s a 50% chance that they didn’t like,” he shares.
The (ad)spice of life
They are considered as some of the biggest celebrity chefs across the country. But, as cliched it might sound, all of them, as they themselves put it, started from scratch. People, experiences and incidents, helped them see cooking food as not a daily chore but as an art form. And these are the only reasons, as chefs Ranveer Brar, Manish Mehrotra, Sarah Todd, Sabyasachi Gorai (Saby) and Pankaj Bhadouria unanimously agree, which helped them reach places in their careers.
“Ek chutki namak, or ek chutki chini ki kimat mujhe pata hai,” says chef Pankaj Bhadouria as she explains that in her culinary school, the first few lessons, are the basics, which she learnt from her parents.
“My mom was a Bengali. So she taught me that, ‘ Har namkeen cheez me ek chutki chini, aur har mithi cheez me ek chutki namak dalna zaroori hai.’ These are taste enhancers, and this was one of the most important lessons I’ve learnt,”, she says.
That, and her father’s advice on ‘namak mirchi’. “My father used to tell me, ‘ jab tak namak-mirchi nahi hogi, cheez accchi nahi lagegi.’ Right seasoning is very important,” Bhadouria says adding that without these two important pieces of advice from her parents, she wouldn’t have learnt the art of cooking.
Self - belief
For Saby, there aren’t one or two names from the culinary world that influenced him. “There are so many people who have come and influenced my career more importantly I would say have influenced my life as a person,” he says. Starting right from his college days, from “Australia to US to Paris”, Saby’s list of people who he has been influenced by, is endless. “They gave me the confidence that yes I can stand in the kitchen and cook...They told me that I have the ability to be in kitchen because I think that the biggest fear for anybody who was coming from a humble and middle class background.” he says.
Time is the best teacher
For chef Ranveer Brar, there have been “50 names or so”, who’ve mentored him through his 25-year-long career, “But there’s no bigger teacher than time, your own journey and experience,” he says, adding that it helps a person, look at food as journey.
“My advice to young chefs is only this. They shouldn’t hurry or look for short cuts. Food is not just knowing a recipe. Recipe is just information. To become you should acquire knowledge about food, which can only come through travelling, meeting different people,” Brar shares.
Cooking with love
‘Cooking is not a chore’, and for someone who loves to create dishes, this is probably the first thing they should learn, points chef Sarah Todd, who credits her mother, Lorraine Todd for teaching her the basic of cooking with “love”, which has helped Sarah in becoming the globally renowned chef, that she is today.
“From a very young age, I remember baking with my mum. Every Christmas we would create huge cookie jars for all family members.We would spend days baking together... These ended up being everyone’s favourite gift. It was that moment I realised cooking could be a way to people’s hearts,” she concludes.