The Thai & the mighty

The success of Thai Pavilion established chef Ananda Solomon’s reputation in India. After 21 years and many apprentices later, he is still cooking up a storm

IT WAS the year 1993. The ‘shortly opening’ sign outside Thai Pavilion in Mumbai was attracting visitors, but then, the promise of its opening had been whispered about for nearly nine months. During this time, chef Ananda Solomon had been resolute. Thai Pavilion was an ambitious venture—a new cuisine (Thai) was to be launched. Till the opening, Solomon kept the flame burning in his kitchen with daily food trials. Finally, the call came. It was November 13 and Ajit Kerkar, the imposing boss of the Taj Group, was coming for an inspection. After a quick survey of the restaurant and kitchen, Kerkar turned to Solomon and asked, “How about opening tonight?” And just like that, the wait was over. There was to be no grand opening party. The restaurant would serve diners who decided to visit it. That first night, there were only four people who came in. It was, possibly, the one and only time that this iconic restaurant would serve such few people. A little over a month later, on December 24, Thai Pavilion closed the day with a billing of R1 lakh. It may not seem like a lot today, but in those days, restaurants in hotels usually did a daily business of about R30,000- R40,000.

The success of Thai Pavilion established Solomon’s reputation as an evangelist of Thai food in India. And since then, he has lived and travelled extensively in Thailand and now even speaks the language. It’s easy to assume that Thai food is his ‘speciality’, but, interestingly, he started out as a saucier in a French restaurant. It all makes sense: his attention to flavour, his opinion that having three Thai Pavilions in 21 years is realistic in these times of franchises because Thai food requires fresh ingredients— unlike the dry Chinese herbs of Chinese cuisine (now ubiquitous)— and that authenticity must not be compromised.

The saucier is the ‘sauce chef ’ of a classical French brigade-style kitchen and is a highly-specialised position.

Its importance has been ar- ticulated in popular culture in the film Apocalypse Now in which the character Jay ‘Chef ’ Hicks says he was “raised to be a saucier”. Solomon was not raised to be a saucier though. He found his way into a French kitchen after completing his hospitality training from the Institute of Hotel Management, Mumbai, and then joined the Oberoi Group, which sent him abroad. Working in France in the 1970s was an experience that transformed his approach to food and made him a believer in a style of culinary study that may be best described as ‘immersive’. It is no surprise that he has lived and cooked in Thai homes and worked on vegetable gardens (growing his own herbs). He did all that years ago in France as well: getting up at the crack of dawn to buy vegetables and meats, sharpening chefs’ knives before they got to work and learning to speak haltingly in French. He may have switched cuisines, but Solomon still runs his kitchen French brigade-style. His erect posture, non-compromising attitude to discipline and complete focus on food is what he is known for in the business. He is not entirely comfortable with the idea of chefs being increasingly out of the kitchen. He won’t write a cookbook because he doesn’t have the time. After all these years and many apprentices, he is still cooking. Yet, there are those who count him as a teacher and acknowledge his contribution to their development as chefs. None other than one of the finest chefs in the country, Manish Mehrotra of Indian Accent, thinks of him as a mentor. But if you tell Solomon that, he smiles in his usual self-effacing manner and asks you how you liked the food. Advaita Kala is a writer,

most recently of the film Kahaani. She is also a

former hotelier having worked in restaurants in

India and abroad

Solomon has lived and travelled extensively in Thailand and now even speaks the language