DINNER FOR TWO

There’s no better time to upgrade your in-house culinary experience. Let loose the chef in you with these gadgets. Highball

1. SOUS VIDE COOKER ANOVA 2.0

Itching to try your hand at sous vide cooking? Here’s a great tool to ensure your first attempt is good enough for a special occasion: the Anova 2.0 1000W Sous Vide Precision Cooker. It’ll clamp onto any pot, and with Wi-Fi and app control, even an amateur chef can whip up something all the guests will love. `14,049; amazon.co.uk ――

2. TOASTER MITSUBISHI BREAD OVEN

It’s expensive. It toasts just one slice at a time. Why would you want one then? Because it makes the perfect toast. And it does so by letting you adjust the thickness of the bread slice as well as its texture. `28,007; amazon.com

――

3. FRIDGE CAMERA SMARTER FRIDGECAM

Ever come back from grocery shopping and realise you forgot an essential ingredient? The FridgeCam will prevent that from happening again. This little cloud gadget takes a photo when you close your fridge door and sends it to your smartphone, thereby letting you check— while shopping—what you need. `5,009; desertcart.in

――

4. COFFEE MACHINE DE’LONGHI NESPRESSO LATTISSIMA PRO

This Nespresso capsule machine uses a pumpstyle system that brews unburnt coffee (unlike machines that use steam pressure), while the touch display ensures effortless cups—choose among ristretto, espresso, cappuccino, lungo, and latte. `55,000; globalgadgets.co.in ――

5. WINE COOLER KORYO WINE CHILLER

This 14-bottle wine chiller makes sure you’ve always got a glass of wine to go with your meal. The tempered glass door and child lock guarantee safety, while adjustable wooden shelves make it practical and add pizzazz to the design. `19,990; koryoworld.com

This iOS app is an essential companion for the cocktail lover. Discover recommendations, save your favourites, and play around with ingredients to come up with your own spin on the classics. It also creates beautiful recipe cards—perfect for jazzing up your Instagram feed! studioneat.com

Tell us about your journey since

MasterChef Australia?

It was a whirlwind when I won two years ago—from being a normal person with a day job to winning the competition. The win gave me a lot of opportunities, and I travelled a fair bit to understand what the culinary world was like outside of MasterChef. Within the first year, I started my first pop-up in Melbourne, and it got very good reviews and responses. But I wasn’t happy with the pop-up, which served simple street food. I like to take my inspiration from street food and create my own version of it. That’s when my restaurant came into the picture. It took me nearly one and a half years to set up the business. Meanwhile, I also started my own food line, which is present in some of the departmental stores in Australia.

You opened your restaurant in November 2019. What were the challenges to such a young business when the pandemic hit?

When we opened the restaurant, Gaja by Sashi (gajabysashi.com), in Adelaide, we were fully booked for about two to three months. We were doing fairly well until March this year. Being a new business, I had put everything on the line. I had no investors, and it was a familyowned business run by my wife and me. So we took a big hit. It was devastating to close the doors on March

23. The biggest problem was uncertainty—we had no idea how long the restaurants would stay closed.

Did you try to adapt by starting deliveries or takeaways?

Not immediately. The restaurant was not designed for deliveries or takeaways.

And I’m not a big fan either. The integrity of my food and the experience I wanted to give to my customers would have been compromised. For the first six weeks, I closed my doors. Thankfully, the government came up with the JobKeeper programme, which helped me retain my staff. At one point, we started doing takeaways on a small scale. Within two weeks of that, the government allowed dine-ins with limited numbers.

What are the safety measures you’ve had to put in place?

Social distancing is one. We need to be at least 1.5 metre away from one another. There’s also a density requirement—there can be only one customer per four square metres of area. That’s why I’m limited to 20 diners at a time. (The capacity is 78.) Other than that, we have a hygiene checklist.

Tell us about the food philosophy of Gaja by Sashi?

My slogan is, ‘Flavour is my hometown’. We make sure the food is packed with flavour. Our philosophy of sharing a meal comes from our Indian origin. Every dish is meant for sharing. I take inspiration from the cuisines of Asia and create my own versions. We have two menus: for the summer menu, we lean towards Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore because of their use of fresh herbs, fruits, and veggies; the winter menu has rich, hearty food, like Indian,

Sri Lankan, and Malaysian curries that use more spices and root vegetables.

Are these fusion dishes?

It depends. We try to create a balance in each dish. For instance, I have a dish called kalan koli (mushroom chicken) that has Chinese influence. We braise chicken in a master stock and serve it with coconut sambol, which is Sri Lankan.

You often post videos of your kids cooking. Are they keen on donning the chef’s hat as well?

I don’t like to tell them what to do. But my influence is still pretty heavy, since they’ve seen me on TV a fair bit. They enjoy cooking with me—it’s our pastime. If they want to pursue it as a career, I would support them. But they have their own interests as well. My younger boy wants to be a civil engineer. At the same time, he enjoys baking. My elder boy is more into theatre—he likes acting and dancing.