Curry in a hurry
Atul Kochhar is turning his attention from Michelin-starred meals to making curries in minutes. He tells KATE WHITING how his son inspires him to be more inventive
ATUL KOCHHAR is reminiscing about the day he became the first Indian chef to be awarded the gold standard for culinary expertise – a Michelin star – while head chef at Tamarind in 2001.
“I remember as if it were yesterday... A journalist from the Evening Standard called and said, ‘You have a Michelin star’ and I said, ‘No, no I don’t have a Michelin star’ and hung the phone up. Then he called back and said, ‘No, I was trying to tell you that you’ve got a Michelin star, you’ve been awarded one’ and I started shaking, I couldn’t believe it.”
To cap it all, that evening, Gordon Ramsay came to eat at the restaurant to celebrate achieving his third Michelin star: “He was eating my food to celebrate his third star with his wife and family. He came to the kitchen to congratulate everyone and he was so chatty. Obviously he was very happy for his third star, but he genuinely was very happy that we got the star as well.”
Six years later, Atul, 47, was awarded a second Michelin star for his own restaurant, Benares.
Despite all the acclaim, however, he’s now turning his attention to slightly more simple fare in his latest book, 30 Minute Curries.
“Everybody expects me to write complicated books and I won’t deny it, I have done that. I wrote the Benares cookbook and each recipe has got six recipes in it. But I’m also a father and when I cook at home, I’m not cooking Michelin-starred food, I’m cooking everyday food.
“I’ve learned shortcuts to put food on the table really quickly – there’s only so much time kids can hold out – so this book is to celebrate that. And also, [people say] Indian food takes forever, but it doesn’t. Anybody can do it, so I’m sharing my techniques of how you can do it very quickly. Every recipe actually comes under 25 minutes.”
His book is dedicated to his son (“my best friend”), 11-yearold Arjun, who inspires Atul to be inventive.
“Arjun has strong likes and dislikes... One of his pet hates is broccoli, so I keep making it in different ways. Last weekend, I made chickpea burgers, so I put broccoli in there and told him if he can find it then he can get some Lego. He couldn’t trace it.
“He believes that certain flavours work and certain ones don’t, so for example, I think carrot and ginger works and he says, ‘Little people don’t like ginger, it’s too stringy, too strong, there have to be better ways to use it’. So, he said, ‘Why don’t you make a paste of ginger?’ You get the flavour, but you don’t get the texture. It was interesting to hear this little person talk about food.”
Atul was born in Jamshedpur, India, and learned to cook from both his parents.
“We were a slightly unusual Indian family – boys are normally made to look like gods and they become couch potatoes, but not in my house. My mum said from day one, everybody lives in the house so everybody has to help. I paired up with my oldest sister, we always cooked together, and my other sister and younger brother were on cleaning duty. I hated it when I had to clean up, I still hate it. So that taught me how to cook.”
His favourite childhood food was a type of dumpling called Litti, which were stuffed with lentils and thrown in the hot ashes of a fire for a few hours: “You dust the ash away and then dip them in a nice potato curry. I absolutely loved it.”
He’s thrilled that Brits have long had a love affair with Indian food that is growing all the time: “I look at someone like Tom Kerridge, a quintessentially British chef, but he uses more coriander powder and cumin powder than I would ever use in my food. It’s heartwarming, it’s good to see that it’s opening up. I love it.”
Try out some of Atul’s quick curries for yourself...