Manav Tuli
Chef de Cuisine, Chaat
BEGINNING HIS CAREER in the southern state of Kerala, Tuli discovered his passion for food alchemy in luxury hotels across India and Mauritius. He was then invited to work at London’s legendary Chutney Mary and, in 2019, reopened the highly acclaimed and Michelinstarred restaurant Tamarind of Mayfair.
What is a taste or food that… ...reminds you of Hong Kong?
Raj kachori, our specialty here at Chaat. Raj means royal and the Rosewood is hotel royalty, a top-notch brand. The dish has so many textures and layers – it’s everyone’s favourite. I don’t think any dish matches this one in complexity and all the umami effect in one dish. Where I’m from, its nickname was “the atom bomb” which is what drew me to it in the first place.
...represents your personality?
Again, raj kachori describes my whole personality.
I’m a firm believer that everyone has a lot of different faces. You have a face for your profession, you have a face for your spouse, you have a face for your child, your personal life and so on. You have different faces and you keep those faces as a deck of cards and wherever we are, we put on the appropriate face. I think this particular dish has all the faces in one place, similar to me having a lot of faces but all in one body.
My complexity and humour is reflected in the spicy and sweet. Ups and downs make up life and this dish has a lot of ups and downs too. If you’re sad, this dish will lift you. If you’re happy, it’s the perfect celebration.
...represents your current mood?
Right now I’m tamarind. I’ve had a lovely morning, I had my make-up done for the first time in my life. So I’m in a bit of an excitable, naughty mood, like the tanginess of tamarind.
...reminds you of family?
Anything from a chaat stall. Every time we went out we had food on the street with my mum and dad. There are different versions all over India – the street version of raj kachori is five times bigger than what we do here. I could never finish it and my dad would always ask me, “Are you sure?” I always said yes and he would end up having to finish it for me, but I don’t think he was very upset about it.
...reminds you of your greatest adventure?
Mustard, because it’s something that’s not valued much in Indian cuisine but everybody uses it.
It’s never the star. In the north it’s an oil, in the east it’s pickled or a mustard sauce called kasundi, in the south it’s mustard seeds, and in the west they use all three. It really adds a punch to every dish and a flavour profile that’s unmatched. So if you take it out of any dish, it won’t be the same. I think if you took mustard out of India, a lot of dishes would die off. It elevates a lot of dishes and that’s why it makes me think of adventure, because going on adventures elevates you as a person.
...is timeless?
Raj kachori, from chaat stalls. Wherever you go in India, it will always be there. There will be different variations regionally, but at the root it’s the same dish. Sweet, sour, spicy, crunchy, all at the same time. There’s a certain amount of refinement and balance that goes into this dish.
...brings you comfort?
Daal is something that I cannot survive without. If you go to any Indian house, wedding or any celebration there will always be lentils, in some form or other. They’re so comforting for me.
After eating at fancy restaurants or just out for a few days I will always want to eat lentils. When I go home, I want a little rice and some simple daal. I think lentils bring us home. No matter where you go, to get everything back on track we have lentils, like a Rubik’s Cube that you reset for somebody else to play with. You can always fight another day when you have daal. #