Tag: Chef

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Conversations with Indulge – Radhika Khandelwal

Chef Radhika started her career in Melbourne. After coming back to Delhi she started Ivy & Bean, where they (she and her partner) did Modern Australian food. But back in Melbourne the emphasis on local and seasonal produce really resonated with her and inspired her to open Fig & Maple. 

Here is her journey in her own words.
“I’m not going to say it has been easy. You meet all sorts of people and guests who will come with the weirdest requests. I’ve worked with a broken foot multiple times and then there are days you’re in the kitchen for 16 hours straight. It’s mad, it’s exhausting but at the end of the day, when you see people loving what you’ve created, you realise that’s it’s totally worth it.”

How to tell off a customer who orders a three-course meal 15 minutes before closing?

I’d respectfully tell them that the last orders have already been taken. If they insist or had to drive a long way to eat, I’d suggest some dishes that are available and can be prepared in a jiffy.

What is the one thing (tool, spice, ingredient) you could not live without?
Just one?

I can’t live without my knife, my Shun is very dear to me and please don’t make me pick just one ingredient. I really can’t!

What is your secret sauce?  / What behind-the-scenes secret can you tell us about your kitchen?

We have this little practice of naming a dish after the chef who comes up with it. Like we have a Tiger Chicken, it’s named after my Sous-Chef Sheru which literally means tiger!

What is your one guilty food pleasure that other chefs might frown upon?

There could be many but if I had to point one, I snack on lotus chips from my own kitchen 🤭 

If you could invite any three people, dead or alive, for dinner, who would they be and why?  

I’d invite Chef Dominique Crenn and myself. I don’t need a third person because I look upto her and I think I’d want to have a dinner with her all by myself to fangirl and to bounce off some ideas. 

What’s your favourite tipple at the end of a busy day?

Infused gin from my apothecary and tonic.

What is your advice to young professionals seeking a career in this field?

Work hard. There are no short cuts here and you can’t run away. If you work hard it shows, if you don’t and are being lazy, trust me that shows too. 

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Conversations with Indulge – Ravish Bhavnani

I did my bachelors in hospitality from Ihm Bhopal, moved to Melbourne in 2006, worked at a high end banquet for two years, moved on to do my first Ala Carte gig thereafter opened a cafe with chef Radhika Khandelwal in Melbourne in 2010. We ran that for 3 years before moving back to New Delhi in 2013 opened Ivy and bean in the same year in October and proceeded to open Fig & Maple with Chef Radhika Khandelwal in January 2017

Which is your favourite cuisine? Who does a good version of it, in India or elsewhere? 

My favourite cuisine would have to be Lankan and coastal Indian. There’s this really tiny place in Ahangama right on the main road run by a local family don’t remember its name but they did a fabulous fish thali

If you never became a chef, in what other ways would you have used your creativity?

If I wouldn’t have become a chef I might have become a pilot. I love planes and I love travelling.

Is there anything that diners should always order at your restaurant(s)?

The chefs waffle chicken with podi that chef Radhika put on the menu a couple of months back.

The saying goes ‘never trust a skinny chef’, what do you have to say about that? 

Hahahahha!! Maybe a very big reason I moved to the bar from the kitchen at Fig & Maple.

What’s your favourite tipple at the end of a busy day?

It would have to be a Boulevardier or a really, really cold lager.

What is your advice to young professionals seeking a career in this field?  

Keep your head down! Work hard. Most days you wouldn’t know what hit you but it’s all worth it in the end. Keep at it and never give up.

 

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Conversations With Indulge – Udit Maheshwari

We got to know and work with Udit in certain projects and it gave us an insight into how his mind works and just how infectious his love for all things gastronomic is. Needless to say a lot of wine bottles were uncorked in the nurturing of this relationship. So here are a few questions answered by Udit in his inimitable sincere and humble manner.

My journey in this industry has been a really unusual one. I studied law & worked here and there for a couple of years. Not being entirely happy with what I was doing, I decided to pursue the one thing that I loved – food. I pursued the Grande Diplome from Le Cordon Bleu in London where I was trained in the hot kitchen & patisserie.

I have been working with Café Lota & the Melting Pot Food Company for 6 years now & have recently set up a restaurant in Aerocity called Monsoon. Monsoon celebrates regional Indian food & produce along with some great wines & beers.

What inspired you to become a chef?

The obsession with food. I was obsessed with it even before I joined the industry. I even remember what I ate when I was 4 or 5 year old. Someone told me that you should only do something that you are really passionate about. That made me think that food was something that I was really obsessed with & should pursue a career in it.

What’s the ideology behind your recipes?

Firstly, it has to be delicious. Second, it has to be something out of the usual. Third, it has to be well balanced. If the primary flavour is sour, it has to be balanced with something sweet. There should be a range of flavours & textures in each dish.

The guiding path for my recipes is using obscure & long lost ingredients, cooking techniques etc.

What’s the most unique dish/ingredient you have tasted?

There was a green coloured, almost ‘barfi’ kind of sweet dish that I had eaten in Langkawi in Malaysia. It was a dessert made from potato!

This was sometime in 2009.

Chitterlings

I also had this dish in Paris. It’s called ‘Chitterling’. I confused it for a ‘chipolata’. Chitterling is basically a kind of sausage made with a pig’s intestine lining & stuffed with chopped up pig’s intestine. Even eating it with a whole lot of moutarde, it got the better of me.

Monkfish, rhubarb (had never seen or heard of it in India), rabbit, venison, foie gras.

Is there a dish/ingredient chef Udit hates?

Chef Udit’s has revived unexplored Indian ingredients in his recipes.

As far as ingredients are concerned, I absolutely hate methi dana. I cringe every time I bite on one. I also don’t like ‘Daal baati’. Even though I am a Marwari and it’s made at home quite often, there’s always something else that’s made for me because I just won’t eat it

Who is your role model?

I don’t have any role models as such. But Chef Manish Mehrotra is really cool! It is really admirable that someone who had never worked with Indian food has done such a great job of reinventing it.

Which is your dream restaurant or chef to work with?

Would love to work with Chef Thomas Zacharias at The Bombay Canteen

But also having seen David Chang’s shows and reading about Momofuku, I would give an arm & a leg to work with him & pick his brains about food.

How relevant is beverage knowledge for an aspiring chef?

In today’s market & scenario, its extremely important. Guests these days are increasingly looking for a holistic experience and beverages are a very important part of it.

Chefs often pay attention to only food and not much to beverages. Good beverage pairing is what will set great restaurants apart from the good.

What is your favourite tipple at the end of a busy day?

Whisky sour, in any form. For me, there can never be a bad one.

What is your advice to young professionals seeking employment in the kitchen space?

I see a lot of youngsters looking at only the romantic things in the industry. But, like everything, its not all romantic. There is a lot of hard work & grind that you have to do. Kitchen work is mostly very monotonous & repetitive. Do it only if you are really passionate. If you aren’t, you won’t last.

Twist to regional Indian authentic cuisine

One more thing that I would say is that avoid being gimmicky with your food. Foams, smoke, etc. will only get you this far. Customers can often see through the gimmicks. First ensure that your food is delicious, the gimmicks can come later. And please don’t modernise dishes just  for the sake of it. If the contemporised version of the dish isn’t better than the original, there’s no point in doing it.