Far from the glamour and eccentricity often attributed to them, a chef’s job is a daily exercise of endurance, patience, teamwork and imagination. Three of Mumbai’s star chefs let The Gourmet Explorer take a peek behind the scenes, witness the action, meet the staff…
A friend got a job as a chef in a 5-star hotel restaurant in Mumbai’s northern suburbs. I made fun of her, saying she can forget about dieting and keeping a thin waistline. Surrounded by so much sinful food… She was doomed! To my biggest surprise, I saw her literally melting away week by week. In two months, we had to go shopping for new clothes as she had reduced 2 sizes! Her shifts were crazy – 11 am to 3 pm and 6 pm to midnight, sometimes till 2 am. In her single day off per week, “the biggest excitement is that I can dress like a girl!!! And smell good!” Another difficult thing to take is the heat. That's something that she just "puts up with it." And sometimes sneaks into the walk-in cold storage of the pastry section to cool off.
During the long working hours there is hardly time for a break or even simply sit down. Staff at the kitchen is on their feet for hours at a stretch behind their stations. If they are lucky, they get to rest on the few bunk beds available. Last minute changes of orders, big groups coming in, whims of customers keep them on their toes (literally).
So who are the people who go to work when everyone else goes to play? Who are the ones who comply with our every whim and for whom the only concern is our palate’s delight? Three chefs opened up their kitchens to us for a peek on what is going on behind the scenes.
FIRST STOP: CHEF ANANDA SOLOMON, THAI PAVILION, THE TAJ PRESIDENT, CUFFE PARADE
The kitchen opens at 8, when the pre-preparation (or as they call it in kitchen jargon, “prep”) starts. The staff dressed in white and black put their hearts into carrying out everything that the numerous guests from midday to midnight are supposed to enjoy eating. All the machine work, butchery, cutting, boiling of stocks, washing of ingredients, has to be done before the first shift comes in at 11… Hundreds of carved up, grated, chopped up vegetables arrive from the garde-manger section (the cold preparations department of a 5-star kitchen). They need to be cooked, blanched, fried, grilled and kept ready. Seafood needs to be cleaned and shelled, meat needs to be cut and trimmed by the butcher. Other service staff put all china in place, prep plate wipes… Cooks have already started preparing the basic curries. Chef Solomon overlooks this well-orchestrated, slow ballet, in a quiet but yet firm manner. “Every single hour of our day is planned. Nothing is left to chance. I know exactly what I will do tomorrow.” After the prep work, the kitchen fills up at around 11.30 and the mise-en-place (literally meaning putting everything in its place, or as they shortly call it “misa”) starts. The Executive Chef (Chef de Cuisine), Assistant Chef-de-Cuisine, Sous-chefs and the Chefs de Partie or helpers (as one can see, all the traditional French terms are used even in Indian kitchens) get together to dish out the specialties of the day. There is no fuss, no wasted movements. The staff’s uniforms are perfect. The cooks are blanching the vegetables, half-cooking the basic noodles and broths…not only for the same day, but for the next day as well. There is no single woman around, except for the pretty Thai hostess at the entrance. “Working in a kitchen means long, odd hours, and for Indian women it is tough to make this commitment, especially after marriage,” says chef Solomon. “But this is changing. For example in one of our other restaurants in the hotel – Trattoria, one of our main chefs is a girl.” By 12.30 the restaurant is open and the show begins! The customer places the order. A slip is printed out at the kitchen, with a list of the dishes and all the special requirements (desired level of spiciness for example), stating the number of the table, the number of customers, the time the order was placed, the desired sequence of serving the dishes and the name of the waiter. The “barker” (a person who coordinates the orders) reads it out loud to the cooks and the action is on. Meats are sizzling, curries are poured, salads are artfully arranged. In 10 minutes flat the tray is ready to go to the table.
SECOND STOP: CHEF RAHUL AKERKAR, INDIGO, COLABA
“It is a very tedious job,” says chef Akerkar, “this is why I tell my people that they should either love it or forget about it.” He himself dropped out of a Biochemical Engineering PhD in the US to pursue his passion for food. From working as a washer in a French restaurant, he now owns one of the best restaurants in Mumbai. The kitchen is medium sized and, needless to say, spick and span. There are different stations for sauté, barbecue, sauces, salads. Some of the chefs are wearing bandanas instead of chef’s caps, which gives the space a more relaxed feel. But don’t get misjudged by the appearance. There is a perfect order and discipline in here. The single barker coordinates several orders at a time. Knowing the time and preparation each dish requires, he knows in what sequence to shout out the order. The cooks depend on him completely and would prepare the different ingredients in the order he indicates. Sometimes, a dish half cooked is set aside, until another which takes more time is still simmering or sizzling. But when the barker says “Fire table number…”, the final result has to be delivered on the counter. The waiter, standing behind the barker, can then serve it to the guests. Each dish has a different accompaniment. A particular mashed potato is used in strictly one preparation. “I like to play with food,” says Akerkar, “Creating food is a constant evolution. When you understand the basics, you can afford to experiment with textures, techniques… In many restaurants they call this fusion. But what is fusion cuisine? We have twisted around this concept. Fusion is a historical term. It is about food evolving with the changing cultural influences of a place. Here, fusion is all about availability – you have to adapt to what is available in the market. Today my supplier might come with just one odd fish he has caught and does not know what to do with. Or with some unusual vegetable. I might take it and try to incorporate it into a particular dish. I might use a typical Indian vegetable into a Mediterranean dish.” But does this mean that the cuisine would still be authentic, a term many restaurants are hung up on? “Indian customers have this great need to compare! There is nothing like “authentic” cuisine. You cannot sit in a restaurant in Mumbai and tell the chef – these fries do not taste the same as the ones I ate in New York. You cannot make comparisons as the food is influenced by the environment. The air, the landscape, the climate, the soil – everything influences the way food tastes.”
FOR DESSERTS: CHEF FARROKH KHAMBATA, JOSS, KALA GHODA, FAR EASTERN CUISINE
Designing the menu is not an easy task and chef Khambata knows this only too well. It took him two months to design a menu for the restaurant. “We tried around 500 recipes and finally narrowed down to 70-80. I was cooking and my catering team tasted the food.” Using different ingredients on the menu is not enough. “Human’s taste buds have a balance. The chef needs to know how to use the senses to create a good combination. Although most methods in the far eastern cuisine are traditional, I tried to give them a twist. I use 8 to 10 different types of preparation like barbecuing, steaming, braising, grilling etc. I create different textures – soft, crisp or fried…” Chef Khambata was into architecture before succumbing to the art of cooking. And for him a chef’s job is not a flashy one. Everything happens behind the scenes and “the biggest pleasure a chef can experience is when a customers calls him to the table to say how good the food was. Even then it is normally the main chef who receives the compliments. Very soon my restaurant will be the only one with cameras and screens inside the kitchen, so that the chefs can see people’s reactions and the result of their labor. We are also the only restaurant, as far as I know, where tips are shared with the cooks.”
So next time you are at a restaurant and you like the food, don’t hesitate to voice it… While there are many common rules, each kitchen has its own character, according to the kind of cuisine it serves. And cooking has a different meaning for all three chefs. For chef Rahul Akerkar, it is a “craft”. For chef Khambatta it is a mixture of science and art. And for chef Solomon it is “pure art. Because if it was science it could be very easily replicated.”Picture courtesy Getty Images
Recently, while driving to a beautiful seaside area called Kashid (just 3-4 hours away from Bombay, pristine white beaches!), I noticed many stalls selling white onions. We had a local in our car, so I asked him why is so much of this variety sold here. He said a lot of farms around grow it and sell it, as it is used in Ayrvedic medecine (it seems it helps kids with severe coughs). Which prodded me to look a bit further and here is what I found:
There are very few snacks that symbolise Indian roadside eating like bhel puri. It is a snack almost as essential here as a sandwich would be in the West. Although it looks like junk food and it looks fattening, it's actually packed with good stuff: puffed rice, sev (fried crispi little sprinkles made of besan flour), tomatoes, onions, green chillies, chopped coriander, date & tamarind chutney, and green chutney. Some varieties include goodies like pomogrenate seeds, grated coconut or chunks of green mango. To be consumed immediately after being mixed together (otherwise it becomes really soggy), part of the fum is waiting at a stall and watching the whole thing being assembled. The ingredients themselves are always meticulously arranged by the vendors, and look like mini art works - mostly the sev, puffed rice and potatoes in the middle, and the bright tomatoes and green chillies used as a frame.
