News With Chai
Here's list of chefs. No Ranking. Just Info.
Abhijit Saha is the Founding Director and Chef of Avant Garde Hospitality Pvt. Ltd., which currently owns and operates two critically acclaimed premium restaurants in Bangalore, Caperberry and Fava in Bangalore. In June 2014 he opened his Signature Indian restaurant, Saha, in Singapore's Duxton Hill area and was awarded the 'Best Chef of India' at the Indian Restaurant Congress and Awards, 2013.
With a slew of restaurants mushrooming around Pune, Tanya Siqueira chats with Chef Arun Kumar to find what's cooking at Zambar, two outlets of LBF's latest offerings to Punekars. What convinced you to move from working as a journalist and filmmaker to the hospitality industry?
Can you stand blindfolded, smell a food, and then accurately list the ingredients found within? Kishi Aroora can. Maybe that’s the reason she left her studies at the Shri Ram College of Commerce in India to attend the CIA in Hyde Park, NY. And maybe it’s why she graduated with an AOS degree in baking and pastry arts with high honors and the International Student Endowed Scholarship. Whatever the reason, the residents of New Dehli, India are reaping the benefits.
It was on a vacation back home to India that she met Lokesh Bharwani. Together they believed that the donut had enormous potential in the Indian market and created Mad Over Donuts (MOD)—now open in the Great India Place Mall. The open-style kitchen allows patrons to watch the meticulous work going on in the kitchen as the donuts are handmade. As executive chef, Kishi worked with food technologists in Singapore to come up with a yeast-based dough that differed from the baking powder-spiked cake mixes usually found in India.
Flavor development came next. Keeping the unique Indian palate in mind, Kishi sought to create both sweet and savory flavors. Chaat—the Indian word for savory snacks—inspired a line of donuts that includes sautéed garlic on a cheese topping. Sweet flavors bear such enticing and whimsical names as Cinna-Star (cinnamon sugar), Go Man-Go (mango and chocolate blend), Cereal Killer (cereal atop chocolate icing), and the popular Almond Einstein (almond slivers on a bed of white chocolate).
Now a consultant for Mad Over Donuts and Godrej’s Nature Basket, Kishi is owner of her own customized online bakery company, Foodaholics. Her Ask Kishi column regularly appears in the Indian version of Good Housekeeping magazine.
FOOD Bamboo Bay attempts to recreate the flavours of Delhi at a food festival -Zaikadillik From ready-in-a-minute street food to complex gourmet delicacies, Delhi is a food lover's paradise. The cuisine encompasses elements of Punjabi cuisine as well as the influence of the Mughal chefs.
A philosopher, a chef, a modern-traditionalist – that is Gunjan Goela for you. You may call her a paradox or a contradiction of sorts, but she's not apologetic about it.
A consultant with the ITC Hotels at Delhi for Indian-Marwari cuisine, Gunjan holds a degree in Philosophy from the prestigious Indraprastha College for women. One of the most reputed lady chefs in the business, Gunjan has had humble beginnings. She started out by setting up a small bakery unit. Her thirst for growth soon led her to a full-time career in the Catering business. " I would churn out about 200 pastries in a day," she recalls, "but that was not very satisfying as I was limiting myself to cakes and pastries. I used to cook for friends and design menus for them. This encouraged me to venture into catering."
Gunjan's love-affair with food, as she herself admits, started very early in life. "My father taught me to bake a cake when I was six. Interest soon turned into passion. And then there was no looking back!" As a professional consultant for the past twelve years now, Gunjan's fervor has seen her going from strength to strength.
It is believed that it takes more than mere ingredients and technique to cook a good meal. A good cook puts something of himself (or herself) into the preparation. Gunjan Goela personifies this belief with her penchant for adding a cultural flourish to her cooking. Dubbed the 'Scheherazade of Culinary Delights', Gunjan takes great pride in the rich culinary heritage of India. This lady will gladly trade a homogenized burger for the desi vada pav!
And ask her it feels to be working in a male bastion and she shrugs her shoulders lightly. " It all depends on how you tackle them," she says with a mysterious smile. "Except for the long hours, which nobody can help, I got a lot of support from my colleagues. There is politics everywhere, and this profession is no exception. Just be honest to your profession and nothing will hold you back." A delectable combination of diplomacy and fieriness, Gunjan Goela is indeed, no ordinary woman. Dynamic, astute, contemporary yet classical in her orientation, she exudes the courage to rise to any challenge. Armed with the cultural inheritance of her forefathers, Gunjan is ready to take on the world.
