DUBAI: In this age of intricacies of molecular gastronomy and other quiddities of modern cookery, Indian chef Satish Arora, 69, is a pleasant reminder of a black-and-white era when food - among many other things - he insists was simple and authentic.
So it’s not surprising that the man considered a culinary guru by many celebrity chefs himself doesn’t bother much about not having either a Michelin star or owning even a single restaurant in New York, London, Paris or anywhere else.
“Call me old school if you will but I value the accolades from some really very important people in history much more,” says Arora, with a distinct Punjabi slur in his otherwise impeccable English while settling down for a quick chat at MAHEC where he, as the consulting culinary director, is overseeing a special Hyderabadi food festival until May 20.
Official chef attire
What’s hard to miss is how his protégé Asif Khan, head chef at the newly relaunched Indian restaurant in Le Meridien Dubai Hotel, nods in admiration to everything he says and the two postage stamp sized Indian flags peering over from the collars of his pristine white double-breasted chef’s jacket.
“This is the official chef attire I got from none other than Atalji (former India prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee) during one of his official trips abroad. I have been wearing this for over a decade since,” says Arora, who in a career spanning fifty years at India’s iconic Taj Group of Luxury Business and Leisure Hotels alone, has cooked, baked, sautéed and dished out personal favourites to several heads of states including former French and US presidents François Mitterrand and Bill Clinton, Queen Elizabeth and the entire royalty for President of India’s banquet and ex-British and Indian prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi.
The last two names, says Arora, remain the most special. “Both were in Goa for the 1983 CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) retreat and I was in charge for the planning and execution of 249 dishes for over 300 guests including them. I can’t forget how Mrs Thatcher had gone crazy on my lobster thermidor, made right in front of her with an oven-browned Gruyère cheese crust. After all guests had gone, Mrs Gandhi had remarked that I had done India proud. That was 32 years ago but it still gives me goose bumps,” recalls the father of two who today, following his departure from Taj Group where he claims to have even lent his name to one of his pasta creations – Cannelloni a la Arora - spends time advising airlines and restaurants around the world.
A graduate from Delhi’s catering college, he trained for a year in Germany’s Steigenberger chain of hotels – dividing between Dusseldorf and Frankfurt learning continental cuisine – before joining Taj, Bombay. French was his specialisation initially but Indian cuisine, especially Hyderabadi eventually became his passion.
“The epitome of that was when Mr. Clinton expressed surprised that he could eat a mutton raan I cooked using just a fork,” he said.