Ace in the food court

Deepak Chauhan combines India, East Africa, UK and Hong Kong in his recipes. The result is lipsmacking.

There's a new chef in town. Exotic without being overpowering and classy all the while.

He whips up a taste of India in East Africa with a dash of the UK and a pinch of Hong Kong.

Deepak Chauhan, who co-authored Modern Indian Cooking with Annabel Jackson, brings to his cooking a curious blend.

It is a merging of the exoticism of East African Indian cooking that he grew up with in Kenya and a Continental flair for presentation.

The emphasis on healthy eating means that the traditional Indian ghee (clarified butter) has been poured off the pan and replaced with the more nutritional olive oil, with taste being no casualty.

Chauhan, 40, of Gujarati descent, lived in Kenya till he was 11. Educated in the UK as an engineer, he decided to work in Hong Kong three years ago.

The multicultural exposure has only added to an innate talent, "I taste recipes in my head," he says.

Besides growing up on his mother's cooking, his only contact with India was two years ago when he visited the country for the first time and found out that the people there did not usually pronounce his name "de-pack" like "de-tox" or "de-lightful" like his cooking.

"Wherever I went people said De-pack and that's how I think of myself. It's only in India and here in Dubai that I learned a different way of pronouncing it."

Best spices

Despite his limited interaction with India, he often uses Indian spices like fenugreek and turmeric in his creations.

Chauhan assured me that top quality turmeric does indeed have a flavour and is not just used for colour and alleged anti-septic properties as is generally believed.

"The best spices from India are exported and I have found that there are good quality spices easily available in Dubai. I use minimal spices, fresh ingredients of good quality and wines to create food that is light, well balanced and well presented.

I am an analytical person and though I watched my mother cook, I learned to do it myself when I was 18 and alone in university, from cookbooks. Therefore, I feel quantifying is very important to the final outcome. And timing is everything."

Chauhan's family used to buy raw ingredients and grind them at home, even flour. It was from his family that he learned to judge the quality of spices.

Health fanatic

Obviously a man who works out regularly, Chauhan is a health fanatic as is evident from his use of natural yoghurt, fresh vegetables and fresh fruit.

"I seal the meat, drain off excess fat or oil and have taken out most of the carbohydrates. Vegetables are cooked only until they are al dente and fresh, tomatoes are used extensively."

In fact, one of his favourite desserts features the unusual combination of fresh peaches with chocolate sauce.

He was looking for something unique to go with chocolate to please his charming wife Renu.

"All women like chocolate and I decided to try something that hadn't been done before Renu loved it."

"When I cook something, I have to taste it in between," said Renu, who used to sell her own lasagna in Hong Kong.

"Deepak can tell how it tastes by just the smell. It's not often you find a man who's a better cook than you. I held on to him."

It is always refreshing to find people with their priorities right and Renu is dead on. I was fortunate enough to sample some of Chauhan's favourites.

Like the aromatic and scrumptious meatballs in tomato sauce with a hint of the secret family garam masala.

My favourite after the peaches and chocolate sauce (of course, all women love chocolate) was the amazingly tangy yet light and fresh mango chutney with tamarind and a sprinkling of green chillies and coriander leaves with papad.

For Chauhan, taking cooking—which was just a hobby—to a level that matters fits right into his general philosophy. "I'm always developing things."

Armed with experience in financial advising and a more than avid interest in classic cars and bolstered after authoring a book, he is seriously looking to contribute his opinions in print on finance and vintage automobiles.

Any tasters, sorry takers?

* Modern Indian Cooking, published in Hong Kong, is currently available on Amazon.com.