Shankar Paramasivam, chef at the Angsana Hotel and Suites, sticks to what really ticks – taste and quality. He talks to Odelia Mathews about how he strives to bring out the best in every dish he creates.
Shankar Paramasivam has been in the industry for 15 years and has worked at some famous hotels including the One&Only Royal Mirage in Dubai, the Oberoi Hotels in India, the Ritz-Carlton, the Bachelor Gulch in Colorado and the Raffles Grand Hotel d' Angkor in Siem Reap, Cambodia... the list goes on. He is quick to defend the importance of tradition when it comes to cooking by asking: "How often do you go to a remote part of the world and eat food at someone's house and it tastes bad? That's a one in a million chance. People understand their culture and tradition and won't cook up some obscure meal. Instead, they cook with a deep understanding of the ingredients used as they have been tried and tested."
I
I come from a very down-to-earth, middle class family in Chennai. I am the first chef in my family. The first time I mentioned that I wanted to become a chef my whole family was shocked. They told me that no one in our family had ever undertaken such a profession and that it wasn't a reliable career. For the first few months it was difficult for them to understand why I choose the profession. They gradually got used to the idea.
I never aspired to be a chef until I met my first chef at hotel school. His passion for food and his charisma in the kitchen captivated me. That was when I decided that cooking was the right path for me.
I first came to Dubai for the opening of the One&Only Royal Mirage in 1999 and worked there for a year and a half. It was my first overseas job aside from the cruise ships I'd worked on. In those days there was not much on Jumeirah Beach Road save for three hotels. Shaikh Zayed Road had Emirates Towers and the Dusit Dubai Hotel and that was about it. However, the industry was booming and I had the opportunity in my job there as chef to utilise my talent and skill in a new environment.
I left Dubai for my first executive chef position in Egypt at the PlanHotel Sea Club Stella Di Mare. I was 27 at the time. Working in Egypt was a totally different experience compared to the UAE, because in the UAE we dealt with multinationals from all walks of life.
In Egypt there were only four different groups of expatriates and the rest of the staff were all Egyptians. That was when I began to learn Arabic.
I consider cruise jobs to be a worthwhile step between business hotels and the initial stages of your career. It's suited to those who want to live life at large and experience cultures and cuisines in different parts of the world. I worked on cruise liners when I was single, but then at 25, I rethought my approach for a balanced life. Things change when you want to start a family.
I started with European cuisine when I was in India and I also learnt Thai, Chinese and Indian cuisines. I have worked with Cambodian, American and Italian cuisines. Since my wife is Italian, we tend to eat a lot of Italian food at home. However, I love varied cuisines and am a great fan of Japanese cuisine. I consider European food to be my forte.
I have cooked for quite a few celebrities. When I was working in India I had the opportunity to cook for Ricky Martin, Michael Jackson, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates. Michael Jackson was at the peak of his career at the time and it was during his History tour that I had the chance to cook for him. He only drinks Evian water and only eats Hershey's chocolates. He loves tandoori chicken. I've also personally met and cooked for Edison Arantes do Nascimento – the great Brazilian footballer who is better known by his nickname Pelé. Others include model Claudia Schiffer, Prince Charles, Goldie Hawn, Michael Flatley and Cameron Diaz.
I have had the strangest requests during my experience in different parts of the world. When I was at the Raffles Grand Hotel d' Angkor, I had a guest who would ask for a special meal every time he dined. The owner of a London restaurant wanted an entirely different menu, off the menu every single day.
I had a Japanese-Cambodian man who demanded extraordinary quality food such as Kobe Beef, when it was a rare ingredient in Siem Reap. A Russian businessman visiting Cambodia wanted to try everything that was considered Royal Cambodian cuisine - from deep- fried scorpions, to crickets, frog legs and baby turtles!
I am a strong believer in buying produce from the farmer and from the gardener, so much so that I have my own herb garden at home. I like to cook fresh fish, vegetables and meats. I don't believe in food with a lot of additives.
I enjoy slow-cooking food because it brings out the flavour and quality of the product.
I learnt from my roots that tradition is very important when it comes to cooking.
I believe that there are certain things you add to certain dishes because it complements and brings the dish to life and that this principle can be applied across the board. However, there are always certain basics that need to be followed – whether you're cooking Mexican, African or Indian dishes. If you take the traditional spin away from any of these cuisines, it will lose that which makes it unique. It's just not natural anymore; it becomes too artificial. On the contrary, if food is based on tradition and an understanding of the culture behind the recipe, it will turn out fantastic and remain true to its original taste.
I have picked out certain flavours that I discovered during my travels and experiences and I tend to use them a lot in the various menus I create. Since I worked in Asia, I have used a lot of wild herbs as well as a few other things that I have found out in other parts of the world – some of which are unheard of here. I try to understand different ingredients and then try to incorporate them in different menus.
I think that in order to be a good chef you have to be hard-working, have a lot of patience and you must be able to understand how different people from different walks of life interact with one another. You should also have a thorough understanding of different ingredients and how they are used
in cooking. You should respect different cultures and backgrounds and in the end, you should be able to bring it all together. A good chef is like a choreographer at the end of the day. I believe that the colleagues you work with are the ones who can teach and motivate you just as well as the guest can.
I owe my success to a lot of people. Firstly, to the chefs who have trained me to the general managers at various hotels with whom I've worked. They have guided me in a lot of ways. Secondly, I owe a lot to my upbringing and my early training. Lastly, to my wife who gave up her career of being a chef just so that I could continue with the profession and we could enjoy a family life. My role models include Ho Kwon Ping, who is chairman and founder of the Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts; John Willard Marriott, who is the founder of Hot Shoppes and Marriott; Michael Abrashoff, author of It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy as well as Jack Welch, the award-winning author.
I cook at home although not as much, and I usually do it on a day off or when I feel the need for it. Usually I go home to a home-cooked meal, but there are times when my wife asks me to cook something in particular. I enjoy cooking in general outside work, whether it's as simple as making a bowl of salad or a complete meal for the family.
If I wasn't a chef, I would be an architect because I like designing. As a child I loved to sketch and draw and I still love doing this. I also tend to read a lot of books on design and architecture.
I am currently involved in designing concepts and creating ambience at various dining outlets.
I am of the opinion that molecular gastronomy is highly overrated. People dine not just to taste different things and experience research on a plate.
I think you can use molecular gastronomy to create dining experience but you cannot serve it just as it is to anyone and everyone.
I believe that critics and competitions are good because they tend to push the envelope further when it comes to quality and innovation in hotels and restaurants. Ultimately, they help hoteliers and chefs to raise the standards in what is considered good food.
I would like to cook for the Pope and since he is German, I'd love to prepare German food for his dining pleasure.
I have a passion for photography and reading and I would also love to take my interest in architecture further.
I love to read management books.
ME
Me and my early career
I graduated in 1993 from the Institute of Hotel Management in Chennai. I first started working for the Oberoi hotels in India. I was with the group for five years, during which time I trained in Delhi. I then moved to Mumbai where I continued to work at the Oberoi towers. I got my grounding as a chef during this time and it was my first real' job where I worked with 300 cooks, being one of the 30 sous chefs. I was one of the youngest chefs in the kitchen, whereas some others had spent more than 20 years in the industry.
Working with so many experienced people had its advantages and disadvantages. One of my best advantages there was that I was from a hotel school and I understood how different parts of the kitchen worked. But I had to earn respect. I learnt a few traditional tricks from them and I was amazed to see how they did certain things with such ease.
Me and my experiences
When I worked in Delhi I worked with ethnic groups of Indians who would come to the capital from all the neighbouring cities. But when I went to Mumbai it was completely different – it was as foreign as first working in New York or Los Angeles. With Delhi being the capital city, Mumbai was the business centre with numerous people from different ethnicities and backgrounds converging. When I left India, I joined Carnival Cruise Lines in 1996. They employed 78 nationalities and about 30,000 employees and it was a tremendously interesting experience. The first difference was the language of communication in the kitchen. On Carnival Cruise Lines, I had to really listen carefully in order to catch what was being said in the different accents.
It is different to hear an Englishman speak as compared to a Jamaican and besides the language, I had to deal with different people, nationalities and cultures. While I was there I ended up learning a lot about human relationships, the different produce from all around the world as well as international competition, because we would visit different hotels at the cities we docked at.
I have great memories of visiting certain ports in Mexico, Canada, Alaska and California and it was really interesting to see what food meant to different people in different parts of the world.
My next job took me to Cunard Seabourn Cruise Lines in England. I worked with a complete team of European chefs and learnt how Europeans conceive food and how they bring it to the plate. Immediately after that I came to the Middle East to work at the Kempinski Hotel and Resort, Ajman as the Chef de Cuisine in the year 2000.
I then moved to the US as part of the Ritz Carlton team, where I worked with an all-American staff. There the guest profile included people from all over Europe and Asia so I had the opportunity to change the menu from American to International cuisine to suit the guests. By the end of three years, I was off to Asia to work with the Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor in Siem Reap in Cambodia.
Me and life
When I look back at my life I realise that to a certain extent I was a workaholic. I am now at a point in time when my days are planned based on how much time I spend at work and after work. In some cases I just don't plan at all; I just let things happen the way they happen, because when you plan everything you don't leave room for the opportunity to experience life at large. Sometimes you need to exercise a bit of reckless abandon because life is too short to be worrying and mulling over things and that's why you have to experience absolute carelessness at times.
If life was a dish, it would be a plate of sushi for me. If you look at a plate of sushi you see different elements – hot wasabi, pickled ginger – an assortment of different flavours and it feels complete because it resembles a potpourri of sorts. If I had to create such a dish of life, I would include a dash of hard work, an ounce of humour, lots of patience, a sense of adventure and the drive to live life for the moment.
Me and my family
I've been married for five years and have an Italian wife and a three-month-old son. My wife was a chef for 15 years and worked in various hotels. We met in Dubai.
As a family we like to travel a lot. My wife prefers the beach and sunny destinations, while I tend to like outdoor activities and mountain holidays, as well as big cities such as Beijing, Chennai and Rio de Janeiro. When we got married, my wife gave up her career as we couldn't both be in the same profession and start a family. Today she is the best critic I have. If I ever want the right opinion about food, I just need to invite her to dine in the restaurant.
If my son wanted to be a chef too, I would encourage him, but only if he was really passionate about it.
Me and my opinions
The ambience of a restaurant is very important because it sets the tone for where you'll be dining and you should feel instantly comfortable the minute you step into a place. I never read magazine reviews.
I rely on word of mouth from friends who I share similar dining values with. Paying attention to detail is a very crucial aspect of service and I look for places that offer high quality food, excellent service and exceptional ambience.
As far as food presentation goes, visual impact certainly goes a long way, but I would not put much emphasis on that alone. At the end of the day, no guest is going to take a picture of the food and frame it on a wall, but they are going to enjoy it within the next 30 minutes.
If somebody finishes their food in a short period of time, I think that he's enjoyed the meal.
To me, taste takes precedence over appearance while aroma and temperature of the food are equally important.
Me and my aspirations
I would like to grow in the hotel industry and continue to cook for many years to come. But eventually, I'd like to run a bigger business where I can go into architecture and design within the hotel and restaurant business.
MYSELF
Which is your favourite city?
Oslo in Norway. I love the quality of food there, the fantastic Viking culture and also because it's the perfect mix between old and new.
What is your take on fusion cuisines?
I think that it's just so passé! Today, it's been redefined as New Age cuisine as well as in numerous other terms but as long as it is steeped in tradition it's great but when it's completely muddled, it does not do justice.
What was your greatest challenge?
I had to plan an event at Raffles Hotel D'Angkor, Siem Reap for a travel group and I had to cook for 600 guests.
We had 70 ice carvings and it was a real challenge because there was no running water, no electricity and no even ground.
But the concept took me four months to plan. The event saw a performance by the Royal Cambodian Ballet and included a guest list of around 300 hoteliers and 300 travel planners. At the end of it all, the guest's left with memories for life.
What was your worst experience?
We had to cater for a mega outdoor function in the middle of the Angkor Wat Ruins and Forest for around 450 guests. The problem was that it rained unexpectedly overnight and the entire place was flooded. We had to save the day and deliver on time, despite the conditions.
Your proudest moment?
I guaranteed a corporate client at the Ritz Carlton, Bachelor Gulch on the quality of food and beverage that they would be served with and won a special note of thanks from them, just before they signed a major deal with the hotel worth a million dollars.
What's been the biggest influence in your life?
My first chef trainer was the greatest influence of my professional career. I consider the styles of Marco Pierre White, Nobu and Tetsuya most influential.
What are five of your favourite ingredients?
Cardamom, burratta, san marzano tomatoes, basmati rice and Oumi beef.
What is your philosophy?
When it comes to food, keep it simple and when it comes to life, keep your sense of humour.
