He has made his mark in the world of haute cuisine by becoming one of the first Indian chefs to receive a Michelin star. Vineet Bhatia's London restaurant Rasoi is the recipient of a Michelin star. Yet he considers his mother and wife to be his heroes in the culinary world.
"Sometimes, there's nothing better than a simple meal of dal (lentils), roti (Indian bread) and sabji (vegetables) cooked with a lot of love," he says.
The one thing he would like to do is take the word "curry" out of Indian cuisine because it makes it very passé. "Although it's used in India too, I think it has become distorted in the Western world, and that too rather derogatorily," Bhatia explains. "In the UK for so many years it has been a representative of something with popaddum after a few drinks. Even when I was studying in India, there were a lot of foreigners who would ask for curry and all you could do was smile and think they don't know. There are so many styles of Indian food — curry is such a generic term."
Indego at the Grosvenor House is Bhatia's signature restaurant in Dubai. Unwind met him at a master class at the recent Abu Dhabi Gourmet and won over the audience not just with his cooking skills but his smiling face. Yet he feels success cannot change the fact that a bawarchi (cook) is a bawarchi for life.
A lot of hard work
"We are all bawarchis, as one would say in Hindi. Being a chef seems like a glamorous profession but a lot of hard work goes into it. It has taken a long time for Michelin to recognise Indian food. I am very fortunate to have been the first Indian chef and would love to see more Indian restaurants around the world get recognition. If you look at the development of Indian cuisine in the past years, you'll see people have tried to understand its finer aspects and helped enhance it. There will be a major shift in the next five or six years."
Passion, Bhatia feels, is the most important ingredient in cooking tasty food. But despite cooking fusion food, he agrees classic dishes should never be tampered with. "Rogan josh is rogan josh and has to be served on the bone. Classic cuisine is just that — classic. You can add and change flavours but you can't call it rogan josh and put corn or guchhi (wild mushrooms) in it. You can, however, make guchhi korma with morels and lamb shanks. We add a bit of truffle oil, dhaniya (coriander) and chillies for flavouring and cook it the authentic way."
One of the reasons he was unhappy with the Indian food scene in the UK when he arrived in 1993 was what people were eating. "It stems down to what the demand is and what you supply. If both are wrong, they can lead to disaster. When the British left India, they wanted a certain type of food but the people who were cooking for them were not really Indians. They came mostly from Bangladesh and, unfortunately, were not specialists. Yes, they created a demand for Indian food in the UK but this was for a very different audience lot — mainly those who thought Indian food was cheap and cheerful. It was very disappointing. Not that there weren't good restaurants but most Indian eateries served stuff you would never see back home. Dishes such as Rainbow Rice, with shades of yellow, green, purple and red, or Chicken Ceylon, with a variety of fruits. And I would wonder where those came from."
Bhatia also agrees that Indian food is unhealthy. "What is Indian khana (food)? Though there are lot of options where one can eat Indian food sensibly, what you'll cook at home is mainly rice, roti, dal. And there will be this vegetable side dish, mostly with potatoes, and very mushy. Overcooking kills nutrients. So what's left is just fat, carbs and starch. And to top it all, at the end of the meal, you'll have a gulab jamun or a jalebi drenched in sugar."
Yet, Indian cuisine is his favourite, he says, closely followed by Japanese. As for culinary heroes, his mother and wife are his favourites.
Bhatia feels a cook is a cook for life. "Food is all about life and you have to have good people around you to enjoy it with. When you cook with care, everything tastes nice. But you must also remember the base products have to be good — buy quality stuff — and never overdo things, even with presentation. Keep flavours simple. Anybody can become a chef — I became a chef. I didn't want to be one but I stepped into the kitchen by mistake and enjoyed it."
Dubai platform
Bhatia will also be present at the Taste of Dubai, to be held from March 17-20. "It's a great event because it causes a lot of camaraderie between the chefs and hoteliers and it's nice to showcase food to the right audience," he says. "I feel it's great for the UAE to host events such as Abu Dhabi Gourmet and Taste of Dubai. It elevates standards. The food scene in the UAE is changing and for the better. Five years ago, there were only a few fine-dining options. People were sceptical but I felt the UAE was the centre of the GCC, a huge attraction to people from India and Europe, and not just tourists. Thankfully, it has worked."
Bhatia's next destination is Libya and he feels it's a great place to open an eatery, as Libyans, like the Arabs, enjoy good food. "People from all over the world are now looking at Libya as a destination in all aspects, now that the sanctions have been lifted. There will be a demand."
Tips to cook Indian food
- Keep it as simple as possible. Use little oil and not too many masalas.
- Cook for a short duration. Stir-fries are not just healthier but tastier than mushy vegetables.
- When cooking greens, don't cover with a lid. They will turn black.
- Use garam masala right at the end, not while cooking. Garam masala is usually made with cooked whole spices, so don't need to be cooked again. It is only for flavouring.
- Don't cook whole spices in cold oil. Hot oil will diffuse flavours better.
- When making kebabs in a home oven, put the meat or chicken on skewers and rest the skewers on the edges of a tray rather than placing the meat in it. This will allow all-round cooking and the flavours taste better.
Bhatia has also written a book — Rasoi: The New Kitchen — available at all his restaurants. "It took me a year and a half to write. I never wanted to write but my wife said I have great ideas which I should document. But I wanted the book to be about food, not myself, and I've kept it that way. Also, what it lists will be quite easily available in the neighbourhood market if you wish to cook at home. It also gives a lot of tips and techniques about cooking Indian food at home."
