What’s 2012 cooking up? It’s in the stars. Or the star chefs! No, not those same “celeb” chefs unheedful that time crunches up puffed egos like rice crispies and laurels can wrinkle into wreaths. Meet chefs little-known, oft little (in years)
Hot Stuff…
Chef Afzal (Navaratna): U-turn if the head chef is away I say. So I almost stomp out of the Navaratna. I’m not having some 27-year-old sous-chef’s substitutes. Except, this 27-year-old entreats and dashes to the kitchen to dash out dishes before his performance is prematurely aborted. His kebabs, multifarious, are like a string of silk threaded down the gullet. Ethereal, like the week before, when it transpires Chef Afzal cooked. How exciting! I request he proceed. Except, the head chef manifests and won’t be dismissed. Alas, head chefs are easier to invoke than dismiss. Chef Afzal prevails.
On future Navaratna expeditions I insist Chef Afzal preside. The youngster from Lucknow who has diversified his repertoire cooking at 38 Taj hotels across India enlivens supper with his fascinating commentary on the provenances of dishes, grandeur of recipes and precision of implementation. Tradition sustains in curries as elaborate and sumptuous as a regal robe, a creamed cloak embroidered with spectacularly cooked meats, vegetables etc and sequined with spices. But it’s the age of the mini skirt and Chef Afzal also fashions skimpier numbers where olive oil replaces ghee/butter/cream.
Ravishing rasmalai is opulent like brocade. “I personally supervised the reduction of the milk over seven hours for that consistency!” he exclaims. Perfection obsesses him. But complain the starters were limp and curries arrived cold, he admits the crowds overwhelmed; he couldn’t cope. He isn’t too proud to acknowledge, “Sometimes the food can be 9/10.” But he’s confident enough to maintain the food never falls below 9/10!
Chef Manoj (Jetwing Blue): Cracking hot curries, sambols, lunu miris... We appreciate he hasn’t alienated locals by strangulating spices. Admirable too: dainty string hoppers closely knit like a basket, hoppers crisper than a grasshopper. One of the country’s two best Sri Lankan buffets and also one of the two best contemporised Sri Lankan cuisine 4-course platters courtesy of Sous-Chef Manoj and his inspired Executive Chef Kennedy.
They’ve extensive overseas experience, the latter on a culinary cruiser. Nevertheless, the international cuisine doesn’t compel (top-notch club sandwiches apart). Yet, when Western slickness shapes Lankan nouvelle cuisine, the duo unhinges lyrical compositions, adventurous juxtapositions, creative presentations and extraordinary Frenchified indigenous desserts.
Chef Shanaka (Heritance Kandalama):This sous-chef is responsible for the most outstanding Sri Lankan buffet. No feeble task when good Sri Lankan cuisine is suffering extinction. Poise and precision are contrary to mass-production. One expects oleaginous, overcooked outrages. Yet, this chef who promoted Sri Lankan cuisine at London’s Carlton Club squares the circle.
Chef Chamaka (Spoons): I hear about the 28-year-old in Galle. Encouraging when it’s not one’s bosses recommending… With four golds at Culinary Art 2011, including Most Outstanding Chef and Best Chef 5-Course Dinner, Chamaka’s heading for the Culinary Olympics. The five courses he presented me: Tasty. But the other two Ts, Technique and Texture, perhaps wanted. Parisian friends accompanying me on Michelin-starred reviews swear cuisine chutes when a journalist isn’t reviewing. Perhaps also when not for medals? Seemingly, chefs seldom regenerate that rigour competitions instil. Nonetheless, a cricket team is as good as its bench strength, so a kitchen is as good as its chefs-de-partis. Spoons has them.
Pâtissiers
Chef Kusum (Hilton Colombo): A chef stumbled upon quite fortuitously. Colombo murmured the glorious pastry gala at Spices and exotica at Curry Leaf can be variable. Yet, on-duty pastry chefs contended identical recipes produced identical pastries. But it’s the interpretation! Then, within a week I noticed regular pastries on buffets looked different (neater, sharper, softer). They felt different- the fork just slid into them. Naturally, they tasted different. I enquired about the chef. Chef Kusum was discovered.
When I effused about Chef Kusum’s marvellousness to Hilton’s F&B manager, he said, “We know. He has won several awards.” And Chef Stanley, Hilton’s new Executive Pastry Chef, agrees Kusum is his craftiest chef. Chef Kusum’s seemingly sugarless creations are all awash with sublime textures. Plethoric: Passion and white chocolate slice, strawberry pavlova, fruit pavlova, ginger tower, burned crusted chocolate, fudge dome, chocolate mousse balls, the best cheese cake… And surely the world’s best Christmas cake. Surely. I query with Chef Gerard opening his own pâtisserie, how they will continue with his recipes. Clever Chef Kusum repartees, “But you yourself keep reminding us- it isn’t the recipe but the execution!”
Chef Ravindra (Jetwing Beach): He wasn’t picked because he has won numerous awards. But because his pastries so impressed he was picked and then we discovered he had won numerous awards. And captained Sri Lankan at Asian Pastry Cup 2010 (Singapore). At fine dining Black Coral it was dessert that grabbed. Desserts can be light like a whisper. Chocolate is smooth like a bullet, sugar-quenched like the sea. Love cake is almond incarnate. The pastry chef is a mystery. Curious, I ensured I swung by before flying out, to meet the 30-something-year-old creator of the country’s best Christmas pudding and the second-best Christmas and love cake (Gerard Mendis’s remains unapproachable). He mightn’t be representing Sri Lanka at the Culinary Olympics, but he blazed a blind tasting ahead of colleagues in the Jetwing portfolio.
Chef Srimal (Jetwing Lighthouse): Awarded “Most Outstanding Pastry Chef” and Gold Excellence for his pastry show piece (Culinary Art 2005). This chef specialises in showmanship considering multiple local and international gold medals for pastry artistry (wedding cake structures and chocolate carving). Chef Srimal whilst senior pastry chef de partie and pastry artist at Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach gained from French chefs panache and pretty texture. He is now part of Gerard Mendis’s team to the Culinary Olympics.
Chef Anura (Ceylon Continental): We salute just-turned-28 Junior Sous-Chef Manoha’s unexpected, refreshing, Black Box triumph. And thought Ceylon Continental isn’t for pastries? Some of Chef Anura’s surprised me. No sugar swamps. No desiccated desserts. No hideous colours. Much majesty with king cashews burgeoning forth from dark chocolate fudge. Anis and ginger cookies evoke biting into fresh anis or ginger. Fruit cake: Nice. Full of spice. And, quality without the absurd price!
The writer is a freelance travel journalist who has contributed to international magazines and newspapers including Tatler, Conde Nast Traveller, Harper's Bazaar, Wallpaper, Elle, The Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Independent. |
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