Master Chef Guang Cheng is at the Oberoi Hotel, presenting a special Chinese menu he has created for the hotel. Coming from the award winning India Jones at Trident Nariman Point, Mumbai, he is at the Oberoi, creating new flavours.
The menu he has come up with offers two vegetarian and two non-vegetarian starters, soups and main course. “We don’t have the concept of a pure vegetarian or pure non-vegetarian as Chinese food is a mix of vegetables and meat, served with noodles or rice. Almost all the dishes have a balance of 40 % meat and 50 % vegetables. We have vitamins and proteins in one dish. Creating a vegetarian here is not difficult. The only challenge is to alter the taste to suit the local palate. In some dishes I have used more herbs instead of seasoning and sauce. Even when it comes to the batter, I have used cumin and spices. We also try and make some dishes crisp as Indians enjoy them,” explains Chef Cheng. Keeping Indian tastes in mind, Cheng says, there are crisp corn kernels, (batter-fried corn kernels tossed in salt and pepper) and chilli Sichuan silken tofu, (wok-fried tofu with sea salt and Schezwan pepper.
The chef observes that Indians are “fond of paneer and are not so open to tofu, which is a staple in Chinese food. It is made from soya bean while paneer is made from milk. We offer you soft melt-in-the-mouth
tofu, which is worth a shot.” He also recommends the crisp turnip cake, made with radish, carrot (for colour) and rice flour.
Talking of the soups on the menu, the lemon coriander clear vegetable broth gets special mention. As the name suggests, it is made from fresh coriander and lemon extract. “It is a common soup, but good for this season as it cleans your mouth and the lemon makes you feel active and leaves you feeling fresh.”
For the main course it is Qing zheng shi you wang dou fu (steamed bean curd with black bean sauce), Ma la tofu (braised silken tofu in Szechwan sauce with shitake) and Xo jiang chao long xia (braised lobster in XO sauce) to name a few. The menu also includes noodles like the Cantonese noodles he fen (stir fried flat noodles) or rice like Jiang rong chao fan (ginger-smoked fried rice with vegetables, egg chicken).
Chef Cheng says he “became a chef by accident. I did not apply for a hotel management course. But in the application form, I wrote something wrong and ended up doing it. I did not want to change it as I do not believe in regretting on past mistakes, but to march on with whatever I am destined for. I decide, if I am to be a chef, I will do it with all my heart.”
The young chef has cooked across the world, from Bangkok, Thailand, Japan, Burma to Australia. “I don’t find it difficult, but discovered every place has something special when it comes to spices and local ingredients. That gives me a lot to experiment with. I love Indian food too. While I work here, I look at the local market rather than imported stuff. That way you always are creative as you also try and cook authentic food with little tweaks to satisfy the local palette too.”
And he believes in being a peaceful chef for “we are mostly like pressure cookers with a lot of pressure and long working hours. Besides that you also have to always increase your knowledge and have to continue learning. As I am from China, food becomes an experience of peace. The dishes I have added are those that can calm you down and make you feel happy and not overloaded and drowsy or pressurised.”
The promotion is on till September 12 at The Oberoi’s Szechwan Court for lunch and dinner. For details call 25585858.
