Chef Olaf Niemeier is a lanky man with a spring in his step. Master of fusion, Olaf was named as the ‘Chef Picasso-Art you can eat’ by an American journalist in Taiwan and that is how Olaf wears his coat and badge. When it comes to discussing menu, he goes strictly by his book.
He likes to fuse ingredients but not his thought process, he might mince his food but not his words about any cuisine or recipe. Having travelled far and wide, his repertoire in fusion food makes diners wait in anticipation of what would come to the table. So much so that at Fusion 9, where Olaf has come for a fest, we gobbled a rarely done tenderloin heaping praise on the tenderness, the sweetness and the flavour of the meat, while wondering if he forgot to add salt to it. Along with it was a frothy cup of duck soup. “Tenderloin? That was Pork Tataki with ratatouille salad and blueberry onion ragout. The meat was marinated overnight with salt, soya and vinegar. Cooking isn’t all about the time it goes into the pan, it is about the journey till the time it reaches the pan,” he says and vanishes into the kitchen only to be back with a steel cooking vessel with traces of ash on the outer body from the long hours on the stove. The pan is half full with oil, with Indian spices floating on it; at the bottom are chunks of chicken with the skin on. Olaf describes the process of cooking the chicken in the oil on indirect heat to cook but without burning or frying the meat. “Once the chicken is cooked and fat extracted, it will be minced and mixed with other ingredients to go inside the Indian samosa,” explain Olaf.
ADVERTISEMENT
That Olaf is not a lover of harsh and strong basic flavours is evident when he says, “I don’t like most Indian sweets because they are very sweet. I would rather use the
Talking about his affinity to fusion, Olaf goes to describe the journey of his travels, his discovery of ingredients and the constant wish to fuse varying ingredients with each other. Discovering a love for and an instant connect with spices made his culinary journey a remarkable one, he says. No wonder he is a magician of sorts with the idea of fusing Asian and Indian spice with Western spices. “When I like two ingredients my first thought is on the method and technique to mix them. However, I am cautious of not spoiling it, so I cook them separately in the flavours of my choice and then work to integrate them,” he describes.
Though he does fail at times, most often he is on the dot with the flavours. Some failures, he adds, cannot be corrected, “but most are salvageable by including wine, sugar and spices. To be able to do that, the knowledge of each ingredient becomes the key. That knowledge includes an insight into flavours, aroma and quantity,” he defines.
ADVERTISEMENT
Asked to describe the magic of Indian spices. he is quick to counter with “Is there any example better than the gram-masala ?”
How would Olaf describe love for good cooking? “It is like the way you love your partner. Patience, understanding, gentleness and eagerness to be with him/her. If a relationship is like a duty, the experience isn’t worth talking about, the same goes with the heart and soul in the kitchen,” he clicks his tongue.
Olaf will be in Hyderabad till February 8 for the fusion fest.