A message to my young self would be to travel more,” said London-based chef Alfred Prasad (the youngest Indian chef to win
Alfred Prasad
his restaurant Tamarind a Michelin star), who, along with chefs Vikramjit Roy (corporate chef for White Hat Hospitality) and Thomas Zacharias (executive chef and partner, Bombay Canteen in Mumbai, and social media influencer), was part of a panel titled ‘Food Safari: The Travelling Chefs’, moderated by Shonali Muthalaly, Sr. Deputy Editor, The Hindu.
“My first food trip was an excursion across France, Italy and Spain, across 36 towns and cities,” said Zacharias . “As I travelled, I realised how little I had explored India. After my first trip across the country, I realised how much there was to explore. I could do this all my life and still not exhaust the sheer diversity of culture and cuisine in India.”
Vikramjit Roy
Exploring helps these men in white go deep into cultures and discover new produces. “I was in Nagaland where I saw three dozen vegetables that I had never seen before,” said Zacharias. He spoke of a variety of crunchy cucumber and tiny potatoes called badami that look like almond. And in Majuli (Assam), he had tried an “intense” chutney made of river fish burnt and stuffed in bamboo and fermented for two years.
Prasad felt that despite India being a farming land, we don’t take enough pride in the produce. “I feel like crying sometimes when I see the quality of dhania here,” he said.
Roy said this is why it is important to bridge the gap between a chef and a farmer. “We are never taught about farming or soil. We don’t know the soil and the farmers don’t know what are we cooking.”
The session also touched upon sourcing ingredients, the supply chain, favourite dishes, and the best potato for French fries: pahadi potatoes.
priyadarshini.p@thehindu.co.in
