Masterchef’s Sashi Cheliah faces his biggest culinary challenge yet: T Nagar.
The police officer-turned Masterchef contestant-turned restaurateur, whose indomitable cheer and imaginative approach to food has drawn fans from across the globe, has just launched his much-anticipated restaurant, Pandan Club, in Chennai.
Born in Singapore and now based in Adelaide, Sashi speaks often, and fondly, of his roots in Tamil Nadu and grandparents who hail from Madurai. However, he stresses this is not the only reason he chose Chennai for his first Indian restaurant, adding that the friendly city, simultaneously anchored to tradition and hungry for new flavours, is an ideal testing ground.
The location, in an area jostling with restaurants, is a busy, fairly conservative part of town, where businesses and residents are prudent with time and money, thus demanding a menu that runs on more than just star power. It also demands a vegetarian section that offers more than the stereotypical Indo-Asian holy trinity of potato-paneer-tofu.
The food has a robust umami flavour | Photo Credit: Johan Sathyadas
Sashi has armed himself to take on the challenge with an unusual Peranakan Malaysian menu, presented with classic techniques, inventive plating and his trademark enthusiasm. At the restaurant, a fusion of restful green hues, rattan and wood, cloaked in buttery yellow lighting, he explains how the chefs caramelise, char and grill seasonal vegetables along with typical Malaysian seasoning, to build them into rich, vegetarian —and often vegan — sauces.
The spring rolls are rolled in crackling bean curd skin, which is made in-house | Photo Credit: Johan Sathyadas
The Lemak sayur, for example, creamy with candlenut and coconut, is packed with flavour and still-crunchy okra. Its served with roti pratas so thin that they are practically translucent. There are spring rolls, rolled in crackling bean curd skin, which is made in-house. And a dark jackfruit curry, rich with black nut paste.
Manoj Padmanabhan has crafted a beverage menu that complements the food | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
“Though this food generally has a strong influence of shrimp paste, we are also able to extract amazing flavour through just vegetarian ingredients, like lemon grass, galangal and different types of chilis,” says Sashi, adding that he has focused on building dishes around local vegetables such as radish, pumpkin, okra and aubergine.
The Peranakans are Chinese who adopted Malay culture, so there is a strong Malaysian influence in their cooking. The food, which has a robust umami flavour, is often laced with fermented soy beans, fermented black beans and buah keluak, or black nut. Hence, running an authentic Peranakan restaurant in Chennai involves careful sourcing. For produce that can be grown here, like pandan and lemon grass, Sashi says they are collaborating with local farms. But about 30 percent of the ingredients need to be imported to guarantee authenticity. Including their signature anchovies, which are small enough to fry to a moreish crispness.
The restaurant has been done up in a fusion of restful green hues, rattan and wood, cloaked in buttery yellow lighting | Photo Credit: Johan Sathyadas
Over a bowl of of these anchovies, sticky with chilli jam, Manoj Padmanabhan, one of the partners at Pandan Club, explains how they travelled across Malaysia and Singapore, eating at multiple small local restaurants to build the menu.
The food is subtle, offering thoughtfully balanced flavours without being too unfamiliar | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Founder of the Big Bandha, which hosts pop up dinners, Manoj has crafted a beverage menu that complements the food — the highlight of which is a frozen margarita style Rich baba that treads a happy line between dessert and cocktail. Also try the Tebu Tebu, a refreshing blend of sugarcane juice, yuzu, galangal and coriander seeds. (I didn’t forget to add the vodka, and neither did they: The liquor license is still awaited.)
As Sashi places a grouper, slathered with sambal, on the table, instructing us to eat quickly while it is still smoky from the grill, he says they plan to have a lot more sea food on the menu, including locally-sourced sea bass, prawns and mud crabs.
We try the fried chicken, marinated in shrimp paste. A meaty rendang, fragrant with kaffir lime and balanced with palm sugar, is served with delicate webs of roti jhala. The food is subtle, offering thoughtfully balanced flavours without being too unfamiliar. The challenge with such a nuanced menu will be ensuring consistency even when Sashi is not in the kitchen.
Hopefully the succinct menu, which pivots on quality ingredients and focused technique, will stay true to its Peranakan roots. Dessert, for instance, is a charmingly simple ice cream sandwich: basic on the surface, till you bite into the toasty base, caramelised with butter, and swirl coconut milk ice-cream in an unexpected puddle of soy caramel.
Pandan Club is at Bazullah Road 30/19, T Nagar. Call 7871515515 for reservations. A meal for two is about ₹3000.
