It's all about the wow factor

CUISINE

The staff at the celebrated Boxwood Cafe in London is awaiting the return of chef Stuart Gillies with some trepidation. The celebrity chef is in India "" Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore "" at the invitation of ITC-Welcomgroup to cook his trademark "modern European" food at the respective hotels, "to advertise" himself, as he says, in a one billion strong market, and also to take back with him some culinary influences: "I just love the tandoor," he says, "the way you slap the dough on to the sides ..."

And the result of such enthusiasm is that the host hotel for the moment, the Maurya Sheraton in Delhi, has promised to enroll him in two cooking classes; one, "may be" at Bukhara. Which brings us to why the team at the Gordon Ramsay Boxwood Cafe may have its fingers crossed. "They know that when I come back, I am likely to be struck by new ideas. I may snap my fingers and say, 'hey, let's just change this'. That usually throws them off."

The picture he paints quite fits the notion of the eccentric, creative genius. But Gillies is quick to correct any romanticised ideas. "The kitchen is like an army, you just follow orders." Everything needs to work in sync and with precision. So a beginner first needs to be rid of all "prima donna ideas". "When someone new tells me that he can do this, I am just not interested. I want to know whether he can follow a recipe. It takes about three months of mental toughening to get used to the kitchen "" you need to be constantly told that you can work harder, better and go with much less sleep," Gillies says.

Anyone who has ever seen Gordon Ramsay work his trainees in his "Hell's Kitchen" on the telly will know where Gillies is coming from. The latter is, after all, a Ramsay protege. But is the foul-mouthed terror (Ramsay notably aspired to a career in football and the rough and tumble seems to have followed him since) as bad in real life? "Now, how can I answer that... without taking away from his television image?"

Gillies, certainly much more affable, grins. He agrees that Ramsay's "delivery is pretty direct" but only to beginners. With colleagues like Gillies (who runs one Ramsay restaurant and is in the process of opening up two more), he is astonishingly restrained. "He'll come for tea and point out so little that you will be forced to take action!"

Gillies has then brought his own distinctive style to the restaurant that he runs. The accent is on fresh produce, seasonal menus and very light cooking"" a trend that defines modern European cooking today. Gillies remembers his days in New York where he worked at the iconic Daniel's, rated as one of the world's best, when the chefs would go shopping at the local market and come back with their ingredients in carry bags.

In London, Gillies has introduced a similar concept "" buying only from small suppliers and spending time with each of the producers on their farms to make sure that, say, the suckling pig or the baby lamb or the onions and potatoes are just right. At the West View, where he will be cooking for the next few nights, he will demonstrate this philosophy.

He's personally carrying a kilo of tonka beans (vanilla like) for a dessert and has made innovations like a cauliflower and lobster soup because he was told, on landing, that the cold soup planned for the menu may not be acceptable to Indians. "That's my mission "" to make India like cold soups!"

The challenge, of course, will also be to make India relish his brand of lightly-seasoned food where you can just taste the peas or the seabass, no more. And if that succeeds, we may have our very own Gordon Ramsay restaurant here too, "may be in the next five years," Gillies says.

But if what separates an actor from a superstar is the X-factor, what separates a mere chef from a celeb chef is the "wow factor". It is not sufficient for each dish to be merely good. Gillies firmly believes that there has to be a certain wow factor too "" in the presentation, if you like.

At the Boxwood Cafe, and indeed many other chic restaurants in Europe, high technology is aiding chefs. Hospital equipment such as water baths, used at blood banks usually, are now in kitchens "" for slow cooking. A biscuit of beef can cook in it for 12 hours, a pork belly for 36 hours"" with precision. Then, there are soda-makers used to liquidify veggies, fill them with gas, and the resulting mousse used to enhance presentations.

Wowed? Do you want to make a reservation with Gillies? Unlike six-month waitings at other celebrated counterparts, Gillies says that he usually manages to accommodate people. If you are a regular, he will go that extra mile too "" like, for instance, popping out to buy sweetbreads for a patron.

And if you don't like his cooking, don't worry. He'll just take back the dish, no charges. Unlike other exalted but volatile chefs "" Marco Pierre White is one name that comes to the mind immediately "" he won't insist that you know nothing and give you nothing else.

Celeb chef Stuart Gillies on his restaurants, his love for the tandoor and gordon ramsay