Kitchens around the world

THE FOOD CLUB

Think that commercial kitchens around the world do nothing but churn out food? Imagine that all chefs think and behave in the same fashion? Some of my chef friends reminisce about kitchens in other parts of the globe.

When Chef Ravitej Nath, executive chef of Trident Gurgaon, went to Hilton Beijing for an Indian food promotion, the first thing he noticed was that chefs there made their own tea first thing after reporting for their shift, poured it into the tall glass jugs with lids that are a common feature around China, and sipped from their own glass all through the day, replenishing the tea when necessary.

The contrast between Beijing and Port of Spain in the Caribbean was remarkable: there, each kitchen "" garde manger, bakery, Continental "" had its own boom-box belting out music 24x7. From time to time, chefs "" singly or in groups "" would begin dancing to the music, never taking their eyes off the range.

Bill Marchetti, celebrity chef, noticed the deafening noise of a kitchen in India, where shouts, pots and pans clanging and the roar of high-pressure burners contrasted painfully with the last country he worked in: Japan, where deathly silence and excruciating formality was the order of the day in the kitchen.

Chef Marchetti vastly appreciated the Japanese propensity of following a recipe to a T, because he never had to train them: just making the recipes available was enough. The same was never the case in China, he rues, where for some reason his chefs could never get a risotto right. Either they turned it into Chinese congee, or into fried rice: there were no commas in China.

Gilles Favre, executive pastry chef of ITC Welcomgroup, didn't expect his glass of white wine in Seoul: it's a tradition at the end of every shift in France, but he hadn't bargained for the sheer number of energy drinks and ginseng tea that did the rounds in the kitchen at Seoul.

Anyone celebrating a birthday or anniversary would appear on duty laden with cartons of energy drinks.

Chef Avijit Ghosh, executive pastry chef of The Oberoi New Delhi, was struck by the fact that every single chef in his workplace during his stint in Paris reported for duty with his own baguette.

Bought from a favourite baker, distance from home or crowd outside notwithstanding, the shift would start with bread being broken "" literally "" and eaten with honey and black tea. Tirath Singh of Old World Hospitality looks back with wistfulness at his contract in Nigeria where even the instant coffee was outrageously good and the freshly ground coffee mind-blowing.

But what does our own country look like to an expatriate? Chef Andrew Whiffen of The Oberoi New Delhi is struck by the sheer number of poojas. Prayers, according to him, are said for everything from new equipment to auspicious days. Marigolds and ladoos appear out of thin air, prayers are said, and then it's back to work as usual.

marryamhreshii@yahoo.co.in