Returning to local kitchens tucked away in the smaller towns and villages is what makes chef Ananda Solomon turn out that perfect dish.
He has a national award from the Ministry of Tourism under his belt, or should we say chef’s cap, but Ananda Solomon, executive chef of Taj President and corporate chef of Taj Premium Hotels, admits that awards are not everything. “A satisfied customer in my restaurant is a bigger achievement for the chef in me,” says the 52-year-old with quiet pride.
Mangalorean by birth, an affinity to Konkan food, says Solomon, “was in my DNA”. However, his interest in food took him to kitchens beyond his own home. “I spent months researching coastal cooking, what local women cooked in their kitchens, so I could recreate the same flavours for my customers in any kitchen I worked,” he reasons. The months of hard work and experimenting paid off, and the result was Konkan Café, a restaurant in the Taj President (Mumbai), which continues to serve delicious coastal seafood, including peppered Karwari mutton, steamed fish in turmeric leaves, vindaloo and more. Modelled after a typical Mangalorean kitchen, this restaurant also has fresh seafood on display and an open bread kitchen.
Solomon knows that the real charm of serving food to aficionados in urban India lies in tweaking traditional recipes that continue to be used in the villages and smaller towns of India. Which is why, his training methodology, too, is different. Every new batch of chefs at Taj, for instance, is taken not into the five-star hotel’s kitchens, but to local regions where they can sample original cooking styles, learn about local ingredients and, most important, enjoy the experience before embarking on their own culinary journeys. “Till date, I use iron casts to make appams in my kitchen, which is the traditional way of doing it. These appams have a distinct taste, far better than those made in the non-stick woks that are sold in supermarkets,” he notes.
A graduate of Dadar Catering College, Mumbai, Solomon has travelled the globe learning the nuances of food, studying the best meats and vegetables, learning not just how to cook them but also how to “buy and cut them”. No wonder all the pastes and the different types of sauces (required on a daily basis) used in his restaurants are made under personal supervision. “I measure the ingredients in pastes; this is critical in getting a dish right,” says Solomon. Not surprisingly, he thinks his signature dish should be the curry pastes, especially the Konkan and Thai pastes, which are prepared by him alone.
While cooking is more than just a profession (“Preparing food is a spiritual experience — a harmony of many flavours put together,” he says philosophically), Solomon likes travelling with his family. “Getting away from the city crowds to visit temples on the west coast, on the borders of Karnataka, is a must-do activity every year. The whole family sets off on these yearly visits to temples,” he smiles. And, along with keeping a watchful eye on what vegetables and meats come to his kitchen fridges, the master chef ensures that he keeps himself updated on business and current affairs around the world.
While Solomon’s advice to his team is to adopt painstaking traditional practices while preparing any dish, it’s no surprise that he continues to get inspired by his mother’s style of methodical cooking, which results in that perfect dish.
And while the pressures of the job are high — he also has 33 executive chefs to supervise — he admits, “There’s no shortcut in our profession. It takes a minimum of 10-12 years to achieve some degree of finesse in the food you prepare.”
While he’s proud to note that his restaurants continue to remain packed on weekdays, too, Soloman has been kept exceedingly busy by the opening of the Vivanta, a brand new Taj restaurant in the Maldives. He reckons there’s stiff competition outside the realms of his own kitchen and candidly admits his admiration for Maurya Sheraton’s Bukhara in New Delhi. “It is a legendary restaurant and it’s been 35 years since its inception, but the taste has been consistent throughout the years,” he notes. His next challenge is to serve authentic Brazilian and Mexican food across Taj restaurants by the end of this year. And though he admits to having a short fuse, cooking, Solomon says, helps to make him a more tolerant person.
FAVOURITE RECIPE
Crusted John Dory, Garlic Mash And Scallion Relish With Mustard Sauce
Method
- Marinate the fillet of John Dory with olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard and garlic. Mix all the dry ingredients together to make a fine mixture.
- In a greased baking dish arrange the John Dory. Topping it with the mixture, cover it with silver foil and cook it in a preheated oven (250° C). Remove the foil after 10 minutes.
- Once the crust turns golden brown in colour, remove the fish and serve.
- For the garlic mash, boil the potatoes with skin. Once cooked, remove the skin and mash the potatoes completely, adding in the butter gradually and grated nutmeg. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve to get a a smooth potato mash.
- Finely slice the garlic and arrange it in a baking tray. Sprinkle a little salt over it and bake it in the oven till crisp at low heat (180° C).
- Add in the roasted garlic to the mash when it is hot.
- For the scallion relish, thinly slice the scallions and gherkins. Mix them and add olive oil and seasoning.
- In a hot pan, lightly roast mustard seeds and crush with rolling pin.
- Heat a pan, add in a little butter and crushed mustard seeds. Add cream to the crushed mustard seeds, season and take it off the flame. Add the egg yolk and serve.
Crusted John Dory John Dory fillets 4 Fresh bread crumbs 50 gm Parmesan cheese 30 gm Garlic, chopped 3 gm Parsley, chopped 3 gm Salt To taste Pepper To taste Olive oil 1 tbsp Garlic Mash Garlic pods 1 Potatoes 400 gm Butter 300 gm Nutmeg 5 gm Salt To taste Scallion Relish Scallion (julienne) 100 gm Gherkin (julienne) 40 gm Mustard Sauce Mustard seeds 10 gm Mustard paste 8 gm White wine 5 ml Egg yolk 1 Fresh cream 150 ml Salt To taste
