Suvir Saran

I was a singer and I performed on stage, on the radio and television in India as a young teen. I also competed in inter-school and inter-state music and recitation competitions. I also gave my Visharad exam (Classical Indian Music equivalent of a Bachelors degree in Music) and began my Alankar (masters), and through all of this I realized that I had to first learn music and understand it for myself. If I could not do that basic, I would never be able to make any worthy impact as a singer in my own right. When I sang in public settings, when I competed or when I was graded, I always sang as best as I could, to make my own sensibilities proud and also to feel I had done my art proud. I would sing imagining that maybe the singers that I admired would be listening to me and I always thought of what they would think of how I respected this art we each practiced. I sang from my soul, I sang to please my soul and I sang for I wanted to excel in the art I loved as much as I loved my live and my involvement in all things artistic and wonderful. I was lucky to win many accolades, I was lucky to have been found and at times given my few minutes of fame. But above all, I slept happily and sang happily for I did it with complete devotion to my art. If I was only interested in giving the audience what they wanted to hear, the examiners what they wanted to judge my talent by and myself a temporary high, I would not have given my art several hours daily and a dozen very young years. Whist my peer went to dance parties, discos and night-clubs, I would be in my room reading books on the history of music, chatting with my grandmother (a great singer herself) about the experiences she had had... and practicing my art for the sake of making myself better. It was not done for an audience. The audience just happened to be there. Of course, when I was being paid to perform a certain piece, I would deliver what was expected. But it was also up to me to make it even better than what the party paying expected. It could not be different, it could not be a mere joke in the name of innovation, it had to be an evolutionary step in the direction that would least affect people in the wrong way, but could haunt them as a slight change that ultimately was pleasing. My examiner for the Visharad exam gave me a 94% score. It made most of my fellow students hate me instantly. What made it worse was that I was least interested in the score. He told my mother who was waiting (she was somewhat nervous for all other students, including my sister who was giving the same exam had already come out) to pick me up that he had never met a young singer who was so carefree and without any fear. He told my mother that with my eyes closed and in love with my art, I gave the three examiners every answer they expected of a student and without ever having to ask me for them. Since the exam is planned without a time limit, in my first piece, I sang for an hour and 20 minutes, over an hour more than all other students. And h said in that one piece, I gave them a sampling of all the techniques they were looking for. The next few pieces they asked for me to sing he said were for their selfish pleasure. I feel I was lucky that I was examined and graded by a threesome that was very generous. Also I was lucky that they were not looking at a clock. I was wrong to have sung that long.. But with my eyes closed.. and lost in time and art, I had forgotten everything else. I had forgotten that the show was theirs to control and yet I gave them a show that impressed them for it was deeper than a mere exam. I have dined in restaurants where chefs that want to share with me their new dalliances will add course after course to what I have ordered simply to share with me their proud new innovations. But in doing so, they gave me what I came looking for and then added so much more to my experience. If they had only given me what they thought I eat, and if it did not meet my liking, I would have much greater trouble in forgiving them. But a clever chef will do what I describe and make converts out of his diners. A much smarter thing to do. My point is that it is not egotistical to spend time by oneself in the furthering of ones art. And it only becomes so much more poignant when that art is one that others indulge in and find happiness in. We owe it to ourselves and those that rely on us for inspiration to spend time with our art, our thoughts and our talent to first make them find a home in our minds, then a design that works in the structure of our own home (mind and taste in this case) and finally share them with those that can partake in our offerings.

I was not even suggesting that the artist has to please themselves or their patron. I was referring to an artist knowing themselves and the power vested in their art and their ability to influence themselves and others by it.

This thread may help answer some of what I meant. I am too dense. I didn't find the answer there and have only come up with another question. You say, "A good artist is a natural at changing and adapting with situations and times. They are not bound by the limitations of the diner. Does that mean you are only cooking for yourself? Many years ago I was a fairly good guitar player and there was a point where my ego overcame me and I played more for myself than those who came to listen and dance. It was almost always well received, but I look back at that now and bow my head with the thought of having such an attitude. And then... you have to please yourself before you can please others. It's a difficult situation when you are trying to gain humility. The diner comes into a restaurant with expectations. The chef does not have that burden. A good chef must give the diner what they expect.. And to that add more. If a chef really wants to share something new and wonderful, the chef must give the very minimal that a diner may want from them... or what they have come to know about that particular chef... and if the chef has been creating something new, the chef certainly can add more courses at the restaurants expense to share with the diner what they are doing. This should happen until that time when this chef is recognized by diners and reviewers as having now moved on into another phase of their artistic career... and so, the diners will then come to this artist’s home with new expectations. And a chef (the artist in this case) has the place of power in a restaurant. The diner comes with expectations, desire, and yearning, for status or whatever... It is the chef’s call to send the diner back home having experienced what they came for. Sum chefs can only deliver what one expects of them. And they certainly deliver it well. Others under-deliver and some exceed even the very high expectations of their diner. So, the key to a chef’s success and talent and magic is placed in the chef’s own hand. I am not suggesting that the diner is not important, all I am suggesting is that the diner is there... and for a reason, the chef now has to show their own wizardry by giving the diner everything they expect and want and perhaps even more.

Thanks Rhea_S! You know, in India we make a halwa out of semolina (Sooji Halwa) that is very similar to what you speak about. Also there are certain communities in Northern India where they make Gujias differently from the rest. Gujjia is a sweet turnover pastry. It is stuffed usually with Khoya (evaporated milk fudge) and dried fruits and nuts. In some communities, they stuff it with a semolina halwa like what you describe. In fact at Tamarind, they were serving an awful version of it. I had a better version that was served all of a few days... but the management decided not to use the pastry chefs better skills at making this dessert and instead kept the poor recipe given by the chef. But when Gujiia is made well, they are delicious. In India we deep fry gujjia.

Thanks Cathy! I agree the cake would not look attractive in the 9x13 pan... I will stick with the 9x6 and the small crack. It is far more attractive to the alternate. And the size of the pan explains the difference in baking time. Thanks!

In the thread on excellence in the cooking forum, link given by me above, I found yet another great example that would work in this discussion. I am sorry I am borrowing from these others to make my point. But they are saying what I would like to with such perfect erudition that I would be a fool to ignore them. QUOTE (Varmint @ Sep 30 2002, 01:39 PM) "Innovation that doesn't work, however, is the worst. I think culinary innovation should be evolutionary, not revolutionary. When someone tries to turn the gastronomic world upside down, it usually is too far gone for me. It must, after all, taste good."

WOW!!!

Yvonne, you write beautifully. "Memory is fallible and highly malleable." How poetic that sentence is. I enjoy your posts a great deal.

Thanks for the recommendation. I must try and get this book.

Sound nice. Would you have a recipe for it? I have friends from MO and this may be a great house gift to bring them when I visit...

I respect and admire chefs that are always learning, creating, innovating, experimenting and imagining newer ideas and possibilities. Theirs are lives I want to follow and understand. But the chefs that use those above qualities as mere facades for gaining attention and yet have little substance cannot fool me and unfortunately for them, as also for me (for I am so jaded), I have little patience to try and find meaning in what lacks even skin-deep elegance or substance. Shall I stop before I lose you (or myself) again?

QUOTE (Simon Majumdar @ Sep 30 2002, 11:21 AM) "I think there is a big difference between those who are excellent because they constantly look to improve and never accept that they should stand still and those who use innovation as a front to their own lack of talent." Simon was far more eloquent and erudite in saying what I also meant above. Does my sentence make more sense now?

This thread may help answer some of what I meant.

I am baking two batches of this for an event I am hosting at home tonight. If there is anyone with ideas about how I can fix that one very small issue... I would be glad to hear those tips...

A question for the trained pastry chefs and bakers... I made the pistachio cake.. It came out amazing.... I have been hearing about it ever since... everyone loved it.. The beautiful aroma of the cardamom against the pistachio oil is brilliant.. It was emanating all through the meal. The cake was baked in a bread pan (9x6), and the finished cake had a slight crack in the center. How can one avoid that? What did I do wrong? It baked perfectly (well it took much more time than what the magazine wrote) and tasted Grand and has an Amazing texture. But just aesthetically, it had that one fine crack that was around 5 inches long.. Not wide at all. Any tips?

It's a cake mix brand, Suvir. I used to adore Duncan Hines brownies - hot from the oven, with that crusty top. But they don't taste (or smell) the way they did when I was a kid. Changes both in the DH formula and my taste buds, no doubt. I did not know the brand name.. Sorry! Just the other day... a friends niece, a freshman at NYU prepared brownies from a mix such as what you have named for me here.... They were good.. great texture.... nice and gooey... but like you.. I would have loved them when they were first packaged... and when I was a freshman myself.... Now my taste buds have been corrupted, my innocence lost and I have few simple things that make me smile... But for several moments.. as I chowed down those Brownies she made... I was in heaven... and then I was craving Valrhona and that other stuff.. and smells and tastes these brownies did not have....

Is it a brand of chocolate? Or is that a chefs name?

When I was a student in Bombay, I would go several times a week to this dessert place... the name escapes my mind now.. will have to make calls to friends in Bombay.. and at this place, we would eat Brownies a la mode. They were spectacular. Home made vanilla ice cream and rich chewy plain brownies.. I was in heaven... But now that I have been spoiled by real chocolate, I often wonder how happy I would be with those brownies if I were served them again. Perhaps for nostalgia alone I would still like them in some way.

I have read about him and heard about him. He worked in the area that our friends Maharaja Richard Holkar and Maharani Sally Holkar came from. And yes in India, at least in "Kitchen Gardens", great attention is paid to the hygiene and health of the soil. For t he very reason you speak about.

Very well put Simon.

Yes.

I must thank mhadam for a wonderful recipe and suggestion. My host called to ask me for the recipe. She loved the cake. Also my thanks to all that posted ideas. I will use them in the weeks to come. Thanks!

Little if any talent or substance can put one in the limelight. That is sad but true. But it is impossible to be excellent without innovating and changing with time.

To be an outstanding and pioneering chef, one must go beyond the existing standards. One has to experiment daily (at work, at home and in sleep and during travel) about how one could do things differently that would only further elevate ones art. To stop thinking afresh and for new possibilities is to lose ones standing as an artist. At that point, one is no better than the best person copying them. A good artist is a natural at changing and adapting with situations and times. They are not bound by the limitations of the diner. And a good artist becomes even better when they keep their experimentation private till it is everything they want it to be. And when at that point, they share it with pride rather than hesitation and a temporary need to be acknowledged, they are able to find recognition as a pioneer that is far more lasting than any praise that is only momentary.

It is exactly the same potato salad that made me wonder for years if I would ever eat a tasty mayo based potato salad. And after eating Ed's version, I have become a convert, but also spoiled for life. Few versions stand upto his. I simply get myself invited to his home when I have a craving. He is not a lazy cook.