India - great restaurants or great houses?

[Anna N]

Indian restaurants vs. great Indian houses

(This link is only good for 7 days from today - Jan 25 03).

I found the above article while browsing today's Globe and Mail (Canada's "National" newspaper ).

Kates suggests that there are no "great" Indian restaurants because great cooks were hired by great houses instead.

I thought it might make for an interesting and informative discussion.

[Tonyfinch]

It may well be true about the greatest cooks working in private houses in India but I would guess that that's not the reason for your problem in Canada.

It's more likely that Asians from the sub-continent and Africa who have emigrated to Cananda are more likely to be from the more educated classes and have professional aspirations which go beyond running a restaurant. They've gone to Canada to be lawyers, doctors, accountants, not to be cooking for a living.

The vast majority of so-called Indian restaurants in the UK are run by Bangladeshis, who are the poorest immigrant group in the country. The cooks are generally untrained and the staff work for a pittance. It is an area they can go into which does not require specialised training or qualifications. Do you have an equivalent immigrant "Indian" group in Canada?

[Anna N]

The vast majority of so-called Indian restaurants in the UK are run by Bangladeshis, who are the poorest immigrant group in the country. The cooks are generally untrained and the staff work for a pittance. It is an area they can go into which does not require specialised training or qualifications. Do you have an equivalent immigrant "Indian" group in Canada?

Tony:

I am not even sure there is a problem in Canada - I have rarely eaten in an Indian restaurant so can't comment on the quality of the food or service.

I am the least knowledgeable person on the subject of ethnic groups. I have been isolated in the suburbs for most of my life.

I found the article thought-provoking especially since Suvir had written so well about his own upbringing and the training of the cook who served his household.

The world has changed so much I wonder if there are still "great houses" in India and if these household cooks still have a place in the life there.

I wonder if, indeed, there was validity in Kate's observation. My curiosity was piqued so I posted in hopes of hearing from more posters from the Indian sub-continent who might shed some light on the subject. I wondered if it was isolated to Canada or if it was a world-wide phenomenon. I'm certainly not qualified to comment on this.

If the cooks in the UK are so poorly trained then one wonders about the possibility of superb Indian cooking in restaurants there.

[anil]

...................

The world has changed so much I wonder if there are still "great houses" in India and if these household cooks still have a place in the life there.

.......

I do not know about "great houses" What do you mean ? The TATAs ? The Ambanis, the Khoslas, The Jhambs,....... ?

Yes, there are many households where there are cooks who have been there for decades. Even after the death of my maternal grandmother (eons ago) the cook remained.

There is a cook in my brother's house, he is kind-of-young, but talented - I'll update the scene in Mumbai & Delhi when I take a trip in 02/03.

Tony's reference to cooks in UK, is very similar to many or most cooks in E6th St. in NYC; that does not mean that all indian restaurants in NYC are terrible.

[anil]

There is a kernel of truth (Or was up until '70) when people say indians do not have grand feasts in restaurants like the chinese do - Grand feasts, or banquest in Northern India, meant getting a "tent house" to put a grand tent in your back-yard, empty lot in the neighborhood; and hiring a cook a.k.a "Halwai" to prepare a feast or two for as little as twenty people or as large as few hundred.

Some of it has to do with ritualistic aspects of the occasions, and many with the dishes being served at these occasions are special to the sects etc...

[Suvir Saran]

Anil, thanks for the great posts.

Indian banquets almost always are at a much higher level and standard when organized at homes.

Certainly those banquets elaborately prepared at hotels or restaurants for grand functions are also of similar brilliance. But few elect to choose these as a venue for something memorable. But even as I say that, many a wedding feasts are served at hotels. And then again, the most memorable weddings I have attended have been catered by home chefs in tents created on the large grounds of the families home. India can be a bundle of contradictions and that is what makes it so special and challenging.

But I have had many an amazing feast at Indian restaurants around the world. They are similarly good and intricate.

I think a lot of this has to do with Indians really enjoying the idea of entertaining grandly at their homes. Just last year I was in Bombay and the key players of the hospitality industry were meeting with me to discuss trends in Indian food in India vs. the US. The unending and most amazing banquet was not hosted in one of the hotels (the owners or operating heads of most all the top groups were present, since one of the owners was hosting this dinner) but at the home of Dinesh Khanna. The meal was cooked by their chef and Mrs. Khanna and Indian food was discussed in the realm of restaurants and hotels, but we ate home cooked food even as we did that. The group of industry folk that wanted to meet me thought it best to spoil me with amazing home cooked food. And they did achieve that. It was a meal of a lifetime. It will be remembered by me as one of the top few I ever ate.

This should tell you how many of us Indians think of food and entertaining.

But again, restaurants are able to provide similar experiences, but may not be as frequently used.

Bad food is bad food no matter where you find it.

And it is safe to say that a vast majority of restaurants serving "Indian" food are either owned, run or managed by Bangladeshi immigrants. And many chefs (a very large number actually) are from Bangladesh. And what is interesting is that most of these chefs have had little if any exposure to Indian cooking in their country. And most of them never cooked or received any formal training. They fell into these jobs and have simply copied flavors, borrowed bad recipes and perfected them to taste just like that one they emulated. All of this has led to a cuisine that is not Indian and not Bangladeshi... it is somewhere between, if at all it can be called a cuisine.

And many of the Indian chefs you find are similarly not those who cooked in India, but again, immigrants that found cooking in a kitchen as their first job. With no background to cooking, little experience with restaurant dining in India, they have found this a profession that serves as an entrée into the job market in this new country.

There are those chefs that have been cooking for decades and have made cooking their profession. And it is only recently that in NYC we have had a greater influx of them. Bacchan Rawat (Bukhara Grill), Toheen Dutta (Banjara), Hemant Mathur (Diwan), Dhandu Ram (Bukhara Grill), Rajendar Rana (now working in Canada, used to be chef at Ada), Peter Beck (formerly of Tamarind and Chola), and the much venerated Durga Prasad (founding chef of Bukhara in New Delhi, whom most consider to be the grand master of Indian cooking in the world), Walter D'Souza (Utsav), and Vijay Bhargava (Sapphire, was founding chef of Raga, a much loved NYC Indian restaurant of yesteryears).

These men are chefs that have cooked with passion and love and with great respect for a cuisine that is as tempered in variety as their countries peppered history. But they are a very small group and often not as appreciated even by the operators of the establishments where they create great food for others to enjoy. It is thus no surprise that one hardly finds much written about them. Times are changing, and I hope Indian restaurateurs will soon realize the brilliants minds and talent they house in their kitchens and can showcase them as they most appropriately deserve.

When that can happen, Indian restaurants can move into a new level of refinement that will be redolent of the experience that diners come back with after dining in Indian homes of a certain flair.

[Anna N]

The meal was cooked by their chef and Mrs. Khanna and Indian food was discussed in the realm of restaurants and hotels, but we ate home cooked food even as we did that.  The group of industry folk that wanted to meet me thought it best to spoil me with amazing home cooked food.  And they did achieve that.  It was a meal of a lifetime. It will be remembered by me as one of the top few I ever ate.

This should tell you how many of us Indians think of food and entertaining.

Thanks for a really interesting post. Suvir.

But see the great cultural divide here - can you imagine a similar situation here in North America? Can you imagine a group of hospitality industry people having a convention at someone's home?

When I worked outside of the home and we had visiting dignitaries from overseas, we often took one or two of them home to give them a taste of our country and our home-cooking and they loved it! (not necessarily the food since it was pretty mundane but being in someone's home). They felt that they had a better sense of Canada than they got from even the best restaurants. But this was a couple of individuals not the whole group. I just can't imagine a similar situation here.

What about home chefs - do they migrate to restaurants or are the chefs you speak of as making a reputation for themselves, coming through the same channels as US chefs? Through a school? Is there a culinary school of high repute in India?

I am racking my poor brain to remember a cultural group that frowned on entertaining in restaurants - I know I came across someone who felt this way but can't for the life of me, remember who! I suspect it might be the Danes - but I can't be sure. Whoever they were, to take guests to a restaurant was considered by them to be a cop out!

Thanks,

Anna N

[Suvir Saran]

Whoever they were, to take guests to a restaurant was considered by them to be a cop out!

Anna, it is exactly the same way in India.

If you have the means, and a chef of great experience, and from a lineage of chefs, people expect you to entertain at home and with great aplomb. To do so otherwise is a sign of weakness of some sorts.

I would think that in these trying days for my parents in India, even though my father has been given a very short window of life on his own, it would have been easier to entertain guests at restaurants, but still, the kitchen has been producing meals of the kind one would find at the finest NYC restaurant for all those that come to see my dad. That is just what is done. They would not do it any other way, and friends and family would be worried if that were not done.

Panditji, has been in the family several decades. His elders worked for my grandmas family as chefs. And this tradition is dying but still common in homes of a certain kind. And these chefs are revered, feared and kept at a great altar.

Some do leave and open restaurants, but most often they have lost respect for their tradition in doing so. Most have thrived when working in private kitchens. The families they work with take on the role of the Medici's and they become the artists that are indulged. That was true in our home and those of most of those we know with chefs of similar standing and caliber.

Panditji, is an honorific for a priest. You can understand from that name itself, by which he was addressed by all but my grandparents that this man was in charge and full control. My mother treats him like a father-in-law she lost in 1979. He would question my parents about where they were going, when they would come back and why they came late... It was always funny for us kids to see him question them. Now that we kids have left, he asks my mom to dial the phone to my home in NYC so he can talk to me. And invariable he complains that they are asking him to not cook as many dishes as he used to prepare when we kids were home. We always came home with at least a handful of school friends and so each day, we would be a dozen or so eating lunch and many more for dinner. And this man and his help would create meals that would heal and liven even the most tired of minds and spirits.

And if you have such luxury available in a home, why would one want a restaurant? I would not. The only problem, chefs like him are now a rare breed. He is a treasure. And I thank him for having left me with a great wealth of knowledge, not only about food and its history in the Indian context, but also about India and its rich heritage. What is shocking is that the pizza he makes is way better than any I have eaten at DiFara's or Otto or anywhere else. Chuck was shocked the first time he ate pizza in our home. He said later it was an experience he was hoping he could have been spared, but now, whenever we are at home, pizza is a dish we ask for very often. My mom taught him the basics, and he has mastered the dough and sauce better than any other chef. His 60 years of cooking experience gives him great confidence and strength in doing things in a way only he can.

He also makes amazing cheese toasts and great macaroni and cheese. My cousins who would come from the US would need macaroni and cheese and so, 20 years ago, he learned how to make it, and now he is a veteran at that very American home style dish.

I was in Atlanta a couple of years ago, I was with a chef that was making a spinach dip. I saw them preparing it and I was not pleased. I knew this dip would taste mediocre and lack luster like what I have had in US restaurants. Quickly, I cajoled Ed to let me try making my version of the dip, and it became a hit. Panditji has come up with small diversions he makes in rendering these recipes from the west, but in doing so, he brings to them a depth of flavor they never had.

Why would one want a restaurant meal when you have such strength in your home kitchen? It is an easy choice. And I know my family and friends are happy to enjoy it as long as they have Panditji sharing his magic. He is now getting older and has cataract and misses us kids. But he has no desire to retire. My parents keep suggesting he should retire back to his village and spend time with his family and friends, but he is happy spending time in the kitchen of our home that he treats like his sanctum sanctorum.

[Suvir Saran]

What about home chefs - do they migrate to restaurants or are the chefs you speak of as making a reputation for themselves, coming through the same channels as US chefs?  Through a school? Is there a culinary school of high repute in India?

Home chefs got their training from families and come from a lineage of chefs that have only worked in home kitchens and in particular communities. They are very often Brahman chefs, if the home is Hindu. That was the old tradition. Panditji came in the wedding endowment my grandmother received. His family had worked with hers for generations as chefs.

Restaurant chefs in India are trained either through apprentice work in professional kitchens or through the many culinary schools and catering colleges.

India has a fair share of schools like the CIA, FCI or Johnston & Wales (sp?). They are amazing schools, some at par with their US counterparts and some at par with the smaller such facilities in the smaller cities in the US. Can they be as good as the best in the US? I would say no.. but they are great.

Gael Greene (New York Magazine) and Michael Batterberry (Founding Editor, Food Arts and Food & Wine magazines) have both traveled extensively in India and have always told me about the surprisingly very high standard of facilities found in Indian culinary schools.

But sadly enough, Indian culinary schools and institutions also teach mostly western style cuisines and food history more than Indian. Of course Indian cooking is a part of the curriculum, but not in the same was as one would expect. It is an elective offering. The core is similar to what is offered in the US.

Indian food has always been best in homes, and these schools not making too much of an effort to change that, has kept that trend in its place. I am told things are changing, soon, Indian food will be given more prominence in Indian culinary schools.

Indian Home cooking is taught privately most often.

[maggiethecat]

Suvir: Thank you for your beautiful post about Panditji. I loved the decription of the high-level cuisine he prepared for your family...also the pizza and mac and cheese!.

But even more, I was touched and amused about the way he grilled your parents about their comings and goings! How wonderful to have a surrogate grandfather, as well as a great chef, in your household. May he live and cook for many more years. I honor him.

Edited January 26, 2003 by maggiethecat (log)

[Suvir Saran]

Suir:  Thank you for your beautiful post about Panditji.  I loved the decription of the high-level cuisine he prepared for your family...also the pizza and mac and cheese!.

But even more, I was touched and amused about the way he grilled your parents about their comings and goings!  How wonderful to have a surrogate grandfather, as well as  a great chef, in your household.  May he live and cook for many more years.  I honor him.

And I honor you for honoring him.

He is a grand man. And he was my grandfather for sure. When my sister and brother went off in the afternoon to play with friends, I would sneak up to his quarters and lie in bed with him as he read me verses from the Gita, Srimad Bhagvatam, Puranas, and Ramayana, told me about the Quran, translated verses from the Vedas and Upanishads, taught me how to sings verses from these holy texts in their correct meter, sang me songs from his part of Uttar Pradesh (the region he came from in that state of India), he told me grand stories about my grandparents and their parents, stories my parents and grandma would have forgotten to share, and in doing so, he taught me more about my family and our heritage than school or books.

My mother thanks him every day.. for she sees me do things that she learned from my grandparents but is surprised to see me enact many seas away. It was a tutoring that money cannot buy.

This is me with Panditji whilst visiting Delhi some winters ago.