On the trail of spices with chef Raghavan Iyer

As a home chef and blogger to have an opportunity to meet any great chef is an awesome experience. I got the same opportunity when I was invited by my friend and fellow blogger Asmita to attend the interview of Chef Raghavan Iyer at Hyatt Regency, Chennai on 21^st March.  

 This interview was conducted by Mr. Rakesh Raghunathan, who himself is a food traveler, show host and musician. He used to travel all over India to research and document food, food history and heritage. He runs www.puliyogare.com with his wife.

 Chef Raghavan Iyer is a cook book author and James Bread Wining Culinary Educator. He has written 4 best selling cook books. Some of his works are The Turmeric Trail, 660 Curries, Indian Cooking Unfolded and most recent, ‘Smashed, Mashed, Boiled and Baked’. He was the host of the Emmy winning documentary “Asian Flavors”. Chef Iyer won James Bread award for his work in the “Indian curries, The Basics And Beyond”

In the interview he talked about his culinary journey in US. How he dealt with his early life at US. How he wrote books. His early life in India, success, books and so on. And this followed by a cooking demo by the chef

on the opodium

Chef Raghavan Iyer, youngest of 7 kids, was born and brought up at Bombay (now Mumbai). He said he belongs to a fairly board minded family where girls were also given equal opportunities as boys. He is very close to his elder sister who is a physician and she is the one who took the pain of sending him to US. He is very much influenced by his mother and grandmother. Here he also said in an emotional tone about his grandmother and her struggle.

When he moved to US he realized that he had to cook to feed himself. So he used his memories of the tastes and smell of his mother’s kitchen to turn his kitchen into a test kitchen. Sometimes he cooked so horrible that he couldn’t even eat. He said he was influenced by memories from past.

Upon asked about his journey being a cook book writer, he was always asked that he is not doing authentic Indian cooking but fusion cooking. On that he said yes he is doing fusion cooking. Indian cuisine is an evolving cuisine. It is a 6000 years old cuisine with lots of diversity. India was evaded by different rulers of different cultures and also colonies of many foreign countries. Each of them brought a certain technique and some ingredients to India. We took that and made a part of our cuisine. He again said he was not doing Indain cooking, but he was cooking dishes in Indian way. He said he never follow any trends. Like he never thought of going for millet based cooking but liked the most common ingredients potato.

Getting ready for the demo

He said he tried to cook and teach Indian dished with available ingredients at local super markets. So he travelled the super markets in different parts of US to search for the common spices. In the process he got five spices haldi, mustard, cumin, cardamom and chili. He cooked and tasted all the 660 curries and 41 accomplishments which was written in his 660 curries book. And also said sometimes simple food without any special spices can be made. There he mentioned about two dishes. One is Khar from Assam and another is plain dal from Tamilnadu. He said some ashes are used to prepare khar and while in dal only spice is haldi. So curries can be prepared without spices even.

There was a fun filled rapid fire round too. In this he said foam is most over rated food. Rasam he can eat for 365 days a year. He choose curd rice (thairr sadam) over pizza and sushi. If he would be deserted in an island he can eat rasam and potatoes for months together. He feels London is the best city for street food followed by New York and Mumbai.

In interaction with audience he was asked, despite being a tamil bramhin, how he cooked non veg dishes. Though it never affects him, many people raised question about it. He also said he knows the spices and how it will work with meats. So that worked for him. While answering question he said curry leaves is the most important spice for him.

After these interactions he gave a cooking demo. He cooked a simple vegetable stir fry. Here is how the dish is cooked.

Oil- 1 ½ tbsp

Halved urad dal- 1tbsp

Mustard- 1tsp

Red chili- 2

Curry leavers- 1 string

Bell peppers (three colours)- 1 ½ handful

Green chili- 1 (slited)

Potatoes cubes- 1 hand ful

Salt to taste

Haldi- 1tsp

Asafoetida- 1/2tsp

Chopped coriander leaves- 1tbsp

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Let it pop properly. Then add urad dal to stop further cooking of mustard. Then add red chili and curry leaves. Then add bell peppers to it and fry it. Then add potatoes to it and sauté. Then add haldi, salt and water to it and allow it to cook. When potatoes are cooked add chopped coriander leaves

cooking is going on

The final product

Me with Chef