I'm inspired by life,” says Vikramjit Roy, Chef de Cuisine, Asian Cuisine, ITC Hotels and Head Chef, Tian – Asian Cuisine Studio at ITC Maurya, as we sit down to have a meal at Nazeer Delicacies, a 50-year old road side eatery serving Mughlai food in Delhi’s R.K. Puram area. “I’ve been coming here at least once a week for nearly 15 years,” says Roy as he orders a brain curry, chicken nihari and dal gosht. He prefers to come on Fridays as the restaurant prepares nihari only on Fridays and Saturdays. While Nazeer is obviously a non-vegetarian’s paradise, it does cater to vegetarian taste buds as well. So we order shahi palak and channa pindi for me, along with tandoori rotis, dripping with butter.
“It’s all about the freshness of the ingredients,” explains Roy. Nazeer does not have a refrigerator except one to keep cold water and cold drinks. Every day fresh ingredients are bought and consumed. Nothing is kept for the next day. A philosophy that Roy believes goes a long way in ensuring quality and taste.
“The inspiration for putting a goat brain in my menu came from here,” explains Roy referring to a dish at Tian where a goat brain mousse is served in a coconut-roasted onion crust.
“I’ve eaten brain curry at so many other places in the city but the taste here is difficult to beat. It’s because the ingredients are fresh. They order only two brains every day. If it doesn’t get consumed it is thrown or eaten by the staff but not served the next day. I do the same at my restaurant. I order two brains everyday to make the mousse. If it doesn’t get consumed then we eat it but it is not served the next day.”
Roy who comes from a very small town in Hoogly district of West Bengal was always fond of cooking but had not thought of becoming a chef initially. He enrolled for a bachelors’ degree in English Literature and simultaneously registered for a course in Computers from the Indira Gandhi National Open University. But after a year he had a change of heart — even though he had scored well in both — and decided to follow his passion for cooking. Belonging to a middle class Bengali family, his desire to give up academics for something more vocational was — as expected — met with protests by his father. However, he soon came around and Roy joined IIHM, Kolkata.
At college Roy worked hard. While all his friends woke up just in time for class, Roy went to the butchers’ market early in the morning and forced them to teach him how to cut the various pieces of meat. “While my classmates were learning from diagrams I was actually doing it. I experienced such pleasure when a butcher handed me my first buff to chop,” recalls Roy.
While Roy was keen on joining the Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development as a management trainee post college, he did not make it. Instead he was offered an entry level job at The Oberoi, New Delhi. The deal was that after working for one year he would join the management programme. However, Roy worked at the hotel for over two years and then quit the group as he felt his creativity was not being given a chance to grow.
In a huff he joined the Eros Hotel in Delhi’s Nehru Place. “Everyone predicted my career was going to be over,” chuckles Roy. But he had different plans for his future. He soon moved to Tokyo, and startedworking at a restaurant called Okura. A year later he returned to Delhi and got his first major break at the Taj Mahal Hotel where plans were on to open the iconic Japanese restaurant Wasabi. Roy joined the pre-opening team and for the next five years ran the restaurant taking it to new heights.
But it was in 2013 that Roy feels his creativity was given wings. He was hired by the ITC to open Pan Asian at the ITC Grand Chola in Chennai. Pan Asian was a huge breakthrough, serving the kind of creative Oriental food that had not been seen in the country before. Moreover, despite Roy’s refusal to compromise on the authenticity of his flavours, Pan Asian became a huge success in a city known for its conservative tastes. It changed the perception of food, especially Asian food. The city was suddenly open to modern, progressive, creative food. “When I opened Pan Asian a lot of people warned me that no matter what you feed them they will end their meal by eating curd rice,” chuckles Roy. Realising that it was true, Roy decided to create a dish within the parameters of his cuisine to provide his guests with the satisfaction that only curd rice could. The net result was a yuzu probiotic yoghurt ice. A kind of sorbet made of Yakult with a texture of crispy Jasmine rice. “It gave you the comfort of curd rice but was nothing like it. It is on the Tian menu as it is very close to my heart,” he says.
More Than Just FoodThe thought behind Tian germinated in early 2013, right after Pan Asian was opened. ITC wanted to develop a home-grown brand for an Asian restaurant. Tian was the answer. “I had found my sweet spot which was to amalgamate not one or two but all these Asian cuisines together in one place and create harmony. For instance, at Tian I can do a Japanese technique with a Chinese ingredient, with a Thai flavour and a Pilipino herb,” explains Roy. Tian is a fun ride through the typical flavours from China, Thailand, Japan, and Korea with East Asian flavours.
“When we started Tian, the one thing ITC and all of us were very clear about was that we didn’t want to be a run-of-a-mill restaurant. But at the same time we didn’t want to be out of the reach of people. The idea was to not push the comfort factor of the guest too much but to push our techniques to introduce the guest to new levels of texture, thought, perception.” The result is a memorable experience where all the senses of the guest are teased and aroused.
“With our food we try to achieve three things a) it should tinker your taste buds; b) it should evoke some kind of nostalgia and c) you should have fun. The idea is to create experiences, to create memories for our guests,” says Roy.
And Tian manages to do just that. Take for instance, a simple prawn appetizer that looks like a board of naughts and crosses. The minute the plate is placed in front of you, you are transported back to your childhood. Or the rose dessert comprising of a cryogenated rose that you have to hit hard on your plate and smash into pieces before you eat it.
Tian offers both a tasting menu and a la carte. The tasting menu changes every couple of months so every time a guest visits there is a whole new experience waiting for him. While the last tasting menu was referred to as ‘Art on a Plate’ inspired by American artist Jackson Pollock who did abstract splatter painting, the current menu is based on the produce of a transit season — summers moving to the rains. Along with it the menu also plays on the whole idea of ‘Illusion’. Nothing on the plate looks like what it is. Whether it is cannelloni made of avocado sheets or an ‘egg’ created with coconut and mango or a lamb shank that is actually an artichoke braised and dressed up as a lamb.
Roy loves to travel and gain new experiences. He has interned at famous British chef, Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant and also worked for a few weeks at a restaurant in Korea to learn Korean temple food which is served at Tian as a special tasting menu.
“Every four-five months I travel and document food. I’m going to Shanghai soon. I recently went to Chiang Mai. I was there for 11 days. I documented 127 recipes of a Thai green curry. Before that I was in Korea for a month.”
Roy is dismissive of the whole authentic debate. “Today when people come up to me and say that the green curry is not authentic I show them my thesis. How can any one style be authentic when there are over a hundred styles? Who is to decide what is authentic?” he asks irritatedly. "Like everything else, food also has to evolve."
It's his desire to keep evolving and creating something new that keeps Roy going? “I’m a very insecure person. Whenever I see an amazing idea or pairing of food which is pure genius, I cry from inside. I lose sleep. I worry myself sick that I did not think of it,” he confesses. So what’s next for Roy? “I want to continue creating experiences. I want to create textures, imagination that doesn’t come to you.”
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