Rapid fire with celebrity chef Hemant Oberoi

Gulf News

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2KLvFUY  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos  Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Celebrated Indian chef Hemant Oberoi shares his dos and don’ts on food and cooking in this candid interview with Gulf News tabloid! at his newly opened restaurant, Martabaan, in Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace Hotel.  #India #GulfNews #food #Chef #HemantOberoi #AbuDhabi

Transcript

00:00Have you ever thrown a knife at any of your staff members?

00:03You don't seem to be the kind but have you ever pulled off a Gordon Ramsay on them?

00:07No, never!

00:11Hi, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News Tabloid

00:14and I have a fun assignment today

00:16where I meet the celebrated Indian chef Hemant Oberoi

00:20We are in front of his restaurant in Abu Dhabi at the Emirates Palace called the Martaban

00:25Come on in and let's see

00:27We are going to meet the Shanghai chef

00:29Hi, nice meeting you

00:30Thank you so much for meeting us

00:32and this is your new restaurant

00:34So now we'll do something a bit different

00:36We'll do a rapid fire with you

00:37I know it's a very steamy day for you since it's the opening

00:41but before we let you go, can you answer a few questions for us?

00:45Yeah, tell me

00:46What did you have for dinner last night?

00:49Last night we were doing some trials

00:52for today's and we have a dinner for the king of Malaysia actually

00:59and we are making the preparations for that

01:01so we were doing some trials for that

01:03And what's the most expensive ingredient in this kitchen that we are going to see?

01:09We still use truffles in Indian food

01:12But they are expensive

01:13They are expensive

01:14Everything good in life is expensive

01:16We have used the best of the crockery, best of the cutlery in this restaurant

01:20Oh, I see

01:21and best of the glassware

01:22I mean, we have not left any corners to be a very, very fine dining Indian eating

01:29So people must have the experience from the show plate, from the time they sit down

01:35from the quality of the cutlery

01:39We have used the air-cui, we have used the crystal

01:43and that's a short sizzle, there's a glassware

01:47Okay, so best from the world

01:49The Bernadotte, Reynard, every type of good crockery we have used

01:53And which Indian dish do you think is the most bastardised and shouldn't be?

01:59Chicken Tikka Masala in London

02:02I knew you were getting at that

02:04I was thinking that should be our answer

02:06Why so?

02:07It's got no relevance to what we serve in India

02:10Fair enough, I can't agree with you more

02:13Food that you are yet to master but want to, it's still a work in progress

02:18Life is about learning

02:20You keep on learning, it's a never-ending process

02:24So you keep on learning new things

02:27and I see all the youngsters doing molecular food and every food

02:34And I did the molecular food about 20 years back

02:37and I thought the liquid nitrogen doesn't cook food

02:43And even in your mouth it doesn't do much

02:45It doesn't do anything

02:46Okay, there's no taste to it

02:47There's nothing

02:48Have you ever thrown a knife at any of your staff members?

02:52You don't seem to be the kind

02:53Never

02:54Have you ever pulled off a Gordon Ramsay on them?

02:56Never

02:57Fair enough, that's very good to know

02:59It's good to be under your staff of course

03:01And what do you think is your favourite Indian spice that you use a lot perhaps?

03:07You see cumin is the base for most of the things

03:12But what we do is we make homemade garam masala

03:16All the spices are being roasted to different degrees

03:20And for various things it's a different kind of a garam masala we use

03:24For the lamb curries it's a different one

03:27For the chicken and the biryani it's a different one

03:30So to what degree the roasting has to be done and pounding has to be done

03:35It's a slow roasting process which we do

03:38Right, and one thing that you'll never cook

03:41It could be a shark fin soup or anything controversial

03:49I will never eat monkey brain

03:52I don't think anybody will

03:53But okay, is that a delicacy? Where is it?

03:55It was a delicacy in China and in Hong Kong till about 2025

03:59I will never do it

04:00So monkey brain doesn't rock the world

04:02And even the grasshoppers I will never

04:04Never try

04:05Okay, that's good

04:06Okay, last question

04:07What's the craziest thing that you have eaten perhaps?

04:13And you come back smiling thinking

04:15Wow, I tried it and it's good

04:19I can't even recollect

04:21But there are a lot of things I've eaten

04:24I've eaten even black ants

04:30Was it a stir fry?

04:31It was crispy fried

04:33Anything crispy fried goes I guess

04:35Yeah, so

04:39Till the time I was told I didn't realise that it was

04:43I see

04:44Brilliant, thank you so much

04:45Thank you

04:46And what's one celebrity that you enjoyed cooking for?

04:49You can name and glorify them as much as you want

04:52I think President Obama

04:54Was he gracious?

04:55Very, very, very gracious

04:57The couple was absolutely gracious

05:00What did you cook for him out of curiosity?

05:02It was about a seven course meal

05:04We had a warki crab which is on our menu here

05:07It's a South Indian one?

05:08Yes

05:09Oh, the Malayali in me is very happy

05:12It's an off take from there

05:15It's what curry crab you eat on the roadside with the shell on

05:18Of course

05:19I have taken out the meat from there

05:21And we serve it in the milf of the phyllo sheets

05:26And we reduce the balsamic with the cumin

05:30And we put it all around and we serve it

05:33Amazing

05:34He's actually given a Malayali delicacy twist

05:36We have meen porichatu on the menu

05:38Meen?

05:39Porichatu

05:40Oh, porichatu

05:41Fantastic

05:42I'm telling you there are so many Malayalis in this region

05:45I'm sure they'll be happy

05:46They have just skipped a bit

05:47We have alappey curry also on the menu

05:51The world is on a plate

05:52Yes

05:53Thank you so much for your time

05:54Thank you, thank you for being here

05:55Thank you

06:02You

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