“To reduce the timing when you I always recommend always using a little salt – it will speed up the process,” he suggests.“If you have patience, your final product will be outstanding.” Born in Gwalior, a city in the mid-North of India, to Punjabi parents, Ghai grew up in a household with 13 people, as one of four siblings but his uncle’s family also lived in the same home.“I spent a lot of time between the Punjab and north India,” he says, so much of his food reflects these regions. As the youngest in the family, he would spend a lot of time during school holidays with only his mum.“She is the absolute cook,” Ghai says, whose father died two years ago. His parents were vegetarian and raised their children that way too.“In the old days you hardly got any takeaways or anything, on special occasions we used to go out to try different places, but most of the time it was homemade. “Every day she used to make some dishes from Punjab. Being Punjabi we used to have a heavy breakfast – parathas are very popular – so every single day she used to make stuffed parathas with potatoes, cheese, sometimes spinach, handmade with a dollop of butter. It was rich food.” He remembers learning to cook with his mum during summers with temperatures peaking around 45 degrees Celsius, although nowadays they can reach 50.“I still remember when I was a kid I used to make a lot of little triangle parathas, that’s very common in all households in India,” he says, and they’re on the menu at his Manthan eatery.“You need to crush it with both hands and you will see the layers, it’s very crunchy and crusty.” After school there was “no plan for hospitality” but he found himself at cookery college, where the restaurant industry seemed “very glamorous” and he trained at Oberoi Hotels.
Ghai says:“We started in the morning and there was no finish time – 14 or 15-hour days. But after college the main agenda was to get a good break from one of the big hotel chains – in those days if you started your career with a standalone restaurant there were restrictions for you. But the Taj was top notch. It was a very difficult task to get into a hotel abroad [though].” After a couple of years he told the senior staff that his “dream city” was London.“In our industry London is one of the biggest foodie hubs and all of the legendary chefs are from Europe.” Although he was training in Western fine dining, he convinced a senior chef to spend time to help him learn and understand Indian food.“After finishing my regular shift in Western food, I used to spend a couple of hours every single day in an Indian kitchen.” His breakthrough was with the Taj group, whose expertise was Indian cookery.“The early days were really tough for me – a lot of hard work on unlimited working hours.” In 2008 an opportunity arose to work with Atul Kochhar at London’s famous Indian Michelin star kitchen – Benares. “It was eye-opening for me,” says Ghai.“15 or 20 years back, there was a huge difference between the Indian market and European market. Your local Indian might not be showcasing the best of the cuisine, Ghai suggests.“The Europeans love to have their curry nights but there are 300 dishes on the menus of curry houses – the base will be the same and they use edible colours to make it different.When you order four things together you hardly find any difference. “Indian food has a lot of depth and it’s a vast country” – and he’s determined to do it justice.
Photo: Rohit Ghai, chef at Vatavaran
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