G Muthukumar, executive chef at Novotel Hyderabad Convention Centre & HICC, who has been involved with the hospitality industry for over 18 years, began his culinary career by peeling loads of prawns.
About Telangana dishes
Telengana cuisine can be broadly classified into two parts: One being the Nizami era influenced Hyderabadi dishes, the other from the rest of the Telangana region. Telangana cuisine has much depth and variety and offers an interesting array of food. I strongly feel that outlets and restaurants should promote the cuisine to enable food enthusiasts to experience and build a liking for it.
First stint
I worked behind the scenes, de-shelling loads and loads of prawns.
Kitchen @ home
At home, my kitchen is simple and is well equipped to make all types of meals, especially South Indian food – as it’s the house favourite.
Common mistake
Generally people are comfortable with preparing smaller quantities of food. However, when there is a requirement for larger quantities to be prepared, they get nervous and the situation worsens. Many households struggle to estimate how much food is there a need to prepare, and hence there ends up being significant wastage at times.
Likes to eat
I like the concept and taste of Royal Vega’s food.
Favourite part being a chef
In the hospitality business, there is much more expected from a chef than just delicious food. I enjoy meeting new guests. There is always a constant challenge to create new concepts, prepare good quality and delicious food. I love using my knowledge about food and innovating things in kitchen. I also love using different ingredients and flavours in my dishes. I have been attempting to cook tandoori dishes at home. Several months at it, and well, still trying to churn out the best.
Guilty food pleasure
I have a sweet tooth and I easily get attracted to new food and cuisines. That aside, there’s chocolate. One of my most favourite indulgences is any type of warm chocolate cake (preferably with hazelnuts) and a good ice-cream.
Food trend
It might seem strange but the fact is that the trend is going to be a co-existence of local and international flavours. Due to growing awareness, there is a huge demand of people wanting to try new and different global cuisines. People want to eat healthy food and are exploring at low calories options.
Underused ingredient
There are various types of millets we seldom use like little millet, Italian millet, Kodo millet, finger millet, Barn yard millet, pearl millet, etc., which are healthy alternatives. These are staple ingredients that were used by our ancestors, which we seldom consume in our present day meals and are also not aware of their benefits. Millets can be prepared by steaming it like rice or cooked as porridge. Presently we can get them in super markets and with any organic food retailers.