Spain on your tongue
HYDERABAD: Meet the chef who is a master of international cuisines but loves comfort foods such as the humble dal chawal. Shyamal Raju, executive chef at Arriba The Tapas Bar at Film Nagar, and Prost at Jubilee Hills, is a proud student of Michelin star chef Manjunath Mural.
For Shyamal, cooking is an art that is to be appreciated and devoured by gourmands and not the artists themselves (chef). While he would prefer gorging on plain old Indian food any day, he passionately explores its fusion with international cuisines. The chef gets candid with CE as he speaks about learning from the best in the business, what a tapas bar is and his current obsession with Spanish fusion cuisines.
Tapa or Tapas (plural) literally means an appetiser or snack, in Spanish. Here, one can see elaborate cuisines in small portions, each cooked and plated to perfection. “At Arriba, we have a Spanish presentation (tapas) with an Indian twist."
Manjunath and I have worked together to create a menu with a lot of appetisers served in small portions. It is perhaps for the first time that Hyderabad gets to taste a Michelin star chef’s specialities like a lamb samosa with some secret ingredients,” says chef Shyamal adding that their haleem, which is served in a very tiny bowl, is different in that they fry it.
The bar also offers delicacies like shrimp mushroom masala omelette and Calamari Frito, among many others, all curated by the duo,
“When we started training, I did not expect so much to come out of this — I thought being trained under a star chef would be difficult, but Manjunath proved me wrong. During his 15-day stay at Arriba, I learned a lot. He is humble and down-to-earth. Not once did he make me feel like I was training under a big celebrity,” Shyamal recounts.
“We worked together to develop an elaborate menu for the place. I got to learn various things when under Manjunath and plating was one of the things I gleaned from him,” the chef adds. Shyamal was always known for his Italian and continental food, but today, it’s Spanish fusion that he enjoys whipping up the most. “It was the Tapas concept that drew me towards Arriba.
It’s not just new, but exciting in many ways. I get to experiment a lot, and when there is experimentation there is learning, as Manjunath taught me. The Spanish fusion concept and teachings of a Michelin star chef have come to Hyderabad for the first time and people are loving it,” he says about the kind of response the place has been receiving.