KOCHI: What do 18 years of experience in continental cuisine teach you? For starters, an enviable expertise in food from around the world. And the confidence to helm a large commercial kitchen that can whip up almost any dish requested by the diners. According to Satish Reddy who took over the reins of Le Meridien Kochi as its executive chef before the pandemic outbreak last year, the mark of a truly good chef is to gauge the preferences of the guests to serve their gastronomical desires on the plate.
With the hospitality industry slowly getting back on its feet, Express caught up with chef Satish whose vision for the hotel is to bring the best of world cuisine to its diners. The hotel is currently hosting the Mumbai khau gali food festival on Fridays.
Tell us a little about your background and your journey in the fine-dining sector.I was born and brought up in Chennai but my roots are in Andhra Pradesh. Even as a young boy, I was a foodie. I would be in the kitchen after school and experiment with recipes. Being a chef was a natural choice. I completed my higher education in Chennai. I have worked in Visakhapatnam, Chennai and the US with several high-end brands. My last base was Pune.
How did you get acclimated to various cuisines?
When I started, my focus was mainly on European food but the place where I was working back then emphasised Indian cuisine. So I would finish my work early and assist the chef whose speciality was Indian food -- eventually, that became my strength. The same happened with Chinese and others. Over the years I became familiar with almost all major cuisines except for confectionery. I have spent a good amount of time with each taste profile so I don’t think there is currently a gap I need to fill.
You landed in Kerala close to a year ago, what did you observe about the food culture of the state?
I found that Malayalis are very open to experimenting with food. There is a lot of depth and nuance of flavour in Kerala food. There is also a lot of preference for meat and the sheer variety and the number of non-vegetarian preparations is huge. Around 65 to 70 per cent of the spread we have at Le Meridien is non-vegetarian which was not the case in the cities where I worked before.
What is your stand on the fusion food trend that seems to have taken over the world?
I am a proponent of traditional and authentic recipes than fusion preparations. Also, a majority of what is being termed as fusion food is inspired cooking. For instance, the pairing of kheema and appam is quite divine. So I would like to take the inspired cooking route.
Rapid-fire
Any new dish you encountered in Kerala?
I found that appam or kallappam here is different from what you find elsewhere. Also the ada pradhaman and pazham payasam are excellent.
What is your comfort food?
Sambar with piping hot rice and fish fry on the side
One place in Kochi/ Kerala you want to dine at I have heard there is a small shop nearby which serves toddy along with all kinds of meat. I think its called Mullapanthal.