Chef Sadaf Hussain on his love for food, travel and dreams of life
Sadaf Hussain, How and when you realised that food is the place where you belong?
I have always loved storytelling and the different forms of it. Food for me was always a part of the same universe. As a kid, I was always interested in knowing what I am eating and eat a lot of it. When I grew up, I along with another friend started Delhi’s first pop up cafe with the idea of bringing people together and giving them a platform to share their side of the story. In 2016, I got a major breakthrough with the MasterChef India and it was my time to shine and spread the food love to the masses through my work. At present, I run a food website called www.foodandstreets.com which is all about food stories. The food videos I do always have a sense of story and not just food. The places where I cook food, all of them have stories from my past or about the food that I have learnt.
My contribution to the food world would be the contribution of romance in food and my effort will be to keep that alive through my writing or simply cooking. I want to be a mix of a chef, a writer, a food historian, and a storyteller.
Sadaf Hussain, You are a travel enthusiast. How does travelling add to your skill of being a chef?
I am often bored and which makes me learn and acquire newer skills every time. Travel makes you live life on the edge. You never know what is going to come next, how life is going to surprise you. When I travel, I just don’t travel, but travel to explore and learn new things, be it the culture, history and story or the food. It makes an individual grow. You can be very comfortable in your space, but to shake yourself up, you really need to travel. I have learnt so many things from home chefs in the villages and chefs of fancy restaurants. One can learn the real flavour of the dish only if they have had it from the place of origin. They learn the technique and details. For example, if you have to make the best Bhopali Mutton Razala or Bun Kebab or Litti Chokha, you’ll have to go down to the respective states and meet the real people, the internet can never teach you the intricacy.
Sadaf Hussain, Any international chef you would like to collaborate with and why?
Chef Garima Arora and Jamie Oliver are perhaps the two of my favourite chefs I would love to collaborate. Jamie Oliver, because his style of cooking is very rustic and simple. He cooks food from the heart and basic food which is what I do. I don’t like to cook complex dishes which people won’t be able to understand. If my food is a story, then I don’t want to serve a complex story to people which they won’t be able to understand or digest. Chef Garima Arora, because she is simply amazing in her approach. The first female chef from India who won the Michelin star. She started with journalism, just like me and ended up becoming the best of the best in the world and also had the pleasure of working with the best of the best.
What is your dream in the food business?
My dream is to move beyond the kitchen. I am genuinely interested in spices. In life or food, we all need some spice to give an extra zing. I would love to have a range of spice powder which is not common. I want my spice range to be popular in masses and classes and also in the kitchen.
As a recipe curator, what are the things that you keep in mind?
It is very important to understand the ethos of the restaurant as well as the kind of customers the place is catering to. One cannot serve everything. All the dishes should be simple and something which one can understand easily. I try to add complex flavours but the dish in its look should look simple. It must be appealing to the eyes.
What is your favourite cuisine and why?
I personally like Indian cuisine and within Indian, I love Bihar and Lucknow. Both the places are poles apart from each other. Bihar food is simple and cooked with a few basic ingredients without must techniques as compared to Lucknowi food, which is full of flavours and distinct textures. Dishes from this part also have a very detailed and intrinsic technique.
QUICK PICK
Maa ke haath ka khaana: Biryani
Favourite dish: Bihari Kebab
Bizarre food trend: Confusion food, like tandoor maggi or Butter Chicken Pizza
Favourite chef: Chef Kunal Kapoor in India and Chef Virgilio Martínez Véliz from Peru
Best city in terms of food: Delhi
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