21 Oct 2020  |   04:15am IST

Chef de ‘passion’: The X factor that gives soul to what chefs cook

Chefs are now playing a bigger role in the hospitality industry, they are willing to take a bigger role. As the world celebrates World Chef Day, Café spoke to a few chefs to understand how they felt their jobs had changed over the years.

Ajit John

A restaurant is a performing venue for food. And many of these men and women are artists.. Present unobtrusively in the kitchen they weave their magic and occasionally come out to meet their patrons. 

Now of course in the days of instant satisfaction everything has changed. It can be safely said they are now playing a bigger role in society. October 20^th

 is celebrated as World Chefs Day and it is also a day when they spend their time educating kids around the world about eating healthy. 

Ananth Shanmugasundaram Executive chef at a five-star property in Arpora said the role of a chef had certainly changed from the time he started. He said “When I started, we had to learn the basic because it was not easy to get everything readymade. We learned everything from our seniors but now it is different. We step out to meet our guests and interact with them. Many of them like it when we step out and meet them and take their order. This has certainly changed the profile of the chef. And yes to receive appreciation for one’s creation from the guest directly is also special. This has certainly happened in the past couple of years increasing the profile of the chef.” 

Chef Shyam Longani from an international hotel line based in Benaulim who has been in the business for twenty-five years said life had certainly changed from the time when people did not know much about the chef. He said “When I started off all those years ago, people would not venture into hotels or more specifically five-star hotels. Liberalization in 1991 changed everything. People started venturing into business and everything began to gradually change. Most were not going beyond the halwai or the caterer. You have to understand food is a very important part of our culture and most of our happy occasions like festivals are centred around food”. He went on to say that life in India is not easy and the traffic, the pollution the politics in the office could grind you down. However, when you went to the hotel, the plate would give you happiness. The Chef, he said would greatly contribute to the experience. Chef Shyam said, “ When you see the expression on their face it makes you happy.” 

Chef Kushagra Vijay who is based with a five-star property in Calangute said chefs were now promoting their property and their restaurants more aggressively. He said “ There has been a dramatic growth in the hospitality industry in India. Earlier it was smaller and it was not a great platform but now the number has increased. We as Chefs interact directly with our guests and when we give them exactly what they want and we are appreciated, it is an appreciation of our art.  Chefs sacrifice so much for their art. When everyone is celebrating festivals we are behind the counter working long hours. That’s our life, we give so much for our art. Now many Chefs are coming to the fore and that is great. Everyone benefits.”