Chefs who make the Food Superstars list are names you don’t recognise

It’s probably an exaggeration to say that chefs are now national celebrities but it is fair to say that they attract more attention than ever before.

Every time I participate in the Food Superstars rankings announcement function I am reminded of how much public interest there now is in chefs, though not necessarily the right ones.

 

The Superstars list ranks India’s Top 60 Chefs (from this year; it was 30 before) and the announcement is always made at a ceremony held in different locations. (It was Kolkata this year.)

 

   I am Chairman of the organisation that compiles the list but it does not necessarily reflect my own preferences: there is a process that involves votes from food writers and commentators from all over India and a jury whose identities are kept secret.

 

   Over the years though, I have found that I rarely disagree with the list in general and even rankings that seem a little surprising at first tend to be prophetic.

 

   This is important for the list’s credibility because these days you can buy most restaurant and food awards and some awards refuse to even consider you unless you first pay a large entry fee. Also, there is a lot of manufactured hype surrounding restaurants and large sums of money are spent on social media campaigns. There is an unwillingness among large mainstream publications to even acknowledge a restaurant or a chef in editorial columns without being paid for it.

 

   The Hindustan Times has long been the honourable exception letting me write what I like without allowing commercial considerations to intrude, in both the main paper and the website. When people have threatened to withdraw advertising the HT has refused to bend and in the era when it organised the Crystal food awards and published a food guide the HT always maintained its credibility.

 

   Since the early days of the Crystals two decades ago, food has become an even bigger business. More of us eat out than ever before and we long for honest opinions about where to go. But ironically, there is now more fake information out there than ever before.

 

   Chefs care even more about the absence of educated criticism than the rest of us. Most of them want recognition that is based on the quality of their food. Instead the good ones are often left behind: because the hype machine has taken over and chefs who are not particularly talented get celebrated. To be fair, this is a global phenomenon so the likes of Michelin or the New York Times or top food critics in most Western countries who recognise real excellence are much more prized than before.

 

   I have always taken the line that food writers don’t matter much in India. We may be able to briefly draw public attention to a restaurant but beyond a point, people don’t really care what we say: there wouldn’t be so many lousy restaurants going full only on the basis of hype if people really took critics seriously.

 

"One feature of the list is how it always contains many more chefs from standalone restaurants than hotel chefs."

   So it’s always rewarding when restaurants that have eschewed hype make the Superstars list. At number two this year was Ebenezer Johnson of Bangalore’s Farmlore. When he first made it to the list people kept asking me what Farmlore was. Now he is globally recognised for his talent by foodies and other chefs alike. At number four was Mumbai’s Gresham Fernandes who took a few years away from the business when the hype boom was taking off. When he returned to open the excellent Bandra Born he did not play the publicity game. And yet, his talent has won him national recognition.

 

   Even Manu Chandra, Bangalore’s most celebrated chef (number three on this year’s list), has a reputation for refusing to engage with influencers or to encourage any coverage that focuses on him rather than his outstanding food. Despite his slightly forbidding public persona Manu has always made the higher ranks of the list.

 

   I don’t imagine that Doma Wang’s is a name that resonates in many households in Mumbai and Delhi. But she was the highest-ranked woman on the list (number five) this year because she creates food that is as unusual as it is delicious: a combination of the cuisine of India’s Chinese community plus influences from the Eastern Himalayas. Doma is never going to have the budget to pay for a campaign to praise say, her Fried Rice which is made with Bengal’s distinctive Gobindo Bhog rice. But it is a remarkable dish by any standards. When Gaggan Anand visited her little restaurant two years ago he was blown away by her Chilli Pork and comes back for it again and again.

 

   One feature of the list is how it always contains many more chefs from standalone restaurants than hotel chefs. That is probably a reflection of the dining scene in India as a whole. But it’s interesting that the hotel chefs who do make it to the list are probably names you do not recognise. Karavali in Bangalore is one of India’s most influential restaurants. It was launched decades ago by the Taj group as part of an initiative to bring South Indian home cooking to hotel restaurants. There were other restaurants as part of this effort: Rain Tree and Southern Spice in Chennai, Rice Boats in Kochi, The Konkan Cafe in Mumbai and others.

 

   But Karavali is still head and shoulders above the rest mainly because of one chef who has been in the kitchen since the day it opened: Naren Thimmaiah. Naren is now an elder statesman among chefs and Karavali has missed the hype boom of the last few years. But Naren’s commitment to quality has kept it full and made it one of India’s best restaurants. (Naren was eight on the list this year.)

 

   I am sure you have heard of Avartana, the South Indian concept from ITC (the original is in Chennai but there are outposts in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi) but do you know much about Nikhil Nagpal? He is the custodian of the concept, runs wonderful restaurants in four cities but lets the food speak for itself. (If it was my personal list I would have put him even higher than 12, which is where he came.)

 

   At least knowledgeable foodies know about Nikhil. But I doubt if you have heard of Zhang Hongshen who makes Sichuan food of a quality that is on par with anything I ate in Cheng Du. Zhang speaks only a little English (he came to the ceremony with an interpreter) but if I ever want to go out for an East Asian meal anywhere in India I go to China Kitchen (at Delhi’s Hyatt Regency) every single time. And yet, hardly anyone knows who Zhang is.

 

   There are many others on the list who despite being low profile pursue excellence; the Delhi Oberoi’s Manish Sharma for instance. And in Chennai there is one of my personal favourites: Chef Shribala.

 

   In the long run these people have done more for food in India than celebrity chefs. It is their contribution that we must respect. (I know you are wondering who number one was but it was an obvious choice: Himanshu Saini.)