On the trail of spices with Chef Raghavan Iyer - exploring Indian cuisine from a unique lens

Having been invited to this interview/exploration of Indian cuisine held at the Hyatt Regency, Chennai, I was eager to attend. I'd never heard earlier about Chef Raghavan Iyer and his efforts to unravel Indian cuisine to those eager to master it. During the interview hosted by Rakesh Raghunathan (more about him below), the Chef revealed to us interesting stories of his time in India before he left for the States to pursue his dream at the age of around 21. Although he started with a degree in Chemistry in the US, he ended up in the food industry out of his passion for food. 

Chef Raghavan hails from a typical Tambrahm (Tamil Brahmin) family but moved to Bombay with family due to personal circumstance. Being the sole male in his family, he spoke of the incredible strength his mother and sisters had shown while raising him. His culinary style is influenced from the early memories he has of the varying vegetarian cooking happening in a traditional Indian household. Cooking starts right from early morning with preparation for many dishes planned days in advance. Ex: Dosa and its batter that needs to be fermented.





Favorite Indian Dish?

Even after all these years he holds the humble rasam in highest regard. It is his favorite Indian dish he says, one that satisfies on all counts. And he loves the humble potato in its various avatars in the Indian kitchen. He hates the word curry being used carelessly sometimes and explains that a "curry" is the culmination of the magic that spices and the cooking process yield! Definitely share his views on that! 

Some cooking wisdom from the Chef during the interview and later the short cooking demo we had:

• Spices are a complex lot. You get EIGHT different final flavours depending on how you treat the spice. Always buy whole seed spices where you can either use them plain, roast em whole and grind em, soak em in water and grind, saute them in fat and grind them. Indeed, powdered spices lose most of their potency after a short while as I've found too. 

• When cooking a favorite dish of yours for a larger number of guests, one has to be extra careful. It's not just the recipe that has to be scaled when cooking a larger batch since there are more factors affecting the cooking process! Watch for how the spices change color or aroma and cook proactively rather than blindly following a recipe without understanding it. Cooking utensils, heat of the flame everything changes in a different kitchen as well so be careful! 

If you want to learn a lot more such interesting techniques that define Indian cooking, you should try his award winning cooking course on Craftsy or get one of his much acclaimed cook books that's on Amazon that teach you to make an authentic Indian curry, in fact hundreds of them! He touched upon the arduous yet rewarding journey of testing these recipes. He's personally tested every single one of the printed recipes over a period of 18 long months for his acclaimed book "660 curries" (Highly rated on Amazon.com by hundreds of customers.) Chef Iyer definitely knows a thing or two about how to achieve the perfectly flavoured curry! Beginner and even experienced learners of Indian cooking will benefit from one of his cook books. The other acclaimed cook book he's written is "The Turmeric trail: Recipes and memories from an Indian childhood" that's influenced by the Indian food that shaped his palate at Bombay (where he grew up.) He's even written a book under the Betty Crocker banner on Indian home cooking, an achievement he finds amusing due to the brand primarily focussing on American cooking. 

More about Chef Raghavan

A highly awarded person in the food industry, he's hosted Emmy award winning food shows, consulted with numerous restaurants and associations. He's also the winner of the coveted James Beard award also known as the "Oscars of Food" for his video webcast, "Indian curries: The basics and beyond."

About the event's host Rakesh Raghunath: 

Our host Rakesh is another interesting person actively exploring the length and breadth of our country scouring for authentic food preparations. He has a venture called Puliogare travels where he traces and explores traditionally Indian foods made in kitchens and temples across South India. He hosts a food/culture based TV show called Sutralam Suvaikalam on News 7 Tamil channel. A very interesting show that seeks to in his own words present Indian cuisine from the point of view of an Indian rather than the usual foreigner who presents it to us. Planning to watch more of the episodes of this show thats available on youtube.  

Chai Kadai, below Al Faham restaurant, Kovalan muthu st, Periamet

There's nothing like a good tea (chayya) after a satisfying meal but this particular tea-shop needs a visit just for its tea. Caught it while passing through Kovalan Muthu st. The place is run directly below Al faham restuarant which has a take-away and dine-in here. Thought it was the usual tea shop until I noticed the classic copper samovar slowly heating tea powder n water. Did not see any name board so calling it Chai kadai for now!

The glass is stained with the tea concentrate that's been dripped into the milk. It looks messy but it's just dried up tea concentrate!  Dried bcoz of the hot contents inside.

Price: Rs 10 per tea.

There was a small crowd gathered waiting for the young tea master to begin making the next batch of tea. There was a big vessel of milk boiling in the room behind and they skimmed the cream off the boiling milk to prepare tea with. 

A number of small glasses were suddenly placed on the counter and the tea-master deftly dripped the black tea concentrate into the scalding hot milk like a skilled bartender doling out tequila shots in a row. A nice scene to behold when you know you're going to taste it very soon. Quantity is perfect not too much but just right. The black tea forms a layer above the milk and makes you wonder if it would taste uniform. You can ask them to mix it up or you can have it without mixing. It was delicious even without mixing since the concentrate wasn't too bitter and mellowed by the correctly sweetened milk. Of course, I had more than just one glass.

Minar Mess, Angappa Naicken st, Mannady

For exact location: https://goo.gl/maps/pF5itA1yCD72

Another place to hog in the Mannady area. Chennai has tons of road side parotta kadais but this was the first time I was seeing aapams being made with the same enthusiasm as barottas! The
appam master was simultaneously seeing to 3 pairs of aapams on the flame to be served hot. Then there’s a barotta master on the side and another cooking range for indo-Chinese food but this place is known for the southern Muslim style non-veg dishes like mutton paaya, chops, beef items, murthabak, fish, crab, prawn curries and more!

Minar has a good crowd most of the times owing to the large selection of non-veg items in the menu. There’s a display case right near the billing counter at the entrance where you can see about a dozen curries on display. For takeaway you need to check if the item you want is available, then pay get the bill and wait in line at the display where the staff are busy packing orders.

The place is literally buzzing with hungry eaters and take-away crowd. Not the place if you’re finicky about ambiance. You’ll be sharing a table with strangers if you’re two or less here. There’s even a small AC section which will be useful during summers. Not tried it.

Been here a few times and tried the mutton paaya, beef curry, barottas, idiappams and appams. I takeaway since I prefer to eat at home. The barottas are thick and good. The side curry which they give with barottas are thick and yummy with peanuts ground in.

The paaya was completely different from the style made at National durbar and the likes. This one is much thicker a bit more spicy but not in a hot way. Perfect to eat with idiappams! For around 100 bucks it’s great value and the beef curry also close to 100 bucks. Lots of super tender pieces in a lightly peppery thick gravy. Not extraordinary but tasty! Have also tried their egg curry for just 20 bucks a portion its pretty good too.

Coming to the appams, they pack it with some kind of coconut chammanthi (seems this is something called sambal made from dried fish!) which is nice. However the appams need to be had on the spot for the best taste since by the time I reach home (40 min journey) it loses the springiness. Not their fault though. They taste just fine and are just rs 10 a piece.

This place is ideal for non-veg eaters who want some typical southern Muslim non veg fare for a less cost. Pretty confident that most items here would be good to yummy. Because of the crowd many items get finished off few hours before closing time so the food is fresh too.