Chef and TV presenter Bobby Chinn shares his experience of eating on the streets of Mumbai and having the best tandoori crab there. He spoke to Karan Bhardwaj on the food culture of Zanzibar and Peru
Born in Auckland, Bobby Chinn is a globally acclaimed chef, television host and a successful restaurateur. He has travelled to nooks and corners of the world tasting the best of cuisines. Chinn’s latest show World Café will be premiered on TlC from May 27. He talks about his vast culinary experience.
How is World Café different from other food showsIJ
It is all about travel through lifestyle and breaking cultural barriers through food and people. I think in the earlier series when we went to the Middle East, the show used to be of 30 minutes. Now each show is an hour long and over the seasons we have perfected the formula with the directors, producers, cameramen and others on how to coordinate work with each other.
You visited Zanzibar, Sicily, Portugal and Peru for the show. Share your experiences.
We wanted to prove that Zanzibar exists as a place. It’s kind of Timbuktu, you’re not really sure if it actually exists or it’s just a word. But it is relevant in terms of food because it was a spice island. It was one of the richest places in Africa, off the coast of Tanzania. I found out that the food has strong Indian influences. In Portugal, there is a lot of influence of the Arabs, and it was a cultural discovery for me. You can eat something that resembles crème caramel but in fact it is bread and a lot of eggs, yolks and sugar. There are spices from Angola and their traditional cuisine, the salted cod, which is incredible. We did a lot of great stuff in Portugal. The interesting part of Sicily was discovering that it’s influenced by Spanish, Greek, Arab and Italian cultures. And so it is more a multicultural fusion cuisine. Seafood is phenomenal. Peru has got established restaurant and culinary scene. In this series, we were able to get great chefs on our show who educated us on different kinds of cuisine.
Tell us about the latest global food trends.
The food industry is going to be forced to go more local and I think that people are getting more educated in that department and I hope to see more of that all over the world, supporting local farmers and using local produce.
Which country deserves to be the food capital in the worldIJ WhyIJ
You know we are living in a global economy where you can get sushi in the Middle East. There’s great food all over the world. When we were filming in Peru, I realised that the food there was just amazing because it was influenced by different cultures and they’ve got some incredible ingredients. The food and the variety in Peru can actually match the quality of food served in cosmopolitan cities like New York, london, Paris, that have been popular and attracting big dollars. I think Singapore is also a food capital in many ways because they keep incredible variety and discounts.
How did you get into cookingIJ
Bad English boarding school food was a good motivation. My grandparents were fabulous cooks and my parents had a good palette, so we ate pretty well. It was an amalgamation of all — the upbringing, family, travelling, different types of food and then seeing completely different breed of chefs from the time I was a kid. I think all this combined together inspired me to get into the kitchen.
What’s your take on Indian foodIJ
I have been to Mumbai thrice. I enjoyed eating at a Persian restaurant called The Britannica where they had a big rooster at the counter; he’s got pictures of the menus like Buckingham Palace. And there’s another one that is good. It’s like five/ten minutes drive from the Taj Hotel. And they do the most incredible tandoori crab. It wasn’t my pick from the menu, but my friend who lives in Mumbai ordered it. And then I ate on the streets of Mumbai. In Amritsar, I found the most incredible white gravy with poppy seeds, milk, cashewnuts, finished with rose water.
I like Indian food a lot, but I feel they add a bit too much ghee to the dishes. And their sweets are too sugary. They should consider making their food with less butter, I think the taste would be as good as it is now and that would be healthy too.
Any plans to visit India soonIJ
I would love to. I need some rich financial backers. In the first series, we covered Rajasthan and Amritsar. In the second season, we covered Chennai and Kolkata. In between my free time I wrote my book in Kerala. I’ve got a friend in Mumbai so when I was there, I saw Roger Waters play his concert. So there obviously was much more to explore and I’m very keen to come back to India.