During their maiden visit to India, Club des Chefs des Chefs promoted local food and healthy eating habits. By Jigyasu Joshi
After mixing the cake with other head chefs, Neil Dhawan tasted the mix and delightfully stepped back from the gathering. Dhawan is the chef to the Prime Minister of Canada and also a member of the Club des Chefs des Chefs (CCC), the most exclusive gastronomy club comprising chefs to heads of state across the world. “It is more of a responsibility to serve Justin Trudeau. We make sure that we use authentic and unadulterated products, there is proper hygiene maintained in the cooking area and also have to keep a check on his diet,” he said.
A team of eighteen chefs from the club gathered at The Imperial as a part of their General Assembly, which takes place every year in different parts of the world. The members of the club include chefs to Presidents, Prime Ministers and royals across the world, including US President Barack Obama, the British Queen and the German Chancellor. “We have been working to put this event together for past few months. And it is an honour to host the meet this year in India,” said Montu Saini, chef to President of India and also a member of the club.
Montu also shared his experience of cooking at the Rastrapati Bhawan. He said, “We have a Dalikhana at Rastrapati Bhawan, where we grow all the vegetables and fruits organically for the first family and use it in the food we cook. Apart from these, we also grow herbs in our Dalikhana. Everything we use in here for cooking is fresh and home grown.” Adding further he said, “It is not just a small garden, it is an extensive program which includes agronomist and gardeners working on it to make it bigger and more fertile.”
Giving guest chefs a taste of the Delhi street food, Montu prepared aloo tikki and golgappas. “The street food in Delhi is too strong on spices for the sensitive tummies of all my friends here. So I tried to prepare a replica of it for them in the hotel itself,” he joked.
Talking about the responsibility and challenges that come with this position, Fabrizio Boca said, “Our job profile includes cooking food for the President or the Prime Minister every day. We have to take care of it and see that everything goes well inside the palace.” Boca is the chef to the Italian President, Sergio Mattarella. “The more you work, the more you get to learn and the responsibility increases by the day,” he added.
Speaking about how the day starts for him, Ingimar Ingimarsson, chef to the President of Iceland said, “A typical day at work starts with going out in the market and buying fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs. After this, we decide the menu for the day. We try to keep it simple and healthy.” On being asked about the most challenging part of the job, he cracks, “The tedious part is of course deciding the menu of the day.”
Sharing about their favourite Indian cuisines, the Italian chef said he likes dal makhani and roti. Whereas, Ingimar said he loves spicy tandoori chicken.
The Paris-based CCC also announced a three-month long scholarship for the top student of the Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa in New Delhi to train in the palaces of Europe, including in Monaco. Using their culinary art for the social cause, a team of five chefs including Chef Montu Saini, will cook for a charity dinner whose proceeds will go to benefit the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation-India. Sharing about the same, Gilles Bragard, founder of the CCC, said, “They are not just chefs cooking for the heads of state but also ambassadors of their respective countries. So, we use their services for good causes and various charities. In the past, we have raised money for many social causes. like two weeks ago, Britain’s Royal Chef Mark Flanagan helped to raise one million dollars for ‘Artists for Peace and Justice’, a US-based charity, which builds and manages schools and colleges in Haiti.”