With close to 12 years of culinary experience with leading Indian hospitality brands, chef Sumalya Sarkar dreams of bringing little-known local cuisines to the hotel menus. By Jigyasu Joshi
Chef Sumalya Sarkar has a dream of bringing the local cuisines from different regions of India to the mainstream hotel menus. “People don’t realise as to how much the local food has to offer in terms of spices and flavours. I’m trying hard to accomplish this dream and will one day sure fulfill it too,” he says. Taking a step forward to complete his goal, he has also recruited one housewife from the nearby village of Damdama to cook the local-style food in the hotel kitchen which is served under a special menu.
Born and bought up in Midanpur, West Bengal, Sarkar wanted to do something different since childhood. Food was certainly not one of the things he thought of doing. Slowly and gradually, his interest in the culinary art grew and he then decided to study hotel management. Fast forward today, the chef has close to 12 years of culinary experience with the leading Indian hospitality brands. “I first enrolled myself in the commerce stream but it was in the second year of college when I decided that I want to learn more about food and cooking. So I convinced my father, which was tough, and dropped college to study hotel management,” shares Sarkar. A merit holder from the Bengal Institute of Technology and Management, Chef Sumalya is now the executive chef at the Gateway Resort Damdama lake in Gurgaon.
Specialised in Gastronomy, Sarkar says that kitchen attracted him a lot. “During my industrial training, I remember I was always around the kitchen. I saw how passionately chefs cooked food and the amount of hardwork they put in. I tried to grab as much as I could from seeing the professionals work,” he recalls.
Over the course of ten years, Sumalya has worked with Taj Nadesar Palace and The Gateway Hotel Ganges Varanasi as Sous Chef where he played a key role in successfully launching new menu with international and Indian dishes. Planning for a healthy menu for the festive celebrations in the coming month of December, he feels that instead of making a trendy menu with fancy dishes he is focusing on active healthy food. “Since active food is something people now prefer at any point of time, we have emphasised on gluten-free and low fat dishes more. Instead of the contemporary dishes we will incorporate some healthy and fresh taste to celebrate with in the coming festivals,” he says.
However, he doesn’t completely boycot the keeping up with spirit of the festival, Sarkar adds, “We will be holding a seven days festive special buffet in December and other festive day special menus too. But even in that we would like to keep the healthy food quotient a little high.”
Further discussing about the innovations he has done while being a part of the group, Sarkar says that experimenting with the basic spicies in the local cuisines is always a good option. The chef has always been on the front foot when it comes to encouraging the local food.
“We have a concept menu at the hotel in which we serve home-style local food cooked by the home makers themselves. In this, we try to understand what the nearby villages, have to offer in the food. We invite the home-makers of the village to come and share their expertise of cooking with our chefs,” he explains.