When I was training with The Trident Hotel in Mumbai and later with Theobroma, I realised that cooking in a professional environment is very different from our home kitchen. Professional kitchens demand long 12-14 working hours with almost no time to sit. Yes, there are no chairs in a professional kitchen, so you have to stand the whole time.
Q1. Tell us about your background and journey.
My love for food goes long back. When I was a child, I used to see my dad help my mom in the kitchen in the mornings, as she was a working woman. He loved food and used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen trying new recipes. Being a typical Punjabi, our Sunday breakfast used to be stuffed parathas. Early morning, my dad would go to the vegetable market and bring fresh gobi or mooli.
Later he would clean and grate them, and keep the stuffing mixture ready for mom. His love for food made me fall in love with it too. Even at a very young age, I used to stand next to him and see how he made delicious Indian recipes with so much interest and love, which I believe has been further gifted to me.
Q2. What led you to take up this career path?
I am an advertising professional with 7 wonderful years of handling some of the biggest brands in India. At the same time, I enjoyed cooking whenever I got free time – usually after work or on weekends. I loved my work but later I realised that my love for food is bigger than anything else and it had to be full-time. So, to pursue my dream I quit my corporate job, did a full-time course from a hospitality school, trained at a 5-star hotel and later started on my own.
3. Does one's approach change when cooking professionally and at home?
When I was training with The Trident Hotel in Mumbai and later with Theobroma, I realised that cooking in a professional environment is very different from our home kitchen. Professional kitchens demand long 12-14 working hours with almost no time to sit. Yes, there are no chairs in a professional kitchen, so you have to stand the whole time.
During my training, I remember after coming home late at night, I used to soak my feet in hot saltwater because it used to pain so much. I jokingly used to tell my friends that rather than gifting a knife set to a chef, gift them a foot massage at a nice spa.
In one of the instances in the hotel, when I was removing a huge, heavy baking tray filled with almost 100 freshly baked cookies from the oven, the tray slid slightly and touched my lower arm. I immediately felt a sharp burning sensation and could see that my skin had come off. I still kept my control on the tray making sure it didn’t slip out of my hands and carefully placed it on the cooling rack.
When my senior saw my hand, she responded with, ‘Tattoo banva liya! Hum sabke bana hai, welcome to the kitchen’ So yes professional kitchens demand a lot of physical hard work and dedication. At home when we are cooking, we generally make food in smaller quantities and you don’t have the pressure of serving the best food on the table to your guest in 15 minutes.
So now whenever I go to a restaurant and the food is taking time to arrive at the table (because of the rush hour) I never complain or get furious like most of us do because I know the chefs inside the kitchen are constantly on their feet, trying their level best to serve us great food.
4. Is there a dish you particularly associate yourself with?
Being a typical Punjabi I absolutely love rajma chawal with gobi aloo and some onions along with it. It’s my comfort food and it makes me so happy. Oh! just thinking about it made me smile.
5. Can cooking be learnt at culinary schools or natural talent is required?
Talent is always required no matter what line of profession you chose. If you want to keep cooking as a hobby or interest, then you might not require a course, but if you are planning to take it up as a profession then a culinary school will definitely help you refine your skills.
It will teach you the basics and you will gain in-depth knowledge about the subject. Also, culinary schools will give you a chance to train at the hotels, restaurants and food factories, thus giving you exposure to professional kitchens.
6. Which is your favourite book and why?
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is very close to my heart. I came across this book at a point in my life when things weren’t going right. This book taught me the most important universal law, around which now my life revolves. I still keep going back to this book whenever I feel the need. I have gifted this book to so many friends and colleagues whom I think needed it. The ones who have read The Secret will know what I mean when I say they ‘needed it’.
I also love The Alchemist by Paul Coelho. I think everybody should read that book. The book has lessons that can be implemented in your life in so many ways. One of my most favourite quote from the book is- “People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”
Aarti Madan - Professional Chef & Content Creator by Profession | Home Decor Addict | Spiritual Seeker | Firm Believer of Karma & Universe
Interviewed By: Rudraksh Sharma
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