by Shaun Kenworthy

Self admittedly, I’ve worked in and alongside, some truly great restaurants over the years but before I get to that, I’ll give you a little introduction about myself. As some of you may or may not know, I grew up in a little sleepy mill town, just outside of Manchester in northern England called Stalybridge and was born into a simple, really simple working class family. Manchester in the 70’s didn’t have much to rave about and was pretty grey and damp, as were most of its citizens and most people lived a really simple day to day existence. A lot of that has changed now but in many ways, the Manchester that I knew wasn’t so dissimilar to the Calcutta that I can imagine of the 80’s and 90’s.

Being completely non academic, there wasn’t so much on offer to me with my careers officer when I left school but from being 10 or so, I knew I wanted to cook and cooking was something I had always done either with my mum or my grandma and quite often on my own behind a closed kitchen door with parents eagerly awaiting me to burn down the house, I’m sure. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I went to college, did my two years and the rest of that chapter at least is history.

Due to my, lets say humble up bringing, the finer things in life were something I had little knowledge of, so all those delights in life, such as eating my way around the best cheeses of Europe, caviar, Truffles and enjoying and understanding the wonderful world of wine and pretty much any alcohol other than beer, all started as an up hill struggle for me.

Before packing my bags and moving to London, I worked in three of the best Hotels in and around Manchester and after four years, thought it was time to further my career and head off down the epicentre of fantastic restaurants in London. This is where my true passion for flavour and the soul searching of great food really began. My first job in London was at Bibendum, an iconic landmark on Fulham road, this was a serious place, housed in the most amazing art deco Michelin house. A serious foodie hangout of the Chelsea jet set and everyday another celebrity or two.

The restaurant boasted, at the time, a changing menu each day and one of London’s largest wine collections with wines, taking in mind in the early 90’s, varying, anywhere from 20 to 2000 pounds and a few Vintage Cognacs for 3000 pounds upwards. The Sommeliers were well read and most of the time, if I’m honest, pretty well drunk for most of the day! Great cigars, Champagne, Port, Cognac, Armagnac, the real deal but I was only a Chef de Partie at the time, so maybe a quick sniff and a sip was about all I got, in the mitts of a 16 hour working day. My career continued with stints at the then Coast and Atlantic bar and grill around Piccadilly, Mash, just off Oxford st and my last job in London at Quaglinos on Burry st, again, just off Piccadilly. This was a huge Brassarie, over 300 seats and classified at the time, the busiest restaurant in Europe, most days, we could easily churn out some of the best food in London to 400 for lunch and anywhere between 700 and 1000 customers for dinner. I still wake up with hot sweats thinking about it. We could easily get through 250 bottles of Champagne on a busy Saturday!

So in and amongst all that my true love of great food and wines grew and grew. I set foot onto Indian soil in October 2000 after being invited as a guest chef at the World Gourmet summit in Singapore and being persuaded to come and spend a year in India. The rest is set in history and the start of a totally new chapter.

India, then was in all honesty pretty primitive as far as fine dining and a wine culture is concerned, other than a small handful of restaurants in Delhi and Mumbai and is really only just coming into its own. I could go on for hours about all that and much, much more but I’m going to finish this first piece with a tasting menu of dishes, Paired with wine and other fancy alcoholic beverabes that I recently did at Olive Beach in Delhi, just to confirm how far India has come. This was a pretty quirky menu on the lines of progressive Mediterranean dishes with Asian influences. I didn’t want to go with only wine pairings, so the following is quite an interesting read and something for you all to have a think about..
The menu started with an Amuse Bouche, simply translated from French into, a taster to amuse your mouth with, in this case, a Phuchka, inserted with homemade Jalapeno Mozzarella, baby red and green spinach and marinated cherry tomatoes.

The Appetiser, Touch seared froie Gras Brule’, Sticky tamarind, palm sugar and fig that i paired with Jenlain, French Trappist Monks, malted Bier, slightly malted and winey with a touch of honey that stood up really well with the Buttery Froie Gras, Tamarind and Palm sugar.

Next there was an interesting soup of Pumpkin Gnocci and clam with Cumin oil & kalimpong cheese. Wines are not usually paired with soup, liquid and liquid don’t usually pair so well.

An Intermediate course of Proscuito wrapped sea Scallops, Biriyani veloute, rocket and chilli oil paired well with a bone dry Chardonnay.

The main course was a Home made, spiced chicken sausage with Masala mash, crispy onions, ginger butter sauce, was probably the most Indian tasting course but paired deliciously with the Pinot Noir

And finally, the Dessert, A plate of Indian intrigue in the hands of a Crazed British chef, consisted of a Mishti doi and spiced apple Brule’, Gulab Jamun ice cream and a roulade of Mihidanna, oranges and grand marnier, surrounsed by fennel candied suger. Sweet things are difficult to pair with wine unless your drinking a late harvest Dessert wine and I thought that this could only be paired with something like a Saffron and cardamon Martini.

All delicious and until next time, Bon appétit