The Spice Mela head chef spoke to us about the upcoming Kings and Queens function at the Rosewood Abu Dhabi Hotel.
Can you tell us a little about the Kings and Queens dinner at Spice Mela?
We have created a set menu that revisits the cuisine of the royal families of India. The whole idea is that we want to bring back dishes that have not been visited, everyone is focusing on modern cuisines at the moment. We want to bring back the historical dishes of India. We have chosen two regions in India and will examine the cuisine of the royal families from these areas. It will be a quarterly event and we will choose different regions each event.
How do you prepare and design for something like this?
I was lucky enough to work with a very famous chef in India, who was the masterchef for the royal family. I also worked as a chef to some members of the royal family when I worked in India, so I have been lucky enough to have some recipes and to have learnt from the master.
What kind of dishes can we expect to see?
We have designed a menu of eight or nine dishes and we are going to have a tasting menu for diners. It will have a large influence of lamb and chicken. To give a very brief history, what happened in India is special because when a new royal family took charge, there was a brief famine. What working class people, that worked on the royal grounds used to do was put the lamb and chicken and meats on a slow flame- they would cook it overnight because they didn’t have time to eat it straight away. The king one day could smell the aromas and actually wanted to try the flavours, which became popular and that is how the evolution of this type of cooking, meats in their own steam began. It’s become quite popular now.
It sounds like you have had a bit of fun with this event…
It is, I had the honour of working with the royal family chef and everyone is always focusing on modern cuisine so we have enjoyed exploring and recreating historical dishes and cuisine.
Have you had any problems sourcing ingredients?
Not really, because we import a large amount of our spices from India. The meat and vegetables are all locally sourced and we have special suppliers so it’s been relatively easy.
What’s your favourite Indian dish to eat yourself?
Oh, I couldn’t choose. I could give you one dish from each region because the regions have such different flavours and styles. I could never pinpoint one because each region has its own identity. That’s the essence of Spice Mela, we have selected a variety of dishes from each region so diners can sample flavours from across the country.
Kings and Queens will be available January 19-24 at Spice Mela, Rosewood Abu Dhabi, Al Maryah Island, (02 813 5550).
