Chef Girish Krishnan, JW Marriott, New Delhi
As film stars are to Bollywood, so are Chefs to the food fraternity. They are the stars, they are the celebrities and they are artists. For some, it’s a long struggle up there and for some, it comes in smooth as butter. But for everyone, the journey is a combination of hard work, learning and creativity put together. And rare comes those days when the celebrity actually sits with you for a friendly chat and happily shares all the experiences and dreams. One such encounter we recently had was with Executive Chef Girish Krishnan of JW Mariott, Aerocity, New Delhi.
The Journey: Being from south India, rice was a staple diet at their home but Chef Girish was inclined towards exploring food since childhood. Upset of seeing rice everyday for lunch after coming back from school, he wanted to try chapattis (which he remembers buying for around 25 paise) and bread. He laughs on the first time he made rotis, wherein the dough looked more like a batter. The interest towards food led him to join Hotel Management and there is no looking back ever since.
The Career: Having finished Hotel Management from IHM Jaipur, he started his career with Maurya Shereton Jaipur and opened “Peshawari” as an associate Chef specialising in Indian food. After successfully making name for Peshawari, he worked with Oberoi hotels in Jaipur, Udaipur, Agra, Delhi and Mumbai. He also has shown his skills at ITC Jaipur and Hyderabad, and JW Mariott at Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad and is now happy to be back in Delhi for one and half years at JW Mariott Aerocity.
His personal favourite: He thinks a “Nihari” can beat any dish. Any meat roasted, barbequed or grilled is relished by him. But we got to know a secret! If anyone wants to impress him, a good Bhindi Bhujia with a Phulka does the trick. When in good mood, he also savours on Tandoori Chicken, seekh kebab, Roomali Roti and Mint chutney for lunch or dinner. Someone who thinks that there is no cuisine that can beat our Indian cuisine, he prefers eating Indian food over any other cuisine in his day to day life too. Focused on promoting slow cooking, he feels Indian food usually doesn’t get the credit over other cuisines that are gaining popularity these days. He feels that the basic way of cooking “stir frying” is wrongly associated with only Chinese cuisine. Indian cooking (mainly starters or even the cooking done at home by our mothers) is mostly stir fry too.
His food outings:He likes to go anywhere where he finds good food. A food joint in Lajpat Nagar for Chole Bhature, Nizamuddin or Jama Masjid for Korma, K3 (Of course!) for Kebabs and Al Kauser at R K Puram for Burra and Galouti are some of his favourites.
Future plans: He plans to open a restaurant someday with just 3 kebabs and 3 curries. Putting his entire experience of 22-25 years, he wants to make it a success by maintaining the consistency of dishes rather than having a huge menu. Believing that Delhi has a lot of Indian food essence than Mumbai, he feels it would be a perfect place to open his food joint. He wants to make a name by enjoying his cooking rather than making huge money out of it. He feels if he manages to successfully run this dream project, his existence as a Chef would be complete.
We wish that this dream of his comes true soon and Delhi gets to experience some amazing cooking from one talented Chef!
