Last week I met another talented Chef, Tanveer Kwatra. He has been instrumental in establishing Le Meridien Gurgaon(previously known as Pullman Gurgaon Central Park) as one of the destination for food lovers of NCR. Here is a brief account of our encounter with him.Career: This young lad from Agra is a hotel management graduate from William Angliss TAFE, Victoria University, Melbourne. He joined Crown Casino and moved up the ladder quickly to take up the position of Sous Chef. He moved to Fiji as a Chef-De-Cuisine at Starwood Hotel Complex where he was in charge of all the western cuisine restaurants at the Westin and Sheraton resorts. During his stint in Down Under, he worked with Michelin star chefs Dieter Muller, Fergus Henderson and April Bloomfield. He came back to India to join Pullman Gurgaon Central Park as an Executive Sous Chef.Expertise: Chef Tanveer is known for his exquisite use of textures & flavors and specializes in Modern Australian cuisine which is nothing but modern European food. He believes that Melbourne can also be considered as the food capital of the world, similar to London or New York, as most of the folks in Australia are migrants and they have contributed to towards Australian cuisine.His Soul Food: Like most of us, he loves having home cooked daal chawal. Apart from this, he is very fond of Australian cuisine. He loves traveling and explores various cuisines and learns from them.His Beliefs: Chef Tanveer is fond of Indian and Asian flavors and believes that Asian, especially South Asian cuisine is very complex and interesting/fun and one needs to be careful while creating it. Favorite Eating Place in NCR: Royal China in Nehru Place, Mamagoto, Downtown at Park Premier Gurgaon, Moti Mahal GK2, Gung The Place, and Indian Ascent.Views about current trends: Chef believes that use of technology is fine, till the time it doesn’t change the flavor or profile of the dish. These days the focus is more on presentation than on taste. If the soul of the dish is missing, no matter how beautiful or presentable, it looks, customers won’t appreciate it. Also, the consumer in today’s time is well informed, knowledgeable and their feedback is very important. He prefers to visit every table in his restaurants and engage with the customers and also makes sure that his staffs do the same.Delhi or Mumbai: Both cities have very distinct consumer and consumption profiles. Delhi is currently on the cusp of becoming an F&B hub.
It was a super interaction with the youngest executive Chef of the country and we wish him all the best for his future endeavors!
