Nightlife
The Creative Questionnaire with Chef Thomas Zacharias of The Bombay Canteen
Journalist Amit Gurbaxani speaks with one of India’s most enterprising chefs to understand how he creates innovative new dishes.
8 min
The Mind Behind with Chef Thomas Zacharias
Chef Zac has created food from his own nostalgia that resonates with so many.
In this series of Q&As with people in the creative industry – including actors, artists, chefs, comedians, dancers, designers, filmmakers, musicians and writers – we gain insight into the practices and processes and obsessions and inspirations that shape their work and life.
We begin with the three subjects of Red Bull Media House’s cross-discipline video series called The Mind Behind. This interview focuses on Thomas Zacharias, who was named the Chef of the Year at Conde Nast Traveller India magazine’s Top Restaurant Awards in 2018. (Other interviews are with CS Santosh and Emiway Bantai)
Thomas is the executive chef at one of the country’s best eateries, Mumbai’s The Bombay Canteen. He is renowned for his celebration and elevation of regional and seasonal Indian cuisine. Edited excerpts:
At what time of the day are you at your best?
In my role, I have to be different people at different times of day. The creative part of me comes alive at a different time than say me being an authoritative leader in the kitchen trying to maintain consistency.
Creatively, it’s usually between 4pm and 7-8pm, when the restaurant’s not busy. For everything else, it’s during the service period. That’s when I get into this other zone where I’m a different person. I’m generally kind of introverted, except when I’m in the kitchen. Then I become vocal, very communicative with the team. There’s a sense of humour, there’s an inquisitiveness; all that comes out when I’m in the kitchen.
The entire creative process – from the seed of an idea till the finished dish – takes a lot of time. It doesn’t happen in a day’s time. Most of my recipe ideas come to me randomly [like] when I’m running. Sometimes they come in spurts. [But] usually not when I’m in the kitchen. I make it a point to jot down my thoughts. Then I share them with my sous-chefs and we think about what to do; 4pm to 8pm is when we actually test those ideas.
Chef Thomas with his kitchen staff
© Vaqaas Mansuri
What are your favourite tools of the trade?
A really, really good chef knife. I tend to prefer Japanese knives and I like this brand called Shun. Japanese knives, generally speaking, are sharper and they retain their sharpness for longer. What I like about this particular brand is that it feels right. It feels like an extension of my hand.
For cooking meat or fish or even vegetables or eggs, I love cast iron skillets because they can get really hot without the pan getting damaged, they retain the heat for much longer, and there’s more even distribution.
The ironic thing about being a head chef – which a lot of people don’t know – is that in the kitchen I don’t cook a lot. I spend my energies leading the kitchen. The only time I’m cooking is when I’m testing something or if the kitchen is busy and I jump in to help someone to do something.
What’s your golden rule when it comes to creating a piece of work?
There are multiple golden rules. Most importantly, it needs to be delicious. It’s something that in today’s day and age is overlooked a lot. Ultimately the food needs to taste good.
Whenever I’m coming up with something at The Bombay Canteen, we make sure the food is rooted in India. Every dish has some context to or some aspect of India. What we’re trying to do is tell a story about Indian food through what we do on the plate. That could be inspired by an ingredient, a memory [or] a regional recipe I’ve tasted during my travels. It could be something that’s seasonal or it could be a street food. But the context or the story or the message can never overshadow the flavour, taste or deliciousness.
Chef Thomas' Egg's Kejriwal has been praised for being an innovative dish
© Vaqaas Mansuri
Where do you get your best ideas?
From my travels. This year I travelled for about 30 days just on these food trips [on which] I taste a lot of food. I’m usually eating six to eight meals a day. What you see on my Instagram feed is only the good stuff. The bad stuff never makes it. I have a very meticulous process of recording the dishes I’m tasting through a combination of taking pictures and writing notes. I’ve developed the ability to have a very strong flavour memory. Now it’s reached a stage where as I’m experiencing and tasting these dishes, ideas start coming to me. Last year I decided to travel to at least four places. I know that next year I want to make a trip to Varanasi.
Whose brain would you love to pick?
One chef I really want to talk to and understand is Dan Barber. His restaurant in New York, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, is a farm-to-table restaurant where the restaurant is literally at the farm. The philosophy is to celebrate what’s around you and the quality of the dish depends on the quality of ingredients you source.
My style of cooking is fluid and organic. I try not to be contrived. It isn’t five dots on a plate. We don’t use sous-vide. We don’t do any of that. The chefs I follow are chefs that are either very ingredient-driven or focused on flavour-forward, bold dishes and contrasting textures. Chefs like David Chang.
Name a place that always inspires you.
I’ve been going to [the Grant Road] bhaaji gully three-four times every season for the last four years. Apart from the staple vegetables, we’ve used about 55 super-seasonal, local Indian vegetables from the market. I know now when [a vegetable’s] going to come into season. If I need just a boost of ingredient inspiration, I would go [there]. Especially in the winter, it’s amazing. You see at least 10 to 15 different types of vegetables you don’t see during other times of the year.
Chef Thomas at the vegetable market in Grant Road
© Vaqaas Mansuri
What’s in your backpack/wallet?
Lots of pens and markers to highlight stuff I need to remember and for use in the kitchen [where] we have noticeboards. I usually have a Band-Aid in my wallet in case someone cuts themself. I have a guitar pick in my wallet. I play the guitar and it’s just been a habit for the last 15 years. You never know when you’re in a space where someone says, “Hey, there’s a guitar,” and you start playing.
When and how did you decide you wanted to do this for the rest of your life?
I grew up in Kerala and I spent a lot of my childhood, especially holidays and weekends, cooking with my grandmother. She was, as most grandmothers go, an amazing cook. I saw her ability to make people happy through her food. I saw that immediate transition – the food translating into joy and happiness – which is what got me hooked. I wanted to be that person. I didn’t see anything else around me that had the same effect.
I was mostly an introvert. I was an odd child. I didn’t play sports. I wasn’t a guy’s guy. I had lots of girl friends. I would be artistically inclined. I would paint. I would be into music. My grandmom’s kitchen was where I felt happiest.
All through that time in the mid-90s, cooking wasn’t an option as a profession. But as I got older, through my teens, I started realising that it could be. My parents said, “Okay, you might be into cooking, but at least for your plus-two, you go for IIT coaching classes,” which I did. It’s not that they were narrow-minded. It’s just that they wanted to make sure I was making the right decision. They introduced me to a lot of people in the industry. They all said, “Don’t do it.” But I guess some part of me was really stubborn. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I didn’t want a boring nine-to-five job. I didn’t want to join my dad’s business. Cooking was what made me happy.
How do you measure success?
On a day-to-day basis, success is measured by seeing happy faces around me. Like today, someone called me out [of the kitchen] just to say they had a great meal. Someone relating to the food because maybe it’s something they’ve eaten in the past. The kitchen being consistent that particular day, no complaints, which is hard to do. Seeing the kitchen function efficiently, clean and organised. Things like that [are my daily measure of success]
On a larger scale, over time, I’ve realised as a chef, I’m able to impact change. I’m able to be an influencer in a different sort of way. Through social media, we have a voice to put our stories out there and there’s actually a response. [Take] something as simple as [our] Friday staff meal where we pick a certain cuisine and get the kitchen team to work on it. There’s a table that saw it and asked, “What cuisine is it today?” [It’s] getting people excited about those cuisines, about our message and our philosophy. It’s very difficult to measure it but I can see it, through guests coming to the restaurant, through responses on social media. It’s tangible but it’s very hard to quantify.
What’s your current obsession?
Indoor plants. My place got ready a few months ago and I wanted it to feel like a sanctuary. I’ve never owned plants before. I went to a nursery and bought a bunch. I’ve been following this account on social media, this guy called Hilton Carter who has some 300 plants in his home. It’s beautiful. That’s my goal. Coming back home after a long day and being around flora is relaxing. There’s something really positive about plants. I cannot stand being in a negative space, which is why in the kitchen I make sure everybody’s respectful to each other and everybody’s nice; from the sous-chef to the dishwasher, irrespective of who it is.
What do you do when you’re overwhelmed?
I try and work out every day or go running. That’s a great way to relieve stress or tension. I go karaoke-ing once a week. I go to a bar called Raasta. My current favourite [karaoke song] is ‘Fix You’ by Coldplay. I also try and meditate, which is something that’s very new. I did a 10-day vipassana course about three months ago, which completely changed me inside out. I did it at a point of time when I needed a mental detox from social media and work, and the many stimuli around me. It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve done in a long time but also the best thing I’ve done. Your mind becomes so clear and focused. On day six or seven, I started getting recipe ideas.
I’m trying to do yoga twice a week. Plus reading. I love going to cafes and just sitting for hours, watching people. I love to write. I love to paint. One skill I’ve adopted in the last several years is my ability to control my temper. I tend to not get angry. Over time, I’ve realised that when you’re stressed or when you’re angry, the only person suffering is you. What I’m able to do is almost pretend to be angry where I might call someone out or raise my voice against someone but I can turn around and smile the next second. I used to be very short-tempered about seven-eight years ago. I realised that I couldn’t go on like that and sustain myself as a chef. I would burn out. Over time, I’ve been able to maintain that Zen state of mind. It’s something I consciously worked on.
Generally in this kitchen, we try to make sure it’s a positive, nurturing environment where there’s no abusive or negativity. We have a great team so I don’t have to lose my shit very often but when I do, it’s usually to get them to take me seriously or to make a point.
Which memento from your career will you never discard?
I’m a hoarder so I have a lot of mementos. I collect a lot of stuff from my travels, whether it’s a mini trami in Kashmir or a mortar and pestle from Tamil Nadu. The chef knife that my aunt gifted me many years ago, I’ve kept very close to my heart because she gifted it to me when I was a student in culinary school in New York. It was a really, really good knife which came to me at a time when I couldn’t have asked for a better gift.
A mortar and pestle; one of the chef's favourite mementos
© Vaqaas Mansuri
Who’s your biggest inspiration?
My parents [for] the kind of people they are and the kind of values they taught. My dad is extremely humble, generally a kind person, selfless. My mom is very driven, pursues excellence. I’ve imbibed those kinds of things.
For work, I take inspiration from people I meet during my travels. It could be the chaatwalla in Lucknow who’s been perfecting that same aloo tikki for the last 30 years and been disciplined about it. Or it could be that lady at my homestay in Majuli in Assam who’s cooking with so much love, care and attention.
What’s the best advice you’ve received?
That happiness is a choice. It’s my WhatsApp profile statement. You can choose to be happy or not happy. It’s all in your hands. I don’t even remember [where I heard it]. I may have read it in a book, maybe 10 years ago.
Click here to read the interview with CS Santosh, the fastest Indian two-wheel rally racer.
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