Gary Mehigan knows his aamchur from his elaichi. In town as part of the Australian High Commission's Oz Fest celebrations, the renowned chef took time out to shop at the city's oldest spice market, Khari Baoli, and also to shoot for his new travel food show. We spoke to Gary, one of the television's favourite chefs, who is as well-versed in Bollywood as he is with the ingredients, to make the perfect Paneer butter masala. Excerpts:
Exploring the old Delhi spice market
I have never seen so many people together at one place. I was later told that Diwali is a big festival and everyone is shopping for that, but even then the crowd was just so much. I bought all kinds of spices and ended up buying more than I needed. Don't ask me their Indian names, I'll never be able to remember those. I am packing and taking them back for my experimental cooking at home. At the market, it was all spices and chillies burning up your insides, everyone was just coughing. Surprisingly, I wasn't!
My visits to India could be bad for my Indian contestants!
My show has had many Indian contestants over many seasons. So, I know those people are followed closely here. When in the last season, Neha (Sen) or Jimmy (Seervai, in season 2) made some curry on the show, I know you all must have thought, 'What the hell are all these people doing to our food on Australian TV?' But for me, the whole experience is fun and my Indian cuisine learning curve goes up with every Indian contestant. Plus, every time I come here, I think it's bad for my Indian contestants. Because with all these trips, I learn more about Indian food and I can tell those contestants, no that's not how it is done. Oh! How do I know?, well I was in Delhi last week. That's how I know.
Indian food is assumed to be primarily Punjabi, I want to discover the rest of it
When people move to Australia, it's usually from the north Indian region. So we get a lot of Punjabi food, the Pakistani kebabs and the spices, but not so much the south Indian cuisine. I was discussing this with someone earlier also. I would love to venture into an Indian food chain, if I ever get the time. This time, I am excited about my trip to Chennai, where I'll be cooking a lot of experimental food for the people there. It's like a challenge round for myself. But I hope I get to eat a lot of south Indian dishes like idli, dosa and other things that they make from rice. I want to discover more of the south Indian cuisine that is not available back home.
Indians have very strong opinions about their food
This is something that I have noticed over time. Everyone is so serious about food here, such strong and serious opinions. Like recently, on my Twitter profile, I asked people some ideas on chaat masala and if you go through the responses, you'll see what I am saying. Some will say put cardamom, others will say, 'noooo, don't do this, that is not how you do it, this is wrong'. So in my new book that has 100 of my favourite comfort recipes, I have included Paneer butter masala also. And there, I have used my recipe without looking for opinions. I am sure if I present that to authentic Indian chefs, they'll have a lot of problems with that, too.
Shooting in the city
Last time when we were here, we had jalebi at this famous shop in the market, but this time I couldn't, I just walked past it with my mouth wide open! This time round, I didn't want to be recognized because I was trying to shoot for my travel show. When in Chandni Chowk, we were on this cycle-driven thing, (rickshaw we added), yes, rickshaw, someone walking next to us said, 'Oh, that's Gary', and I waved and then we moved on. But the experience has been amazing. I call myself a food tourist, I want to talk to people about their attachment to a recipe and discover more about the culture behind a recipe and not just the ingredients. India is the perfect place for stories like that.
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