What makes a chef deserving of a Michelin star
What is it that makes a chef deserving of a Michelin star? I have often asked this question to myself - and I am sure, so have you. I got the answer partly when I was in San Sebastian in Spain's Basque Country to attend the crème de la crème culinary event, Gastronomika, some months back.
I spent a lot of quality time with London-based Vineet Bhatia, who's one of the first two Indian chefs to get a Michelin star, and I was struck by the way he couldn't just wait to get into the kitchen and dirty his hands at a local Michelin-starred restaurant named Boroa Jatetxea, where he teamed up with Jabier Gartzia to produce a sold-out, 70-euros-perhead (wines not included) dinner, which he prepped for a day-and-half.
Wherever Bhatia may be in the world - he presides over 12 restaurants in Europe, the Middle East and Mumbai - his working day begins at 7am with his suppliers and ends past midnight. And if he doesn't create a new dish almost every week, and Instagram it immediately, he's overcome by the feeling that there's a void in his world.
My one evening with Claude Bosi - the Michelin two-starred head chef of the famous London restaurant Bibendum has convinced me that you've got to be passionate about food, in love with your work (more than with your partner) and get your daily adrenalin fix just by seeing happy diners. The Lyon-born, 45-year-old Bosi, who got his first Michelin star when he was 23 and the second when he turned 27, is in the city to kick-start Upstairs at Indian Accent, a pop-up space in the floor above India's No. 1 restaurant at The Lodhi.
I met Bosi on the day he had arrived from London, a week or so ago. His flight had landed just two hours-and-half ago, and he was to go to Goa for a family holiday the next day, yet he was on his feet, ready for a recce of the Indian Accent so that he got a feel of the produce that is in season. He spent more than an hour in the kitchen and I got to sample tinned crab meat from Kanyakumari!
When he got down to work, he descended upon the Indian Accent kitchen like a gale wind. Bosi and his two chefs from London, accompanied by another two seconded from Indian Accent, first prepare the stocks and sauces, carve the meat (the visiting chef insisted that he be presented with a goat's carcass, and not pieces of mutton supplied by the butcher), and then get down to cooking the dishes for lunch and then for dinner.Tea or coffee, and bread, are their only sustenance during the shift, which ends well past midnight.
Not a single plate goes out without his personal tweak - I can say with certainty it's not the case with most Indian head chefs, especially in five-star hotels, who are more comfortable with Excel sheets and schmoozing with VIP guests than with their pots - and pans. (Manish Mehrotra, though, is an exception - he even presents each course personally to the guests.)
And how does the long night of a chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant end? With a Spartan meal, which is shared by each member of the staff. It was really touching to see Bosi and his team of chefs settle down to a dinner of beer, generously buttered naan and tandoori chicken at 1 am. As the chefs of Indian Accent have realised, a Michelin-starred chef may be a celebrity in the eyes of the world, but in the kitchen, he has to work as hard as the general dogsbody.