The Hindu Business Line : Currying flavour

The country's first woman corporate chef, Nita Nagaraj, is confident that as long as there's food and enough people who delight in gastronomy, she'll be in business.

An aromatic broth bubbles over a stove. A toque-d chef stirs it periodically, in between chopping onions at lightning speed. On the other side, another dextrous pair of hands is transforming a cornucopia of vegetables into a delightful multi-hued salad. An array of formidable-looking knives glints on a table even as herbs and spices suffuse the kitchen with their aroma. And into this wondrous world of sights and smells breezes Nita Nagaraj, corporate chef of Jaypee Hotels at New Delhi's Vasant Continental. Nita is the country's first woman corporate chef.

Her easy camaraderie with the five-star hotel's all-male kitchen staff is apparent. She supervises lunch, enquires after a recuperating employee and does a reality check on the dinner planned for a politician's wedding. "The best part of my job," explains Nita, popping an olive into her mouth, "is that it isn't a job. It's a passion. A passion to feed people and watch their faces light up with joy."

Of course, to witness that ephemeral `joy', the diminutive 45-year-old has to be on her feet almost 15 hours a day, monitoring meals, doing food trials, meeting guests, crafting innovative menus, ensuring kitchen hygiene, tackling negative feedback and, all the while, keeping an unwavering eye on the revenues. "Mine's a classic chef-meets-manager-meets-businesswoman-meets-agony aunt profile. So I have to be an expert multi-tasker."

Not bad going for one who wasn't even interested in the vocation in the first place. In fact, Nita recalls how when she had enrolled at the Pusa Institute in New Delhi in 1976 for her diploma in hotel management, the idea was just "to pass the time". But a few months into kitchen training at The Oberoi, Delhi, and she was hooked. Since then, her career as a chef has been a whirl of achievements.

Nita was appointed Chef de Partie at Delhi's Hyatt Regency (1982-84) and this was followed by a one-year stint at Movenpick, Zurich. On her return from Switzerland, Nita joined Delhi's Taj Mahal Hotel as Sous Chef. Seven years later she took up an assignment at the Taj Palace, Delhi.

Last year Nita joined Jaypee Hotels, where she is in charge of four restaurants — Patra, the Indian restaurant; Anotai, the Chinese restaurant; Eggspectations, the coffee shop; and Tapas, the pub-cum-bar. Besides this, she oversees planning and administrative functions.

Despite the exacting demands of her job, Nita feels the pros far outweigh the cons. "Whether it's film-stars or heads of State, there's something about providing this basic necessity that breaks down barriers. And, of course, if you like food, there's nothing like being paid to think about nothing but food."

Executive chefs in India take home anything between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh a month, while that figure could double outside the country. An added advantage is that there is no retirement age. "As long as there's food and people who love food, you have a job," she says.

Of course, there are challenges too. Nita rates her stint at the spiffy Orient Express restaurant at Taj Palace, Delhi, as her most challenging assignment. "At the Express, where we served contemporary European cuisine, we had to constantly combine different flavours and ingredients to make the dishes appetising and aesthetic. The raw material had to be imported — lamb from New Zealand, excellent seafood, scallops, sea bass, caviar, you name it — and that made the work even tougher. But it was very satisfying because the restaurant constantly featured as one of India's finest in food reviews."

Equally challenging were the Marwari weddings at the Taj Palace, where Nita had to rustle up a never-ending repertoire of vegetarian dishes. "I'd sit for hours with the clients to work on the menus. It was a great learning experience for me," says the chef. Many a celebrity has dined on Nita's creations. George Bush Sr., the former US president, for one. Nita recounts how on a visit to India in the 1980s, Bush was so pleased with his meal at the Taj that despite the security, he gate-crashed into the hotel's kitchen to meet the chefs. "At the end of the meeting, the President pulled out a US flagpin from his coat and transferred it to mine. For days after that, the hotel was abuzz with rumours that I'd been granted an unofficial visa to the White House," laughs Nita.

Former British premier Margaret Thatcher, former US president Bill Clinton and former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee are the other celebrities whom Nita considers "great charmers" and really clued into gastronomy.

But it hasn't been accolades all the way; Nita has been in a few soups too. She remembers how once, in the early days of her career, she had to freeze the meringue accompanying the kulfi for a State dinner, and she just couldn't get the temperature right. "So the guests had to drink the kulfi rather than eat it!"

In a male-dominated profession, has she encountered gender bias? "Well, you just have to become one of the guys; otherwise it doesn't work. The rugged world of five-star kitchen demands it. You can't act dainty here and say, `I won't lift the heavy haandis' or faint at the sight of bloody meats. You have to be able to meld in."

But to be a notch above, you have to think different all the time. For, "in today's competitive world of cuisine, where the palates are getting increasingly demanding and stand-alone restaurants offer stiff competition to five-star hotels, it's vital to keep experimenting. Innovation, quality and service are the mantras to succeed."

Nita rates New York and London as the world's culinary capitals "for their sheer variety and perfect execution of dishes". The Far East, she says, is interesting too. "Especially Japan, which has an incredible variety in sushi."

And what about India? "Well, India is getting there. Our palates are getting more adventurous, people are travelling, new eateries are mushrooming every day and a never-before range of raw ingredients is now available over the counter. All this augurs well for cuisine."

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