I make mine with a nice dark roux, and there always has to be okra in there. Gumbo tells a story, and when I make it I feel like I’m adding to that story. It’s a dish that has been influenced by a lot of people and cultures. But as an immigrant, gumbo makes a lot of sense to me. It’s a dish that I learned once I moved to the US I never had anything like it before I came here. Gumbo is another dish that says a lot about me. I’ll add a little piece of bacon or ham for flavor, some stock, and cook them down. We sauté peanuts and onion in some clarified butter-I usually add some mustard seeds to the butter, which is a very Indian thing to do. I braise them in a typically Southern way, but I season them the way my mother would. What two dishes really tell us your story as a chef? Definitely my collard greens. It’s crispy fried okra with a bit of shallot, some lime juice, a little cilantro, some peanuts and spiced tomato. It’s the one dish that truly reflects my journey: I’m a guy who grew up and learned to cook in India, and is now a chef in the South. What recipe are you most famous for? I believe it would be my okra chaat. Here, Bhatt talks about merging ingredients and influences from the South and south Asia, India’s multicultural cooking and the magic of fresh herbs. His work earned him a People’s Best New Chef nomination from Food & Wine in 2011, and a James Beard Awards semifinalist slot for Best Chef: South in the same year. Bhatt opened Snackbar in 2009 under the City Grocery umbrella, connecting Southern and subcontinental foodways on one menu. He joined chef John Currence on the line at City Grocery in Oxford, Mississippi, in 2001 and he’s stayed with the restaurant group ever since. “The produce that was available here-the greens, okra, black eyed-peas and eggplant-really made sense to me as an Indian immigrant,” he says. ![]() From the start, Bhatt had his sights on working in the South. His first restaurant job, in 1992, was at a health food spot in Oxford, Mississippi, called Harvest Café it took him six more years to make the decision to go to culinary school at Johnson & Wales in North Miami. When a professor offered him $50 to prepare food at an event, Bhatt realized his hobby could become a career. The habit eventually grew into a dinner party ritual. F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars Restaurants: Snackbar Experience: Harvest Café (Oxford, MS), Henry (Oxford, MS), City Grocery (Oxford, MS, The Brown Palace Hotel (Denver, CO), Full Moon Grill (Boulder, CO), Blackwater Café (Jackson, MS) Education: University of Kentucky, Johnson & Wales (Miami) Vishwesh Bhatt began cooking simply to save money-the Gujarat, India-raised chef was a student at the University of Kentucky in Lexington when he started making his own rice and beans to cut down on his cafeteria costs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |