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129: Yosef Silver: Kosher Cooking and Barbecue

June 29, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Yosef Silver of This American Bite on The Dinner Special podcast talking about Kosher Cooking and Barbecue

This American Bite

Since starting This American Bite, Yosef has evolved into a Kansas City based kosher food blogger. On his blog is where he welcomes us into his kitchen, where he highlights flavor when cooking from scratch, seasoning a plate, and breaking bread. Yosef believes that though it is not always easy to express gratitude in person, a home cooked meal says it all.

I am so happy to have Yosef Silver of This American Bite joining me on the show today.

(*All photos below are Yosef’s.)

On Being Kosher:

Yosef Silver of This American Bite on The Dinner Special podcast talking about being Kosher.

My wife and I are Jewish, and we keep a kosher home. I didn’t really start off to be a kosher blogger in that niche, but inherently my recipes are kosher, and that means that we don’t mix dairy products with meat products. It means our meat is all certified kosher and I’m personally gluten-free and dairy-free completely. So there’s just a lot of synergy with kosher cooking when you’re already doing a dairy-free diet.

I’ve been eating kosher most of my life. I think about since four or five years old, we’ve been keeping kosher in my family.

One of the big no-no’s is mixing the dairy and the meat product. So there’s no biscuits and gravy if there’s butter involved. So I’ll cook with a lot of dairy alternatives. Kosher slaughter has a lot of rules around how the animals are treated while they’re alive and while they’re being slaughtered, as well as there being restrictions on which meat products we eat, and which fish we eat. There’s also humane treatment of the animals as well. So pork is out of the question, and a lot of shellfish is out of the question, lobster, things like that we don’t eat at all. But, I think there’s a lot of traditional brisket and roast chicken on Friday night for the Sabbath. So we don’t go hungry, I’ll tell you that.

I tend not to get overwhelmed with kosher. Produce, fruit, vegetables, beans, legumes, rice, that’s generally kosher. Fish and meat, primarily meat and chicken, there’s a certification. But in the United States it’s very easy. Most Trader Joe’s you’ll go into will carry kosher chicken, maybe kosher meat, depending on what region you’re in. And if you’ve ever been in a store and seen a little symbol, which is a “U” with a circle around it, that’s the kosher symbol.

On the Food Culture in Kansas City:

Yosef Silver of This American Bite on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the food culture in Kansas City.

Kansas City has an awesome food culture. There’s a lady called Jill Silva who writes for the Kansas City Star. And their food blog actually just won a national award for their coverage of the local food scene.

Our kosher barbecue festival brings people in every year from as far as New York, LA. We have the entire country covered. I have a very good friend from Northern California who isn’t Jewish, doesn’t keep kosher, and he flew in to be on my team. Friends of mine from Israel flew in and are on a team with us, and it’s such a culinary adventure. We’re very lucky that Simon Majumdar from the Food Network comes out every year to our barbecue festival, and he either emcees it or judges it. And if you read his book — I think it’s called Fed, White and Blue — he actually talked about a Friday night dinner that he had in our home, and then the weekend of the barbecue festival.

On Competing in the Barbecue Festival:

Yosef Silver of This American Bite on The Dinner Special podcast talking about competing in the Kansas City barbecue festival.

My goal at the barbecue festival really isn’t to win. We’re there to have a great time, and my teammates and I have really embodied that. You’re competing in an official Barbecue Society sanctioned competition, and they’re looking for something specific. They’re looking for the smoke rings. They’re looking for the flavor, the texture. And then you kind of got this rogue team brining turkeys. So our competition has a brisket round, a ribs round. I think it’s brisket, ribs, chicken, turkey; obviously no pork because it’s a kosher barbecue festival. To follow the laws of kosher, everyone’s meat is provided for them, which is very atypical.

Everyone has the same supplies. Everyone has the same ingredients list that you can request from. Everyone has the same smokers, same gloves. We have non-Jewish teams, non-kosher teams that participate, and it really does level up that playing field a lot. And the first year I competed, my buddy Chris and I made a terrible brisket. We fell asleep as the water pan ran out. It was disastrous. It wasn’t even good for jerky. And you know, we got better year on year.

Some of what I’ve learned from barbecue, I now apply in the home kitchen; the low and slow technique, using a dry rub, covering your meat. You can do that in an oven winter or summer.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I love Chopped. I love the movie Chef and Burnt, and I really miss Iron Chef America.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I’m a big fan of Food52, Amy Kritzer of What Jew Wanna Eat, I think she’s been on your show; Liz Rueven of Kosher Like Me. And two others that I really admire are Chanie Apfelbaum of Busy in Brooklyn, and Melinda Strauss of Kitchen Tested. And all those people I consider are friends of mine. They’re awesome people. Whitney Fisch of Jewhungry. Jewhungry the blog is an awesome blog, and her writing style is so cool, so much fun, and Jonathan Margolin of Toque & Scalpel. His photography is outstanding. I’m jealous of his photography skills.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

I know I have specific people on Instagram that I love, but I love exploring the hashtags on Instagram, and discovering other people cooking like me, who, you know…after I hashtag my own photo, I’ll go look at who else is using that hashtag.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

My wife bought me this beautiful wine rack made out of an old wine barrel. And it’s just this beautiful arch cut out of a wine barrel. It’s the centrepiece of our table all the time. I love it.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Cilantro.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I mentioned Culinary Artistry before.

(Ottolenghi) I love his work. I also love that he’s an Israeli author, but he’s not exclusively kosher. I have hundreds of cookbooks.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

The soundtrack to Chef, and not to sound cliche but that movie and that soundtrack it’s on my Spotify, and it’s on Netflix all the time. It’s a great vibe, great upbeat, awesome music.

On Keeping Posted with Yosef:

Yosef Silver of This American Bite on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with Yosef.

I’m pretty active on Instagram. My Instagram name is Yosef Silver, and Facebook on ThisAmericanBite and Twitter as ysilver, I have not  dived into Snapchat yet. I’m a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my postings.

I would love to connect with everybody on Instagram, and I would love to answer questions and just connect. If you have recipes, ideas you’re not sure about, Instagram me, Facebook me, Tweet me, email me. And if you visit my website you can get emails for my new recipes as well.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Amy Kritzer, Busy in Brooklyn, Chanie Apfelbaum, Chef, Chopped, Culinary Artistry, Fed White and Blue, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food52, Iron Chef America, Jewhungry, Jill Silva, Kansas City, Kansas City Star, Kitchen Tested, kosher, Kosher Barbecue Festival, Kosher Like Me, Liz Rueven, Melinda Strauss, Ottolenghi, Simon Majumdar, This American Bite, Trader Joe's, What Jew Wanna Eat, Whitney Fisch, Yosef Silver

035: Adrian Richardson: What to be Mindful of When Cooking Meat

May 6, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about some of his favorite things inside and out of the kitchen.
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Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about what to be mindful of when cooking meat.

Chef Adrian Richardson

Adrian is the chef and owner of the bustling La Luna Bistro in North Carlton, Victoria in Australia. A cookbook author of books called Meat and The Good Life, and the host of a number of TV shows, including one that I recently stumbled on called Secret Meat Business.

I’m Gabriel Soh and I’m so excited to have chef Adrian Richardson here on the show today.

On His Journey to Become a Chef:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his journey to becoming a chef.

My father was an airline pilot, so as I was growing up, my destiny was to sit next to him in the front of a plane and fly around Australia. But, as I got towards the end of my schooling, I wasn’t doing that well, so I decided to take a year off and do some flying lessons. But to pay for the flying lessons dad said, “You know, you got to pay for part of it,” so I got a job in a kitchen. And do you know what? I just really, really fell in love with being in a kitchen. To me, there’s no other place I could be.

I love flying in planes, but I like to sit there with a glass of wine in front of me. Cooking is what it’s about for me. And I’m so lucky that the flying actually helped me to find what I want so early.

I just loved the hustle and bustle of kitchens. I love the people in kitchens. I love being able to cook for people. I love being around food and tasting food and, you know, every now and again I taste a little bit too much food.

But, I just love the environment, and to me, no day is the same. There’s always something different going on and you’re able to move around. It’s a fun life and I really enjoy it.

I have a great background in food. My mother was born in Ethiopia. My grandmother in Cairo. My grandfather in Italy. That’s my mother’s side of the family. So there was a lot of North African and Middle Eastern and Italian food around and we ate a lot. And my grandmother was a most amazing cook.

The other side of my family, my dad’s side, he was an English chef who was trained in France and London, and then came over to Australia. So I got both styles of food, I suppose, that homestyle and that professional style. And to me, it’s just a beautiful thing to have the two together. It’s fantastic.

On His Style of Cooking:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his style of cooking.

My style of food is, I like to call it bistro. I like to use a lot of influences from around the Mediterranean. I think there’s so much influence there. I really like the ingredients. The people, the food. And there’s so many different things you can do.

You know, I spent some time growing up in Asia as well, in Malaysia for three years. I’ve traveled through Asia. I love Asian food. But that’s more for home, so that’s my secret stuff that I cook at home. My professional style tends to be that modern Australian.

However, when I do TV shows, I often bring in some of those Asian influences because I think it is so much a part of Australian cuisine – is the Asian food as well. I love pretty much anything from all over the world. It’s probably all my style. But I like to present it in a simple manner that’s easy going and friendly, and, slightly challenging but enjoyable. That’s probably what I’d like to say.

Just on the Malaysian input, I hadn’t been to Malaysia for probably 18 years, and I was there a couple of years ago, and as I arrived, we got out of the car at the hotel, you could smell the spices in the air. The satay, they’d actually cooked satays for me, and it’s just amazing. For me, I feel really connected with Asian food. I grew up eating Asian food, it’s really important to me. But also, you throw in there that Middle Eastern and that Italian food as well. I really connected with that as well.

On His Restaurant and Cookbooks:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his restaurant and cookbooks.

I think early on in the career I realized that I just wanted to work for myself, I wanted to do my own thing, I wanted to set up my own bistro or business. And along the way, I tended to work for people who had already done that. Owner-chefs, restauranteurs or chefs that had done really well, some of them really nice, and some of them not so nice. But I sort of mapped my career path out to follow these people, learn as much as I could from them, and apply that to my own business.

The cookbooks and the media stuff headed out after a few years of business. The restaurant was doing well, and I started to get a lot of attention. So I got a media agent, and it started from there. All of a sudden I did a commercial here for someone, and then a small TV show came along, and it sort of snowballed from there. But I love it! I really enjoy it. It’s a good part of my life.

I’ve got the restaurant on one side, and that’s busy, and that’s fun, but it’s opened the door to so many other things.

As you’ve probably worked out, I’m not a very shy person, so me being in front of the camera, in front of people and demonstrating is what I love. But the important part of it, Gabriel, is I like teaching people.

I’m really inspired by cooking and food and for me to be able to pass on a few tricks and techniques with a few dishes, so that it can make your eating experience and your life better, to me, I really get that. I really like it.

I try and keep it really simple so that you can listen to what I say and you pick up some stuff. And there’s nothing better than hearing from someone across the other side of the planet who’s seen the show and has been inspired by it. To me, that’s a really great thing.

On His Passion for Meat:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his passion for meat.

I’ve always been around good quality meat. I think one of the things when I first started training, I was put into the butchery section of a kitchen, and I just got it. It just worked for me. So, I’d always had an understanding and been quite skilled at breaking things down and butchery as I’d moved through different kitchens.

It’s a bit of a plum job, it’s an important job in a kitchen, and so I was always put on that job. And to me, I just love cooking meat. I think it’s an amazing thing to cook. You know, we kill an animal to eat it, so to me, it’s really important that we understand exactly what we’re doing, that we use every part of it, and that’s what I try and do. That’s what I try and teach.

It’s not about eating more meat. It’s about eating better quality meat, paying a little bit more for it, but actually using parts that are not used, and respecting the animal. An animal’s been killed. We’ve got to do the right thing and make sure we eat every single part of it.

Tips on Cooking Meat:

I mean cooking white meats like chicken and turkey and pork, you really have to know that they’re cooked properly. One of the things that I would recommend is using a digital thermometer. I know that if you’re cooking a piece of chicken breast, you sear it, you pop it into the oven. If you put the probe into the center of it, if it gets to 72 degrees Celsius, it’s cooked.

That’s the scientific method and it works with all types of cooking. But another way of doing it is to take it out, let it rest for a second, cut it open, and if it’s pink in the center, if it’s bloody, well then you put it back in.

I reckon that the scientific method works at the start, then you probe it, you know it’s cooked all the way through. But then, when it comes to chicken breasts, you want make sure you don’t overcook it, so cutting it nice and thin and breading it and doing a little bit of olive oil or ghee and cooking it, that’s a nice way of doing it.

With things like chicken legs and chicken thighs, you can cook them all the way through. Put some tomato passata in it, and some olives and some wine, and you know you can cook it for an hour and a half. You know it’s going to be cooked. But then, when you touch it with your fingers or a fork, and it falls apart, that’s when you know it’s nice and tender. And that’s the best way. That’s the best bit of advice.

The Pressure Cooker:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about some of his favorite things inside and out of the kitchen.

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I enjoy watching Rick Stein, I like the way he talks through what he’s doing, and he’s got an amazing narrative voice.

I also like Food Safari, which we have in Australia. It goes around lots of different cuisines and different nationalities. Fantastic show.

Within the last year, where did you have the best meal, and what did you have?

The best meal I had was in a tiny little dumpling noodle house out of Melbourne, in one of the outer suburbs, and it was fantastic. They make the best dumplings there. It’s in a broth with some chili oil in it.

There are little old Chinese ladies that make the dumplings there, and there’s a little old Chinese man that makes the noodles. It’s so fresh and so clean. It’s so cheap! And one of the best meals I’ve had.

What is a professional chef tip that all home cooks should know?

A professional chef home cook tip would be use salt, put plenty of salt on your meat. Meat loves salt and salt loves meat. Make sure you season your meat because that’s what brings out the flavor.

What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

I think they should have salt and fresh pepper. I think from there, you’ve got to have pasta. You’ve got to have tomato passata, to make some sauce. Of course some butter. And I believe some bacon as well.

You’re going to have to stop me here because I’ll just keep on going. These four ingredients, from those things, I can make anything.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without.

I would have to say fresh herbs. Fresh herbs and continental parsley is my favorite. Without that, I can’t live. I need to have that flavor in just about everything I cook.

What are a few cookbooks that make you life better?

I use an old series that I think is still available.

Time Life is the publisher, and The Good Cook series, that’s the series. I think it’s one of the best.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I like heavy metal music. I’ll turn that on, and I’ll play heavy metal music and my kids will run around and climb all over the place. I like cooking to that. But my wife, when she comes in, she likes it nice and soft and gentle, like jazz. So, one of the two is fine by me.

I just have it on shuffle. Slayer was something I was listening to last week, and that was good. Iron Maiden’s good, Metallica, they’re all good.

On Keeping Posted on Adrian:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with him.

You can start with Twitter, it’s @tastysausage, with Instagram, which is @verytastysausage. Facebook, you can just go to the Adrian Richardson page and there I’ll be. You can go to our website, www.lalunabistro.com.au, and also adrianrichardson.net, so there’s a couple of different ways to get in touch.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Adrian Richardson, Australia, Chef, Cookbook Author, Food Safari, Iron Maiden, La Luna Bistro, Meat, Metallica, Rick Stein, Secret Meat Business, Slayer, The Good Cook series, The Good Life, Time Life

030: Cyrus Todiwala: A Chef’s Journey from Bombay to Superstardom in the UK

April 24, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Chef Cyrus Todiwala on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with him.
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Chef Cyrus Todiwala of Cafe Spice Namaste on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his journey from Bombay to Stardom in the UK

Chef Cyrus Todiwala

Cyrus is an award-winning chef, successful restaurateur, and one-half of The Incredible Spice Men, a TV show that if you have not yet checked out, you definitely need to watch. He’s also authored numerous cookbooks including: Mr. Todiwala’s Bombay, Cafe Spice Namaste, and Indian Summer. If that isn’t enough, Chef Cyrus has his own line of pickles, chutneys, and sauces, and he also teaches cooking on the side.

I’m so excited to have Chef Cyrus Todiwala here on the show today.

On His Journey from Bombay to the UK:

Chef Cyrus Todiwala of Cafe Spice Namaste on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his journey from Bombay to the UK.

The journey from Bombay to UK, so actually, Bombay to UK would not have happened, but we actually decided to migrate to Australia.

After I left the Taj Group in 1989, I joined a friend in a city called Pune and we ran a restaurant together. The partnership was a bit weak. It wasn’t becoming very successful. The restaurant was very successful, but as partners we were failing so we decided to migrate to Australia.

The grapevine within our industry is very, very strong. People come to know who’s moving where very, very quickly, and a friend of mine who was in London at the time, called me, asked me what plans I had for Australia. I said I had no plans at all. I’m just going there. Maybe if I don’t like it, I come back to India. He asked whether I’d like to come to the UK and run a restaurant with him and that’s how it started.

This was in the early ’90s. This was early 1991. By the time I reached UK, it was late 1991, and we’ve been here since.

On Challenges on Getting Started as a Chef in London:

Chef Cyrus Todiwala of Cafe Spice Namaste on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the challenges of starting out as a chef in London.

Oh man, that’s a whole history in itself, believe it. The biggest challenge I found first was I found that the cuisine that I inherited here was not the kind of food I knew how to prepare. This threw me off guard completely and people use strange terms over here. There is a classical term called “vinda” like “vindaloo,” which actually refers to a level of heat in the food, and they would use terms like “madras.” For me, it’s a city. It doesn’t have any other sense to me, and also the food was not prepared the way we learned to prepare Indian food. It was all very basic, shoddy, and that was a big learning curve for me. It actually scared me because I thought I hadn’t a clue about what Indian food was all about, because “How can Britain be wrong?” I thought. That was the first hurdle.

The second hurdle, of course, was some of the people that inherited me when I came to the kitchen here, and the chefs would smoke inside the kitchen. They would leave half lit cigarettes by the side of the cooker, and cook the food, and then pick up the cigarette again, and start cooking while they’re still smoking. These things we were not used to because we came from a very disciplined environment in the kitchen. There were lots of hurdles.

The language barrier because the cooks in the kitchen didn’t speak much English at all, and they couldn’t communicate in Hindi or any of the other languages that I knew because I don’t speak Bengali. That was another hurdle for me.

We had all sorts of other issues, of course, but we managed. Some people left, which was not a bad thing because we managed to bring in the right kind of help. For me, it was a transition from running two hotels, a large brigade under me with a line of sous chefs, to suddenly go all the way back 15 years and start cooking from scratch, everything upwards.

On His Restaurants:

Chef Cyrus Todiwala of Cafe Spice Namaste on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his restaurants.

We were running a restaurant that did not belong to us down the road. Then my friend and I used to manage the restaurant. He moved on, and I kept still working with the people who owned the restaurant, but there were a lot of difficulties happening at the same time. The difficulties came out of the restaurant — the height of the last recession in the early ’90s — and the business was not able to cope with it. Eventually, we asked to take over the running of the business, and I took over the running of the business, asked my wife, Pervin, if she would join me. Because she said yes, I said, “Okay.” I had the courage to go and say, “I’ll run the business now. I’ll take it over and I’ll pay you.” Besides the payment, of course I had to service all the loans, all the debts, and everything else that came with it.

What we ended up doing was we changed our status from being an employee to suddenly becoming an employer and this the Home Office would not like. That put me in a lot of difficulty with the Home Office because a foreigner who wants to work and invest in this country needs to bring with him a lot of money. Not thinking about that at all, we got into a lot of difficulty with that situation. That situation stayed with us for 10 whole years of living in a situation where you did not know whether you are coming or going, or you were here today or gone tomorrow.

It was a very terrifying time for us, but then what happened was one of the preconditions that I agreed with the Home Office was that I would take every opportunity I had to get into a partnership and try and invest in more manpower and create more workforce, and this came in the guise of a gentleman called Mr. Michael Gottlieb. He used to own restaurants called Smollensky’s and he approached me. We got together. He had this vision of Cafe Spice and we included the Cafe Spice Namaste part of it, and Cafe Spice was born.

On His Line of Condiments:

Chef Cyrus Todiwala of Cafe Spice Namaste on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his line of condiments.

Coming to Britain, I found there were only two pickles I could lay my hands on — mango chutney and the lime pickle. They were not to my taste because the mango chutney was far too sugary and it wasn’t the kind of chutney I was used to. It came in big barrels. The lime pickle — I knew exactly how lime pickle is made over there that comes exported, so I started making my own pickles little by little by little.

We have a very, very leading prosthodontist in this country. He’s not a dentist dentist. He’s a prosthodontist and he’s an authority on the human jaw, as disfigurement and everything else. His name is Dr. Besford. Dr. Besford came for dinner and then he had the pickle, and he said, “I want to buy some of this pickle.” I said, “I’m not selling any pickle. It’s only on the table when you eat in the restaurant. You can have some. I could maybe put something in a little bowl and give it to you, but that’s about it.” He said, “No, no, no, you got to bottle it for me.” I said I had no clue about how to bottle stuff. I don’t know how to buy bottles. I’m very amateurish and I don’t know how to preserve these things.

Anyway, he persisted and he persisted and he persisted, and I kept saying, “No, no, no, no, no” until I had a very good couple of reviews about our pickles and chutneys in the press. A very famous food reporter called Charles Campion called up and said, “Can I do an article with you about pickles and chutney?” I said, “Sure.” He said, “But can you make me some when I come?” I said, “Sure I can.”

When he was writing the article, and when we sat in what was a makeshift office, literally in the garbage room of the restaurant, this Dr. Besford is a man who’s larger-than-life and he’s gregarious. He’s a huge character with a huge voice and everything about him is big and large, and he’s a fantastic man. He sent me a fax which came, ironically, at the time Charles Campion was chatting with me and he must have printed the fax in a size 40 font.

He is like that, Dr. Besford, and it was big. You could read the fax half a mile away as the paper churned out “Mr. Todiwala, where is my aubergine pickle? Signed, Dr. Besford, blah, blah, blah.” Charles Campion asked me, “What is that?” I said, “This doctor drives me nuts,” I said. He wants me to pack. I cannot pack. Anyway, his phone number was in such a large print. Ten meters away Charles Campion quietly scribbled the phone number out and he called Dr. Besford after our interview. Dr. Besford in all his excitement poured his woes out to Charles Campion. He’s saying, “This man makes the most amazing pickle but he won’t bottle it,” and all sorts of stories he told this guy, and he forgot about it.

Sunday, in The Sunday Times, in the magazine section, the center spread was this big block letters, saying “The Chef, The Dentist, and the Miserable Pickle.” I started getting phone calls left, right, and center about wanting to bottle the aubergine pickle. Dr. Besford then did some research, told me I can get empty bottles from a particular source. When I got some bottles, I asked some friends, “How do I pickle without it blowing up in my face? How does the pickle preserve?” We learned about it, and it was thanks to Dr. Besford that we are selling a few thousand jars a year now rather than just a few jars here and there.

The Pressure Cooker:

What would you consider your signature dish?

I think it has to be the dhansak. It has to be because we have developed it well. We evolved it ourselves and because I get the most amazing lamb in Britain, and mutton in Britain, it works extremely well. As the top seller, and as a dish that has never died in its excitement on the menu, I think that would be the signature dish.

Is there a dish that you love but will never appear of your restaurant’s menus?

Wow, there is one thing I love more than dhansak, is a very simple dal and rice which we cook at home which is called mori dal. With that we eat a little spicy prawn pickled kind of thing called pathia. That is my all-time favorite, but it doesn’t feature on the menu as a regular. It features occasionally on the specials. The reason is not because I don’t think we can make a good job of it. The reason is because I end up eating far too much lentil and then the after-effects on me are terrible.

So to keep away from eating too much of it, I don’t put it on the menu.

Guests will have to look for it. Sometimes they ask and so I do a special Parsi evening. I sometimes give on special occasions a dhan dar pathia.

What is a professional chef tip that all home cooks should know?

Invest in a good knife, number one at least. People tend to buy cheap knives from markets which are not well tested. They look very great, but they don’t buy a good knife. You should invest in a very good knife because your knife is a direct link between you and the food you prepare. Invest in everything good rather, but most carefully, make sure your knife is well-honed, well-crafted, well-kept, well-maintained. That’s one of the key things.

The other thing is de-clutter your mind when you cook. Just de-clutter it. Everybody likes to cook from a recipe book and then they come and say the book’s too difficult. That’s because we take it too personally on both. First of all, read the recipe as though you’re reading a novel, and then forget about it. Put it away for a couple of hours. When you come back to it, the recipe literally just falls into pieces in your lap and you find it much, much easier to tackle. This is one of the key things is not to clutter your mind too much.

Mise en place, which is of course is a French term. Pre-preparation — very, very important. Everything to be prepped before you start cooking so that then you don’t land yourself in a state of panic. The process just falls smoothly into place one by one.

Besides your own, which are some of your favorite restaurants in London?

We have quite a few actually we go to. We have a Vietnamese restaurant pretty close to us called Green Papaya. We know the owners quite well now over the years. Of course, we become very friendly. That’s our favorite haunt because the food has never disappointed us. Then we have a couple of very dear Chinese restaurants. One of them is at the Royal Garden Hotel now, called Min Jiang. It’s excellent. It’s Chinese food with a Nyonya influence so it’s brilliant.

Of course, a friend of ours who owns a chain of restaurants called Good Earth, which are fantastic. Then of course, we’ll eat Chinese. We’ll eat French. We’ll eat Italian. Anything new, we’ll go and try. London’s an exciting place today. London’s got some of the best restaurants in the world.

Is there a chef whose food you want to try but haven’t yet had the chance?

Yes, Michel Roux, Jr. I haven’t had the chance to go to the Gavroche yet after so many years. I think it’s a disgrace that we haven’t been there yet, but no, we have not had the privilege of eating the food cooked by the Roux brothers.

Certainly want to go there but still haven’t made it.

What are your thoughts on food trucks? 

Well, I’ll tell you what. We own a truck.

But ours is slightly different. It’s a high-capacity, high-volume truck that we take to cricket matches and other events, and it can produce 2000 meals a day almost.

It does damage the restaurant trade in the area because when a truck is parked nearby, the restaurant trade will suffer a bit because people want the food cheaper on the streets, but some of them do not produce a great product and yet charge a lot of money for it.

I think that the quality is something that the truckers always disregard. It’s always disregarded because sometimes they will sell at a very low profit margin and they always compensate quality for price. I think that is one of the things that I dislike about it.

Though having said that, there’s so much vibrancy in those trucks. They bring such good menus forward. A lot of classical dishes coming out. A lot of local foods that were hidden for years together that suddenly appear in a van. I think people enjoy it most. I think people enjoy it most because it’s at their doorstep, and hot, and supposedly looking fresh.

Ours is just branded Cafe Spice Namaste. It is branded but ours needs a lot of power to work because it needs to be at a pitch, but it’s a great unit. It’s a fabulous-looking unit.

On Keeping Posted on Chef Cyrus:

Chef Cyrus Todiwala on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with him.

The best way would be to log into the Cafe Spice website, which is www.cafespice.co.uk, and they can leave a message for me on the website. We have a person who picks it up, passes the emails on to me, and I respond to people directly. We also have a Twitter handle, of course, @MrTodiwala, or @ctodiwala, @CafeSpiceNamaste. The website, if they want to write a personal email or a note, and want a feedback or something, I’ll be very happy to reply back to people.

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Bombay, Cafe Spice Namaste, Chef, Cyrus Todiwala, London

002: The Incredible Spice Men: How To Overcome The Fear Of Using Spices

February 20, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala of The Incredible Spice Men on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the idea behind The Incredible Spice Men.
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Cyrus Todiwala and Tony Singh of The Incredible Spice Men on The Dinner Special podcast on How To Overcome The Fear Of Using Spices

The Incredible Spice Men

I am so excited to have Cyrus Todiwala and Tony Singh, The Incredible Spice Men, here on the show today.

Cyrus and Tony are award winning chefs and restaurateurs, stars of The Incredible Spice Men TV show, and authors of The Incredible Spice Men cookbook.

That’s just naming a few of the things that they’re up to.

They are truly incredible.

On How They Met:

Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala of The Incredible Spice Men on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how they met.

Tony: It was 2000. I’d just won ITV Chef Of The Year and I’d heard about Cyrus doing amazing things with British produce and contemporary and traditional Indian food, and what I was doing up in Scotland was traditional Scottish food with an Indian twist. I came down and I met Cyrus and we’ve known each other ever since then. We were in the Academie Culinaire together, we’ve done Master Chef.

We’ve come across each other in competitions and everything, so, since 2000.

On The Idea Behind The Incredible Spice Men:

Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala of The Incredible Spice Men on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the idea behind The Incredible Spice Men.

Cyrus: I use a lot of British produce from different farmers dotted throughout the country and make Indian food with it. We did a program in the restaurant for a few weeks called The Twisted Brit and then a second program called The Twisted Scot. They became very popular, so I was talking to some people about how that would make a great series because we are taking Indian food but twisting it to be British and twisting it to be Scottish.

The idea came about by asking how about if we take British food and twist it with a bit of spice? In the search for a partner, they came across Tony, they loved Tony, asked me if I knew Tony. I said, “Of course I knew Tony.” We did a little bit of a promo together.

Tony: Yeah, we did a promo tape for them.

Cyrus: Yeah, a very casual promo tape together. It worked like magic, the BBC approved, and bingo, we had a program.

They thought of many, many names. They actually wanted to call us The Spice Boys.

On Being Cooks:

Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala of The Incredible Spice Men on The Dinner Special podcast talking about being cooks.

Tony: We were always hungry and to sustain that hunger or to make it more bearable, you always helped your mother in the kitchen. From an early age, I always helped out in the house. My mom was a great cook and from then, I’ve always liked to cook.

I’ve been cooking since I was 16, so I learned to be a good cook. I’ve always been a great eater.

Cyrus: For me, in my community, I’m known in Bombay as Khaadraas which means greedy pigs. I even started here what is called a greedy pigs club, a Khaadraas club.

Like Tony, always hungry. There was a big hole in the belly somewhere that needed filling up, but our moms, fortunately for us, were excellent cooks, so were our aunts and grand aunts and everyone else. I grew up around food all the time.

Living in a joint family was a very good experience and then, of course, my uncle owned a hotel as well, so whilst I was in boarding school I could go visit his hotel and live with him for a while. That increased the desire to cook more food.

Eventually, I went into catering school, passed out, got a job at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay.

Tony: The rest is history.

We’re so fortunate to have a hobby that’s our job and that is so pleasurable. You know what I mean? It’s just very, very, very fortunate.

Cyrus: That is so true, isn’t it? The best part about our business is it is never consistent. It always changes. Every day is a new day and everyday there are new people and new customers.

Tony: New challenges.

Cyrus: New challenges.

Tony: New ingredients.

On Cooking With Spices:

Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala of The Incredible Spice Men on The Dinner Special podcast talking about cooking with spices.

Tony: The main thing is not to be afraid. That’s the biggest hindrance people have with spices, because they equate that to heat, which is not the spice. Well it is a spice, but it’s chili. Chili adds heat, spices add flavor and color.

Cyrus: Flavor, color, body, but, you see it today if you look at most of the larders in the western world, most homes would have nutmeg, would have cardamom, would have cloves, would have peppercorns, would have cumin, would have coriander.

Many people are keeping turmeric now, which is a very common ingredient in homes and you’ve got chilies. Actually, if you have cinnamon, cardamom and clove and peppercorn already in your house, and you’ve got chili, cumin, coriander and turmeric and that’s all you need, really. You don’t need many, many more.

As your talent develops and as you get better, you can keep adding to it. Your experimentation value gets better and you get more spices and condiments into your larder. These are basic.

Tony: It’s like the show shows. Do one of your traditional dishes that you’re comfortable with and just change one of them. If it’s got, say, cinnamon in there, try and take it out and put another spice in there that’s a dessert. Go for cardamom, go for ginger, or nutmeg, yes, star anise. Just add one spice or take one spice away and exchange it or use a spice in it.

There’s a lot more spice than what you would call spice, because people say “Oh, nutmeg. That’s not a spice. I use that in my grandma’s rice pudding,” or peppercorns, the spice that changed travel. People went looking for pepper.

Cyrus: Pepper, pepper was the one.

Tony: These things just need changing but have no fear trying because anything you make, you’re going to eat the evidence anyway. If it’s not good, then you don’t do that again.

Cyrus: The main thing is the fear. Once they get over that threshold, they will really enjoy their cooking. Really, really enjoy it. Most western food goes very, very well with a little bit of spice here and a little bit of spice there.

On The Incredible Spice Men Cookbook:

Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala of The Incredible Spice Men on The Dinner Special podcast talking about The Incredible Spice Men cookbook.

Tony: Normally, you shoot the series and then you do the cookbook, and you have a few months to do it. We had to do it all in six weeks?

Cyrus: Six weeks. In six weeks, while on the shoot. It was a nightmare.

Tony: Writing the recipes, getting them checked. It was lucky we’ve got kitchens for the chefs to check everything but they’re dishes that we’ve used before.

It goes back to the recipes. We made sure were accessible, they weren’t daunting, they were very familiar. That’s why we went with them.

Cyrus: The publishers from Random House put in a lot of effort into it. They knew it was a deadline deal and they put a very good crew onto it. The crew was chatting with us all the time whilst we were on set filming.

As soon as we came on a break, we’d get a phone call, “I’m making this. Tell me, something doesn’t look right over here. Can you help me with this?” and we could help on the phone.

They re-adjusted the recipe so it would look easy for the home cook.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Cyrus: Very few but Saturday Kitchen definitely on most Saturday mornings. Master Chef sometimes.

Tony: I’m the other way. I’m a junk food fiend. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It’s great because it’s loads of people eating hearty, sometimes a bit calorific, but hearty, rib-sticking dishes.

Cyrus: Oh, right, okay. That’s the one where they eat the big portions.

Tony: No, no, no. See, I don’t like that. That’s Man Vs. Food. I can’t stand that show.

Cyrus: No? Okay. Yeah, very few actually. There’s no time, unfortunately, for us.

You know what? I haven’t seen a single episode of our series yet.

Last year, where did you have the best meal and what did you have?

Tony: I’ve had so many. Assado. I was going to say, that was lovely because we had octopus. I’m still waiting for chef to give me the recipe. It was fantastic.

Cyrus: Actually, we had a great meal at a place called Dabbous. A very creative chef. He only does course menus, so only fixed menus, only set menus. There is no a la carte there, but his food was really good.

Dabbous in West London. Very good, excellent. That was one of the best meals we had this year.

If you were to have dinner and movie with each other, what would be for dinner and what movie would you guys watch?

Tony: Oh, that’s a hard one.

Cyrus: Something funny, definitely.

Tony: Yeah, Airplane! or Blazing Saddles. You know what I mean? It’s switch off kind of stuff and going back to the food, cheese and macaroni with lobster.

Cyrus: Oh, yeah?

Tony: Yeah.

Cyrus: Something very simple. It could be a shwarma. It could be something like that, really easy.

Good fish and chips. A very good fish and chips.

Tony: Something that you don’t need to think about but you know is going to work.

What are some cookbooks that have made your lives better?

Tony: La Technique and La Methode by Pepin, the French guy in America. Fantastic. As a student, they were the best.

Cyrus: I use a cookbook very often which is from a lady that cooks food from my community and she researched it very deeply.

Bhicoo Manekshaw, her name is, and it’s not known everywhere in the world. She has gone to the depths of the villages and brought the food out that we city boys would never had got an experience of knowing. That’s the one I use all the time. It’s sitting on my desk even now.

It’s called Parsi Food and Customs. Because I’m a Parsi.

I pick up ideas from that and then I have to double up them to suit 50, 60, 100 portions.

I am discovering things that my mother would have known, my grandmother would have known, but I, sadly, didn’t have the exposure to know.

What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

Cyrus: L-O-V-E.

Tony: I would say sharp knives.

Cyrus: A must have in the kitchen is a heat-resistant rubber spatula.

Tony: That’s just being posh.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without.

Tony: Chili.

Cyrus: Coriander for me, fresh coriander.

Tony: Fresh green chili.

Cyrus: I could live without it but I would be very depressed if I didn’t get to eat it regularly.

What music album or song pairs best with The Incredible Spice Men cookbook?

Cyrus: Space Odyssey.

Tony: Yeah, exactly. I was going to say The Muppets. Animal’s drum rolls.

Cyrus: How about Jungle Book, you know?

Tony: Yeah.

Cyrus: That song is one of my favorites.

Tony: Yeah, it’s good.

Cyrus: The Bare Necessities Of Life. And food is the bare necessity of life.

Keep Posted on The Incredible Spice Men:

Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala of The Incredible Spice Men on The Dinner Special podcast talk about how to keep in touch.

Tony: We have a Twitter account, The Incredible Spice Men. Cyrus has his webpage, I have my webpage, TonySingh.co.uk. The Spice Men have a Facebook page as well.

Cyrus: The Spice Men, we’ve got @MrTodiwala on Twitter or just log on to CafeSpice.co.uk. They can fire any amount of questions they want at me.

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    Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Academie Culinaire, Airplane!, Assado, BBC, Blazing Saddles, Cajun Food, Chef, Chef of the Year, Cookbook Author, Cooking Show Host, Cyrus Todiwala, Dabbous, Diners D, Indian Food, Indian Spices, ITV, Jacques Pepin, Khaadraas club, La Methode, La Technique, London, Man VS Food, MasterChef, Parsi Food and Customs, Saturday Kitchen, Scotland, Space Odyssey, Taj Mahal Hotel Bombay, The Incredible Spice Men, The Muppets, Tony Singh

    Hello! I'm Gabriel Soh, home cook, food enthusiast and your host of The Dinner Special podcast.
    Everything here on The Dinner Special is an experiment, just like with cooking. Thank you for listening and being part of the adventure.

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