Journalism of Courage
Thunk thunk went the watermelon as chef Sunit Sharma tapped the fruit and turned it around,shifting its weight from hand to another. A watermelon should always surprise you with its weight; it should look small and light but weigh more than it looks. This means it still has a lot of water in it. Then it makes a heavy,solid sound when you tap it like this, says Sharma,executive chef at Four Points by Sheraton. For top chefs such as chef Joshi,fruits,vegetables and other produce form the raw materials for their art and accordingly,they attach great reverence to raw produce. Good ingredients can make all the difference between good and great food. There is only so much a chef can do with skills and recipes and tricks if the ingredients aren’t good, explains Sharma.
Mayur Tiwari,chef de cuisine at Pune Marriott Hotel and Convention Centre is very particular about the kind of produce used in his kitchen. I focus on using vegetables and fruits that are in season naturally,rather than produce that has been grown in greenhouses. Organically grown produce tastes better and is much cheaper. It just makes more sense, he says. An easy way to tell the organically grown produce apart is how it looks. These days,you can see giant guavas in the market. In a way,they’ve been forced to grow to that size. I like the smaller,yellowish and green guavas far more, says chef Tiwari. It’s just as easy to pick leafy vegetables like spinach or fruits like chillies – the darker they get,the closer to nature they are.
Lamb on the other hand,should always be bought on the basis of its weight,according to chef Sharma. A leg should not weigh more than one to one-and-a-half kg while the entire lamb without the head and internal organs should not weigh more than six kg. This means the lamb was young and the meat will be tender. “Look for a little fat near the end of the tail. This indicates that the lamb was a healthy,eating animal,” says Sharma. Chicken on the other hand,should have as little fat as possible around the breast and the legs as it all goes to waste,according to chef Joshi.
While hotels and restaurants get daily supplies to cope with the heavy traffic of customers and to keep everything fresh,households often buy fish and meat in bulk,because it’s hard to find consistent quality. Chef Joshi gives a sneaky tip to keep fish fresh in the freezer cut the belly,clean it inside out,dry the fish with a paper or kitchen towel and then wrap it in cling film before popping it in the freezer. This can keep fish absolutely fresh-tasting for a week, he says. Similarly,chef Sharma advises that everything except onion,garlic,potatoes and bananas be kept in the fridge to keep them longer. It’s also important to buy fruits and vegetables like courgettes and chillies with their stalks on,other wise the process of decay has already started, says Sharma.
