From Alwar’s Chinese carts to stardom: Chef Ajay Chopra’s story

Now a household name, courtesy MasterChef and a YouTube channel with over a million followers, reaching here, however, wasn’t easy. He was studying PCMB (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology) in Class 12, when he was intrigued by a friend’s career choice of hotel management. He failed the entrance exam, enrolled in BSc instead, then learnt about the IHM Pusa exam. “I cleared it. But my mother would say, ‘Bawarchi banega, karchi chalayega’.” He went anyway in 1995 and, by his second year, he knew he would be a chef. He graduated with a gold medal but no job in sight.

After several rejections, he joined TGIF in Delhi in 1998, spent six months shredding cabbage, slicing cheese and packing pasta. Later that year, he received a call at 5 pm from The Oberoi Cecil in Shimla, asking him to be present the next morning at nine. He borrowed a coat, boarded an overnight bus, bathed in warm water a kind nurse arranged at a Christian hospital nearby, arrived at Cecil, only to be told that ‘Mr. Oberoi was in-house.’ They would have to reschedule.

“I said, ‘I don’t think I can come back again… I have bunked many times for interviews. This is my last bunk, after this I will be thrown out. So if you are giving me a job, I will stay back. If not, I might as well go.” The manager asked him to wait. Chopra slept on the table. “At 11.30 am, the manager returned. ‘Should we do the interview?’ and half an hour later, I had the job.”

He spent a year-and-a-half at Cecil, where, in his words, for the first time, a chef took a commis and genuinely prepared him for OCLD (Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development). Without it, the path to sous-chef takes eight to nine years. Through it, only two years. Then came London. Before he arrived, he had been cooking at Saffron at JW Marriott, serving Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan. “But in London, there were complaints every day.” He called chef Atul Kochhar, who has been working in London since 1994. “He said, ‘buddy, when in Rome, do as Romans do. These goras love their meat but they want to taste the flavour of the meat.’ So I put the sauce, made it more intense, and cooked the lamb chops separately with some spices. That gave me a spark — How can Indian food be seen differently? The thought for modern Indian food actually started then.”

Chowmein and vegetarian Nihari served with soft buns at chef Ajay Chopra’s home (Sankhadeep Banerjee)

London was also nurturing in ways that had nothing to do with food. He and his wife Amrita had married only a year before, in 2006. “We were discovering a new country together. That togetherness was the foundation of our marriage.” That she has been his partner — at home, in the kitchen and in the consultancy business — is evident.

Back in India, while working with Marriott in 2010, a production house called. MasterChef was coming to India. Three months of training followed. “It opened up my personality. I was an introvert. Today I have no inhibitions.” Post MasterChef (where he co-host and judge) came a series of culinary shows on television — Hi Tea, Northern Flavours, Papad Pickles Aur Pyaala among others. “Television opened something my hotel job would have never done. My wife prayed what seemed like an impossible prayer — Sunday offs. I told her, Sunday is the busiest day. But from 2015 onwards, for 11 years now, every Sunday is off.”

YouTube began at the very dining table in his house in Mumbai’s Kandivali during COVID. “Amrita would shoot with one phone in her hand, another on a side stand. My team was my two kids.” The couple learnt editing together, bought a mic, then a camera, slowly understood lights and sound. “During COVID, restaurant consultants were the first to let go of. Our business went to a grinding halt. And we realised we needed multiple income sources,” says Chopra.

In the kitchen, he takes a thick-bottomed pan, adds a little oil, all the chopped vegetables, boiled noodles, sauces, salt, MSG, and stirs. “I like that it can be made in one pot and so quickly.” His kids arrive from school. He asks if they want noodles. “Not again,” they laugh.

We were also served Vegetarian Nihari with soft buns — a dish he serves at Paashh, a vegetarian cafe in Mumbai and Pune. The Nihari is the more unlikely achievement: he has managed to crack the texture and complexity of its gravy through layers of extensive cooking, without meat.

During the meal, the conversation turns to parenting — Amrita and Chopra are taking classes on it. Like always, they are on the same page.

Recipe for Veg Chowmein

Ingredients

Noodles – 1 packet, Oil – 4 tbsp, Garlic (chopped) – 2 tbsp, Ginger & green chilli (chopped) – 1 tbsp, Onion (sliced) – ½ cup, Capsicum (juliennes) – ½ cup, Carrot (juliennes) – ¼ cup, Cabbage (shredded) – 1 cup, Soya sauce – 1 tsp, Red chilli sauce – 1 tbsp, Schezwan sauce – 2 tbsp, Vinegar – 1 tsp, Black pepper powder – 1 tsp, MSG – 1 tsp, Spring onion (chopped) – 2 tbsp, Salt – to taste, water – as required

Method

To cook the noodles, bring water to a boil. Add salt and ½ tsp oil. Add the noodles and cook until 80–90 per cent done (slightly firm). Drain and spread on a plate. Toss with 1/2 tsp oil and let cool to prevent sticking

Heat a wok on high flame. Add about 3 tsp oil. Add garlic, ginger and green chilli;
sauté briefly. Add onions and toss for a few seconds. Add capsicum, carrot and cabbage. Stir-fry on high heat, keeping the vegetables slightly crunchy

Now add the cooked noodles. Then add soya sauce, red chilli sauce, Schezwan sauce, vinegar, salt, black pepper, and MSG (if using). Toss well on high flame until evenly coated

Add spring onions and give a final toss. Garnish with more spring onions and serve hot