Chef Rohit Ghai is a Michelin starred chef who has built an empire of celebrated restaurants around the world. His second cookbook “Yatra” was released in this US this April and is the first mainstream book in many years to travel across India and explore its diverse cuisines. Yatra is a gorgeous gold-foiled hardback that is filled innovative yet easy-to-make dishes and 70 gorgeous food and travel photos that celebrate the incredible flavors and local delicacies of India. We were honored to have the chance to interview Chef Rohit about Yatra and his incredible career, which you can read below.
Yatra is available now and can be purchased from Barnes & Noble, Amazon or any other book retailers.
Chef’s Roll: Congratulations on your new book “Yatra: A Culinary Journey Across India!” What inspired you to create this book, and how was your experience putting it together?
Chef Rohit Ghai: The book is inspired by my travel and journey my early career throughout the different regions of India. The idea was to showcase dishes within ‘Yatra’ as a culinary journey of the best regions of India and dishes the country has to offer. Much of my recipes and cooking style was developed in my earlier years and I wanted to create easy recipes for people to enjoy at home.
Yatra celebrates the incredible flavors and local delicacies of 10 regions of India and features mouth-watering food photography mixed with beautiful travel and location photography. How did you decide which regions and recipes to include?
India is a vast country, I wanted to select 10 regions with my favourite dishes and recipes which I very much enjoy cooking and of course eating.
Punjab as my home region and has a special place in my heart, I wanted to share my experience of the best dishes from where I grew up as the flavours are really joyful.
I also spent a lot of time in Uttar Pradesh, where I perfected the delicacy of the ‘kebab’ with succulent meat and smokey flavours people love. I have created a grill kitchen at my new restaurant Vatavaran in London which people really enjoy and I wanted to bring the flavours for people to enjoy at home easily.
You grew up in Punjab, India and fell in love with food in your mother’s kitchen. Can you recall the first time you felt drawn to be a chef?
Food and cooking is in my blood, I learnt a lot from my mother by watching her cook and enjoying family times together all centered around food.
I then had the passion to pursue a culinary education at college in India and my love for cooking and skills grew and where I really created by chef style was at the Oberoi Hotel in North India in my early chefs career.
What was your favorite dish your mother used to make?
I really enjoy most of her dishes but one of my favourites is Lamb Champaran, which is an easy oven dish with rustic bold flavours, great for dinner parties as you can prepare this before and the depth of flavour is really impressive.
You’ve had an incredible career – working in some of the best Indian restaurants in London, opening several of your own critically acclaimed restaurants around the world, and being the first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star in record breaking time. What is your advice to those looking to advance their careers in the culinary industry?
Passion, patience, set goals and be consistent!
In the UK, Indian food is one of the most popular cuisines, and it is rapidly growing in popularity in the US as well. In your opinion, what is the key to an excellent, authentic Indian dish?
Always follow the recipe correctly to make sure the balance and spice levels work well together.
What lessons or messages do you hope people take away from reading and cooking with Yatra?
I hope Yatra encourages people to make and enjoy India food at home and helps people understand the different ingredients we use to make quality at home dishes. Once people have the right store cupboard ingredients the results will be full of flavour and easy to do each week with the addition of meat, fish and fresh vegetables depending on the recipe.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rohit Ghai’s love affair with food began in his mother’s kitchen, in his native Punjab, India. He went on to study Hotel management at the Institute of Culinary Management in Gwalior, which is affiliated with Pusa University in New Delhi. He then trained at two of the biggest hotel groups in India – the Taj Hotel and Resort Group and the Oberoi Hotel Group. After moving to the UK, Rohit worked in and headed kitchens at some of London’s leading Indian restaurants including Benares, Trishna, Gymkhana, Hoppers and Jamavar.
Rohit is the first Indian chef to have won a Michelin star. In 2018, he launched his first solo London restaurant, Kutir, followed by KoolCha, and then Manthan in Mayfair. Most recently, he opened Rivayat restaurant at the Oberoi hotel in Marrakesh and the brand new Himalayan-inspired Vatavaran in Knightsbridge. He has 461K followers on Instagram.
